Jodi Powell

This is the Moth Radio Hour.

I'm Jodi Powell.

In this hour, stories of confrontation.

Growing up in Jamaica, I was so used to hearing the shouts when a fight was on in the schoolyard.

I would often find myself standing at the edge peering in.

And one day, I got caught in the rumble with a classmate.

And this time, it was me in the center, fighting.

I desperately needed to get out, but I quickly realized the only way out was to go fully in.

And so I fought back and the schoolyard sounds enveloped us.

And before I knew it, it was over.

But I was terrified because now I had to go to the vice principal and face what I had just done.

I got two days suspension and more chores for my grandmother than you can count.

A confrontation isn't always like a schoolyard fight.

It can mean asking yourself hard questions, understanding and sticking to boundaries, rolling up in a space that is not meant for you and owning it.

It can mean finding courage.

That was true for our first storyteller, Harjus Singh, who told this at a main stage in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where we partnered with the Zyterian Performing Arts Centre.

Here's Harjus, live at the Moth.

That was Harjes Singh, who is now more confident in his identity, which gives him the strength to be an active representative of the Sikh community after 11 years of being in the U.S.

He is now a software engineer, but also a storyteller, and thinks he inherited storytelling from his grandfather.

He still gets the occasional stare from someone who's never seen a man with a turban before.