hiya, i’m marissa ~

(she/her) I’m a writer, school-based counselor, trauma and identity counseling group facilitator, local politics geek, and teaching artist. I grew up in a beautiful and complicated Korean-American family and I identify as mixed-race, queer, femme, cisgender, & able-bodied.

I grew up in the Bay Area, CA, hopping from unstable housing situation to situation, before coming to the Pacific Northwest for the privilege of attending college, where I studied Literature, French, and African Colonial and Post-colonial history and politics. I lived in the South of France working at two public high schools and talking to my students about intergenerational immigration and French colonial rule, race, culture, and history. I came back to Portland to be close to my family. I fell into queer youth community organizing through the Oregon Queer Youth Summit and Queer Rock Camp, and have worked in public education on attendance, restorative justice, and counseling. I make zines and comics, doodle, write sad poetry and wistful essays, and foam at the mouth sharing the Bitchtucci Voter Guide, an unhinged and unprofessional overview of Portland politics for each election cycle.

I love chili oil, working alongside youth, taking meandering walks, and you.