I was born and raised in Bronx, New York.
Over time, people in New York City have changed,
and sometimes I feel like I'm treated like I'm a visitor here.
Everybody's talking to each other, but nobody's talking to me,
and people may just walk by.
I do software testing here at the Museum.
So, I was going through all the objects on the collections portion of the website to
make sure that they were displaying correctly,
and that's when I saw this Glenn Ligon piece.
There are four etchings. The first one quotes from Zora Neale Hurston,
"I do not always feel colored." It really spoke to me.
I'm very much affected by the reflection I see in other people's eyes,
because all my life,
I've been in situations where I am aware of the color of my skin,
and I don't feel like myself. When I looked up Glenn Ligon,
I found out that he was an African American person like me,
and it make the work less esoteric, not as distant.
The second piece says,
"I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background."
Sometimes, I'm the only Black person in the room. And I am, to some extent,
by myself in that moment, although I'm in a room full of people.
I feel like there is a barrier, but it's a barrier that I didn't put up.
It's a barrier that someone else has, and I can't push that aside.
I can only make myself open for that person to get to know me and to see me
as just a human being.
The black on black etchings were harder to read
but I learned the words were from Ralph Ellison.
"I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh, bone,
fiber, and liquids, and I might even be said to possess a mind.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."
Glenn Ligon's using these quotes to make the point that things haven't changed.
The feelings that he had in 1992, people had decades ago,
and I have those same feelings now. It made me feel included,
like there was somebody out there who would see me,
and they would understand my point of view.
I think that museums should be a reflection of the society around them,
and here at The Met, it may not always succeed,
but they're trying to include everybody and be for everyone.
When I want to see this piece again, I don't go down to the galleries.
I look at it online, where it be a more personal experience.
It makes me feel connected.
It makes me feel like I am part of the world.
It makes me feel like myself.
I grew up in Mongolia during the time of a socialist system.
People were not allowed to learn much about history of the world.
Plus, Mongolian history was totally prohibited,
so eventually there was a lot of questions in my little head,
"Where are we from?
And what about our ancient culture and art?"
But at the time, I couldn't find any answers to that.
When I was 27 years old,
Mongolia transferred from a socialist system to a democratic system.
We didn't know anything about our own culture.
We had to basically start from the beginning.
Many years later,
my daughter came to study in New York,
so I joined my daughter in 2010 as a new chapter of my life.
That led me to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As I was wandering around,
I just accidentally found the Arms and Armor gallery,
and an object caught my eyes.
I just connected, and I came close to the object and I read it,
and I saw, "Mongolia, 15th, 17th century."
This helmet had this beautiful Buddhist painting.
Mongolians were not allowed to practice their religion during the socialism,
but my family has connection to Buddhist religion so
I have a respect, deep down.
Eventually I found out that New York had Mongolian community and
many of these people didn't know there were Mongolia-related arts and objects in the Metropolitan Museum.
I'm not a historian, but I started to bring my community members,
Mongolian government officials who were visiting New York,
high school children, kids who study and live here.
Somebody had to be the bridge.
It made us feel very connected,
because it shows that our history is a part of the world history.
Now I have a granddaughter who
was born in New York.
She is learning English, and
at the same time,
grandma is trying to teach her Mongolian language.
I brought her to the Metropolitan Museum,
because it's where she can see world history.
Hopefully, she will continue grandma's legacy
and carry on both cultures.