RECURRENT STUDIO


RECURRENT STUDIO is a story curation studio that helps individuals and families design, organize, and produce original family history projects. We offer structured support and intuitive planning, guiding storytellers carefully through the process of creating a family story from start to finish. 

Our work is informed by our experiences in archival research, otal history, documentary work, and journalism. We combine these storytelling backgrounds with attentive relationship-building to help participants uncover and preserve family stories that are beautiful, surprising, and long-lasting.


Our current offering is the FAMILY STORY WORKSHOP, a workshop with 6-8 sessions designed to usher a family story project from ideation to completion.







FAMILY STORY WORKSHOP


A guided journey from memory to meaning

Becoming the steward of your family’s stories takes patience, reflection, and courage. The Family Story Workshop invites participants into a creative and contemplative process of uncovering family and community histories through oral interviews, writing, and revisiting memories. Through understanding migration journeys, childhood memories, or transformative life moments, participants explore how personal histories bridge the past and the future. We believe that knowing our roots strengthens our sense of possibility and deepens our connection to the wisdom of those who came before us.  

Across six to eight guided sessions, storytellers will explore how personal and collective histories shape identity and imagination. Each participant will learn intentional interview methodology, project planning, and interview practice to bring a story to life as a digital or material keepsake. Storytellers will collaborate on a  project plan and they will receive one-on-one guidance and editing for a culminating project of their own choosing.

This workshop encourages process over perfection. Participants move at a steady, sustainable pace, deepening their relationships with family and community members,growing their own voice as storytellers. Each project culminates in a creative work that honors both the story being told and the growth of the storyteller.


What You’ll Receive as part of this Workshop:

  • 6-8 online sessions with the Recurrent Studio team

  • Guidance from project ideation to completion, as well as practical methodologies, narrative structure planning, tips and strategies

  • A few rounds of asynchronous editing and constructive feedback

  • Optional community sharing opportunity at an end-of-year showcase

  • A foundation in personal storytelling that can guide future projects



Our Approach
 The FAMILY STORY WORKSHOP draws from Recurrent Studio’s expertise in oral history, archival research, documentary production, radio journalism, and Asian American history. We aim to produce stories that are both informative and poignant.

This is a self-paced process, designed to honor the rhythms of discovery and reflection. We encourage participants to book a set meeting time every other week, completing the series within 10–12 weeks to keep momentum. 

Between sessions, participants will be expected to conduct interviews, reflect through journaling, and gather materials that bring their stories to life.


Practical Details:

  • Workshop Fee: $1,500 per project (paid upfront)

  • Format: Six to Eight virtual sessions. Session numbers are determinded by project-specific needs

  • Location: California-based (and sometimes Australia-based!), but open to participants anywhere in the world





Booking: Email us at editors@recurrentstudio.com to begin your application or schedule an exploratory call

ABOUT US

JOSEPH TSUBOI (he/they) is a community storyteller, facilitator, and producer of transformative programs on Tongva land (Los Angeles, CA) with a Master’s in Asian American Studies from UCLA. He specializes in oral history, archival research, and creative storytelling, drawing from photographs, letters, and community archives to surface intergenerational memory and cultural meaning. His MA work on his Japanese American family’s histories of incarceration, displacement, and post-war labor in Sawtelle informs his approach to narrative work rooted in care, place, and identity.

Joseph brings this approach to community organizations by designing and facilitating programs, storytelling projects, and documentation efforts. He has worked within queer-affirming, multiracial, Asian American, and Muslim organizing spaces that use political education and arts to build relationships across communities. His practice blends narrative and program design, reflective facilitation, and story-based strategy to bring these histories to light—work that feels especially urgent in today’s digital and highly politicized era. Guided by a queer, multiracial, and multi-generational lens, Joseph supports clients in creating space that honors lived experience and voice.




SHIRLEY WANG is a writer and journalist from Iowa City, Iowa. She has produced podcasts, written pieces, and talk shows for NPR, 99 Percent Invisible and other publications. She wrote a radio story about her dad for WBUR in 2018 called “My Dad’s Friendship with Charles Barkley”, for which she interviewed her late father. She was a founding member of a journalist-owned newsmagazine from The Brick House. Before that, she was a project manager for the literary studio Plympton, where she has supported the publishing of short stories by many renowned American authors. She is interested in working on voice-y, stylistic pieces, and strives to capture the uniqueness of a person’s character.