Junior year of high school, I was driving around with my best friend, depleting both the gas tank and our day. Pulling into the In-N-Out, they turned to me and said, “I found this song—let me just play it.” Innocently, I shrugged. The speaker muttered “My face is the front of shop,” stirring the air…
For the average museum-goer, looking at art is a passive experience – concerned mainly with the aesthetic presentation of what we see before us. However, taking a critical approach to the diversity of artists represented reveals the insidious and exclusionary practices that exist in many “respected” institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New…
Featured Art by Shahzaad Raja “I have always thought that if women’s hair posed so many problems, God would certainly have made us bald.” This quote, taken from Marjane Satrapi’s critically acclaimed graphic novel Persepolis, reflects the sentiment of younger Satrapi as she’s forced to navigate the complex prism of childhood while simultaneously growing up…
Listen to this interview on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. “Unite the People here, how can I help you?” 14 years into his prison sentence — three life sentences for a non-violent crime — Ceasar McDowell founded Unite the People, a non-profit organization providing legal services for low-income communities in California, right from his cell at…
I met Dechen when I was 13 years old. She’s one of my sister’s best friends, and I’ve always seen her as another older sister. Despite seeing her as family, I never knew where Dechen came from or about her childhood. It wasn’t until years later when Dechen told me she was Tibetan. I never…
There’s the hypersexual and cunning type who probably knows some form of martial arts – the “Dragon Lady” trope. Then, on the flip side, there is the submissive and innocent type, who needs a more powerful (often white) man to tell her what to do – the “Lotus Blossom” or “China Doll” trope.
As we enter Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, it is imperative that we turn our eyes to Myanmar and what they have been facing for months now. As we take this month to celebrate and educate ourselves about the histories and narratives of AAPI communities, we must act in solidarity with Myanmar…
My childhood dog’s name was Midnight. I adored her and would show her off to everyone in sight, but that soon changed when someone told me, “You should hide your dog from your dad, or he’ll eat it.” I did not understand what they meant by that until the comments continued. “Oh, you’re Filipino. You…
When Disney’s Aladdin premiered in 1992, its opening theme, “Arabian Nights”, sang softly of a “far away place” that is “barbaric – but hey it’s home.” In these lines, the American audience is removed from the comforts of their movie theaters or suburban homes and immersed into a foreign, rugged land characterized by savagery. For…
