As a museum educator turned founder, I’ve devoted my career to leveraging teaching and learning to challenge assumptions and build empathy. During my 15 years as a curriculum developer and teacher trainer at the Minnesota Historical Society, I had the privilege of working with hundreds of educators across the state — and one of the most memorable collaborators was street photographer, author, and storyteller Wing Young Huie.

At the time, I hired Wing to teach sixth-grade social studies teachers his Chalk Talk method — a participatory way of using his photography to spark conversation about identity and belonging.
Fast forward to today: I’m honored to reconnect with him through my work at Teach Your Thing, and to share how he models what learning-led change looks like.

Here, he's facilitating a dialogue with my class of 2025 at Leadership St. Paul, a cohort learning program run by the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce. (Best class ever!) Later Wing sat for an interview with me, and I'm honored to share his work with you.

Meet the Changemaker

Through his camera, Wing Young Huie has captured the everyday moments of strangers from all walks of life. And though he doesn't necessarily think of himself as a changemaker, he's spent decades turning sidewalks, classrooms, and gallery walls into spaces for conversation — where people can see themselves and others more clearly.

“When I started photographing,” he told me, “my goal was to be in art. But then at some point I started thinking that maybe the interaction was as important, if not more important, than the resulting photograph.”

In workshops with classrooms and communities, he then asks viewers to confront the space between what they see and what they assume.

What He Teaches

As I’ve seen firsthand, it’s powerful when Wing invites people to see what happens when we have the courage to connect with someone new.

“When I tell students I’ve photographed thousands of strangers,” he says, “their usual reaction is, ‘That’s creepy.’ And then I ask them, ‘How many of you feel that you’re a stranger to most of your neighbors?’ ”

In those moments, something shifts. Students start to see that the distance between us isn’t inevitable, but learned.

“I’m just like anyone,” he tells them. “I walk down the street, I look at people I don’t know, I make assumptions. Then I get outside my bubble and I interact with them and photograph them and talk to them. And often here's a story."

What He’s Changing

Wing calls himself an observer—someone who lets others decide what his work means.

By inviting others to interpret, he models a form of learning that values curiosity over certainty.

“I try not to think about impacts too much,” he said. “Just keep doing what I’m doing.”

Yet the impact is undeniable. Wing’s philosophy has made lasting impressions on the students and community members he’s met — people who approach him years later, sometimes getting emotional as they reminisce.

I am endlessly fascinated by the ways leaders like him craft the right containers for their audience to engage meaningfully with what they have to share. 

Here’s to more leaders like him, who remind us that teaching isn’t just about what we know — it’s about how we see, listen, and connect.

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