The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am

Join us for an intimate exploration of storyteller and solo performer Ada Cheng’s gender, sexual and racial identities and boundary-making through her evolving relationships with her hair and her stylists.

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Co-sponsored by the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center, Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, Gender and Sexuality Center, Asian American Student Academic Program, Gender and Women’s Studies Program and Sociology.

Please contact us with any questions or access requests: wlrc@uic.edu or 312-413-1025.

About the performer:

An award-winning storyteller, solo performer and producer, Ada Cheng, PhD, uses storytelling to illuminate structural inequities, foster critical awareness and build intimate communities. Since 2016, she has toured her solo performances “Not Quite” and “Loving Across Borders” nationwide, presenting at universities, theaters and conferences. She premiered her third solo performance, “The Trouble with My Hair,” in Los Angeles in October 2025 as part of Soaring Solo Studios’ Stars Series. As a producer committed to amplifying marginalized voices, Cheng has created numerous storytelling platforms that center people of color and queer community members and support the sharing of difficult and vulnerable stories. She has been a speaker with the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau since 2019. Cheng was named the 2023–24 Lund-Gill Endowed Chair at Dominican University and was a recipient of the 2024 Public Humanities Award from Illinois Humanities. Her work bridges academia, storytelling and performance and advocacy.