Monday Matter: A mother's exchange and a bad birthday

Your biweekly Foreign Bodies roundup

Every other Monday, I send subscribers and gift recipients of immigrant mental health and storytelling newsletter Foreign Bodies stories I recently inhaled and adored. This is also a chance to do some housekeeping and give shout-outs and all that jazz.

First things first

A little housekeeping

A birthday to forget

For its 247th birthday, America seems to be celebrating by time-traveling backwards to a worse, less equitable place. The doom and gloom feels overwhelming, I know. And I don’t really have the words. Only the rage. How are you dealing? Me, I’m just diving deeper into Bravo Reality TV and chowing down on shrimp tacos until my stomach aches.

A musical start to your Mondays 🎧

One song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share

This week’s pick, recommended by reader Julien H., is South Korean shamanic folk-pop band, Ak Dan Gwang Chil — or ADG7. This nine-piece ensemble draws inspiration from traditional Korean folk music and contemporary K-Pop.

Resource(s) of the week

Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)

• *Re-imagining family stories: A virtual two-hour creative writing workshop from Bangladeshi American writer Aaisha Bhuiyan that will “take a closer look at individual family systems with an option to imagine alternative stories with characters inspired from our very own.” Scheduled for 12-2 p.m. EST, Sunday, July 16th. Tickets: ~$80 (fees included). Hat-tip to subscriber Hannah Bae for the recommendation!

• ActionNYC: A free legal hotline for immigrants. To access, dial 800-354-0365 or call 3-1-1 and say “ActionNYC.” The free, anonymous hotline operates between 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, and is available in more than 200 languages.