“You’re just too popular,” one student joked as a series of latecomers walked into Magdalen Hsu-Li’s already packed Diversity Workshop. Hsu-Li quipped modestly, “It’s the pizza.”

Last Saturday, for the first time, but hopefully not the last, Seattle indie-rocker Hsu-Li brought her widely acclaimed workshop series to Carnegie Mellon. ALLIES, CMU’s gay/straight alliance, sponsored and organized her visit. Crafted to allow open discussion about race, culture, and sexual identity, these workshops strive to help college students become more conscious of their own cultural “programming” and diversity awareness.

“I’m not here to tell people what to do,” Hsu-Li asserted during the workshop. “I’m here to help people tell themselves how they can personally make changes.” For herself, she said, “If I learn something that day about people — and I almost always do — that’s worth learning,” then each workshop is an enjoyable and invaluable experience.

Growing up in rural southern Virginia, Hsu-Li was ostracized for being in the minority; she’s Chinese, a bisexual, and suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome. Although Hsu-Li was able to conquer her Tourette’s, the other aspects of her person could not be altered.

Instead of allowing prejudice to crush her spirit, Hsu-Li left home to study art at the renowned Rhode Island School of Design, where she was granted an award for excellence in painting. After graduation, she moved to Seattle and attended the Cornish College of the Arts for jazz and classical music. Hsu-Li was awarded prestigious scholarships at both colleges.

In 1997, influenced by the Seattle music movement and early ‘90’s “chick rockers,” Hsu-Li founded her own record label, Chickpop Records, and Femme Vitale, The Seattle Women’s Music and Arts Coalition. Although her first album, Muscle and Bone, only nudged her into the popular music scene, her sophomore record, Evolution, won Hsu-Li awards from many national GLBT organizations. Hsu-Li’s 2003 release, Fire, has been similarly well-received.

Hsu-Li came to CMU with partner and drummer Dale Fanning; the pair gives diversity lectures at colleges across the country. Funny and friendly, Hsu-Li made a perfect moderator for touchy, personal subjects such as interracial relationships and sexual harassment in the workplace. Her relaxed attitude instantly put attendees at ease, and her energy was invigorating.

Following brief introductions, Hsu-Li asked students how their hometowns influenced how they grew up and what kind of cultural mix was prevalent in their communities. It didn’t take long for people to warm up and start sharing.

“The biggest problem is, no matter how diverse an area is, there’s this voluntary segregation,” sophomore political science major Vijay Jesrani said in response to the first question. Many other students agreed that this was an issue both at home and at CMU.

Another prominent topic discussed was what people are programmed to think and what people instinctually believe.

“I felt pressure from my Chinese roots to be a dutiful, ornamental Asian girl, pressure from the South to be a nice southern girl, a debutante, but was told by America that a woman can do whatever she sets her mind to,” Hsu-Li shared. In the end, she discovered, she had to sift through all of those ideals until she found her own.

Before departing, many people stayed to chat with Hsu-Li and Fanning — and to give each of them a hug. Not surprisingly, the majority of the people present at the workshop came back to see Hsu-Li again at the free concert she held later that evening.

To say that Hsu-Li’s concert performance was exciting and engaging barely does it justice. Armed with two guitars, an old grand piano, a drum set, and a bongo, she and Fanning carried the same spirit to the stage that they held in the workshop. Between songs, they told stories and made jokes about politics, America’s regional differences, and themselves.

“We tune because we care,” Fanning once explained as he and Hsu-Li adjusted their instruments, producing amicable laughter from their audience. Without missing a beat, Hsu-Li added, “We tune because we don’t want to suck.”

With vocals comparable to Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette and music at times reminiscent of Ani Difranco’s solo albums and other times of percussion-driven Rusted Root, Hsu-Li enveloped the audience in her mix of soft acoustic and faster-paced, energized songs. The variety of her music stems from her desire to have it reflect the human experience, both “the light and the shadow.”

From personal, feminist pieces like “No Ordinary Girl” to percussion-heavy commentaries on social and cultural conditions like “Assimilated,” her songs elicited enthusiastic audience response. After the concert, many people asked Hsu-Li for her autograph, and inquired if she and Fanning would join them for dinner.

Hsu-Li’s workshop material and music reflected the same messages. Drawing from her encounters with intolerance, Hsu-Li encourages open-mindedness, but also lends a sympathetic voice to those who have undergone mistreatment. Her words convey her triumph of becoming a strong and successful woman, and suggest that everyone can achieve what she has if they believe in themselves.

As she states in her song “Spirit of the World,” “In the spirit of the world I encourage you to try/In the spirit of your mind let the shutters open wide/In the spirit of your body let it rock and let it roll/May you finally reconnect with the spirit of your soul.”