void98 / juhi ♫( -_･) ︻デ═一 ▸
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@lilsurr
perhaps in order to investigate my anxiety among south asian women, it would help to interrogate why I did not join SASA. despite my closest childhood friend being indian-american, and the majority of my elementary through middle school education being surrounded by asian-americans, I never felt totally at home amongst my south asian peers. perhaps this is exactly the reason - when I felt ostracized, it was by them; when I felt alien, it was in relation to them. not always only them, but always including them. perhaps its racist of me to advance a stereotype, but I will posit one anyhoo: the capitalist, work-obsessed, performance-obsessed individualist indian-american was one that I grew to know well. despite there (obviously) being woke, hip, alternative south asians, (me, and aditi) I didn't know any of them. they didn't go to challenger, they didn't go to harker. I don't think they went to warwick either, or american. they weren't in my family, they weren't in my family friend circle. I didn't see them when I went to the mall, or to classes, or around town. I felt very out of place, with no one to look to: where were the indians (especially girls) with dyed hair, who wore combat boots, who went to punk shows where all the attendees were white? this alienation stemmed, in no small part, from a concrete belief that these other indians did not understand my circumstances and couldn't relate to my ways of self-expressing. this concrete belief was in no way rooted in fact: it is very possible there were others who experienced similar traumas, but they were never shared. if they had anxieties, they were not apparent to me. their parents were very active in their schooling; mine were always concerned with my special needs brother. they were dutiful to their parents desires; I snuck out and got grounded. they considered the humanities subpar; I relished the written word. their fathers were sweet and caring; mine would get drunk every night and say inappropriate things about women. I felt alien, and alone with my pitiful conditions. I likely extrapolated this alienation to having something to do with a normative understanding of what it meant to be Indian. if they were Indian, I was Other. what fueled this further was my internalized racism, a desire to be white, light-skinned, beautiful (all the same to me back then). I divorced myself from my culture, a culture I felt never understood me, a culture that didn't have room for me, and sought others: music, academia, the company of white men. only in college did I begin to unpack these anxieties and learn that my culture was to be embraced, and more importantly, my own. I met badass asian-american women who were the best and most powerful organizers I knew. I interrogated narratives like the 'good asian girl,' the model minority. fuck that shit! we all said in chorus. don't put us in a damn box. when I entered college, I would never have been the kind of person to join a cultural affinity group - I felt no affinity for being indian, purportedly 'my culture.' after college I realized my culture is of my choosing, and there are traditions and holidays I celebrate with my familiy that are dear to me, foods that I love eating, music I find inspiring and interesting, and I am blessed to have this knowledge, and this resource. I realized also there is no one right way to be indian. as I have gotten older, I've met more and more indian women who challenge the status quo - what it looks like to be brown. although I still instinctively roll my eyes when I meet yet another indian woman who works in tech (sorry, I can't help it), there are indian women who are organizers, doulas, musicians. there are indian women pushing the boundaries of critical thought, of just societies. to my awe, there are indeed other indian women wearing lehenga tops with jeans. these anxieties still persist - that I am somehow in an out-group, that I bear no relation to these people with the same color skin, the same last name. but thinking about them is the first step to working on them. the reframe is: how wonderful it could be to be in a world where I find indian women just like me, who DJ weird music, who think about art and culture, who are committed to building a more equitable world? one day I will be past all this, but for now it is top of mind....
Sonoran food
what is?ingredients and stops
marana, az
Mayan, Aztec cacao ceremony
historyjuke joint
wikitatreez (Palestinian embroidery)
TirazainRenaissance Fair
Phyllis Patterson and the Ren Fair as an antidote to McCarthyismThe Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair via Smithsonian Mag
some fun inspiration for events in this program
and here
Chinese shrimping villages
Learning about the Chinese shrimping villages in the Bay Area and how they were literally blown up by the Navy and the Health Department.https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Chinese_shrimping_village
Chaksam-pa
Tibetan dance and opera.This makes me think of Zach and we should go see them next time they perform. Ella would probably enjoy too.
In Tibetan, Chaksam-pa means Bridge-Builder, and is one of the many names attributed to a famous Tibetan saint known as Thangtong Gyalpo, who lived in the 14th century in Tibet. He is considered to be a patron saint of Tibetan medicine as well as the founding father of Ache Lhamo, Tibetan opera.
Kumeyaay
How does the border between the United States and Mexico affect Kumeyaay culture?"It’s very similar to what the Basques talk about. They’re caught between France and Spain. The Basques on the French side speak French and Basque, and on the Spanish side, same thing. We have the same issues. The Kumeyaays in Baja speak Spanish and some of them speak Kumeyaay. The ones in the U.S. speak English and some speak Kumeyaay."
– Stan Rodriguez, Kumeyaay elder
Boyle Heights
Boyle heights is a cool neighborhood. the Japanese returned to little Tokyo and Boyle heights after internment during WWII. the last Japanese restaurant in the once-vibrantly Japanese neighborhood is Otomisan, which opened in 1956. if my google maps were working, I would save it there. there is an episode about this in city of ghosts, an animated television show for children about the history of LA. I wish they did a show like this about SF! maybe Ella and I should watch when she comes to visit.a timeline of Boyle heights from the Japanese American national museum
a nice article from PBS on Japanese community and buddhism in Boyle heights
"A 'melting pot' area and is literally honeycombed with diverse and subversive racial elements. It is seriously doubted whether is a single block in the area which does not contain detrimental racial elements, and there are very few districts are not hopelessly heterogeneous in type of improvement and quality of maintenance."
- notes on Boyle Heights from a 1940 Home Owners Loan Corporation map
Canter's deli used to be in Boyle Heights, in 1931. LA is so diverse with such an interesting cultural history. I should move there for a bit...
"A Brief History Of Boyle Heights, In 6 Landmarks"
"When the Jewish Bakers of Boyle Heights Were Radical Socialists Instead of Trump Supporters"
Son Jarocho
listen hereSon jarocho ("Veracruz Sound") is a regional folk musical style from Veracruz, Mexico. The most famous son jarocho is "La Bamba."