BUILD A HOME OF IMPERIAL JADEITE

(Formerly Grey Waters)

People have often asked me about my immigration experience. Do I truly feel that I belong? Have I ever felt like a first or second class citizen? Have I experienced exclusion, prejudice, privilege, or the peculiar contradictions of the American Dream?

These questions have inspired profound reflection, both personally and artistically.

What began as Grey Waters, an exploration of immigration, identity, belonging, displacement, privilege, and the duality of the American Dream, has evolved into something far more powerful, sovereign, and enduring.

Build a Home of Imperial Jadeite.

The truth is, I have no interest in being classified, accepted, rejected, or defined by the judgments of others. I do not require permission to belong, nor validation to exist. My identity is not a category to be assigned, a social position to be negotiated, or a privilege to be granted.

I carry a history, a lineage, and a Great Soul!

And these are not things that anyone can bestow upon me or take away.

My purpose is not to beg for a place within someone else's definition of home. My purpose is to BUILD one. A home of Imperial Jadeite, a symbol of extraordinary resilience, ancestral dignity, spiritual refinement, and a beauty that cannot be manufactured through status or purchased through conformity.

This album is about transforming the grey waters of uncertainty into something magnificent and lasting. Tracks in development:

Build a Home of Imperial Jadeite
Cultivate from the Grey Waters
Let's Be Friends
Lost Under Ice
Kopys
На Грани Фола
A Mansion for My Offspring

Mikhail Tank