they did not need / their skin to be / gold / or bronze / or the color of honey. / their skin was simply brown. / and they looked beautiful anyway.
Read More“I want to make things that convey an episode of my memory that I feel, but other people can also relate to.”
Read Morei can’t remember when i first told people / i think this was always a war story. / it keeps going on; before and after.
Read MoreEchoes of dysphoria bounce around my chest, as if my ribcage is a pinball machine. Whispering self-doubt buries its inky fingers against my wrists from the inside, stretching the skin outwards.
Read MoreI’ve spent countless days grappling between my various identities as an Asian, a woman, a friend, a creative, an idealist; but at my predominantly white institution, I am nothing more than my race. In the eyes of my white counterparts, minorities are defined by our appearance above other aspects. It is the center of our identities—our defining factor—and because of this, our individuality nearly becomes inexistent.
Read More“I know America / She is loose-lipped, / foul mouth, / heavy breathing, / barely sleeping, America.”
Read MoreAsian-Americans should have already been included to everyone’s anti-racist agenda. The amount of hate crimes could have been prevented to a certain extent, yet everyone, including the government, was ignoring our cries. It is a bare minimum to respect and care for other people regardless of their ethnic background.
Read MoreThe American Dream and the Asian-American identity have been ever evolving counterparts. In the eyes of my young mother, America was the land of milk and honey.
Read MoreNot blank, but white—like the paintings that sell for millions, ones
created by contemporary suprematists, where white is not the beginning but the finished product.
Read MoreLately, I’ve been feeling like a little fish living life in a big, round fish bowl. The limits of my swimming are confined to the rounded, hollowed insides of this watery, translucent cage, but life is calm, there’s no real danger. All I need to do is swim on and life will be good.
Read MoreWhat can I do?/ But stare at old photos and cut / holes where our eyes / should be.
Read MoreI guess it’s hard about to write about the boxes I check off on a resume,/ as hard it is to write about the veins i bleed from
Read Moreto feel / even the remnants / of stardust / in her palm. )
Read Morewe have known for a long time / that it will be the sun that swallows us whole. / in that way, stars are a lot like people: / hungry and bright, / searching for an infinity that does not exist.
Read More“People are always pushing the boundaries of what is music and what is not.”
Read Morewith jaundice defecating all over himself, in between fried spring roll samosas and roti from Subzi Mundai like strawboard, in between chipped fingernails and a mother-in-law who’s fallen dead from malaria. I drowned the choli in coco mademoiselle before I went to bed for chaand rat
Read Morebut i clawed my way to the top / picked up my broken pieces / stitched them back together / i learned to love/ myself/ and set the crown atop my head.
Read MoreGilgamesh and Enkidu had hands like testaments, / red-hot stars for pockets in their veins. / White dwarfs for acne,/ copper for bones.
Read More"It is important to believe in ourselves in every present moment and to not undermine what we are doing.”
“I want to leave a legacy that will inspire women to be confident in themselves regardless of outside opposition or opinion.”
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