Monday Matter: Daughters of the bomb, one song and a Foreign Bodies update
Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup (public)
Every Monday, we send subscribers and gift recipients of immigrant mental health and storytelling newsletter Foreign Bodies stories we recently inhaled and adored. This is also a chance to do some housekeeping and give shout-outs and all that jazz. Roundups are usually written by Fiza and edited by Farah. Today’s post is free to the public.
First things first
A little housekeeping
An update to our Foreign Bodies issues (Issue 18 delayed) ‼️
Friends, today’s Monday Matter is free to all sign-ups so I can give you all an update. I need a fews days off to decompress off screen after some back-to-back deadlines and a difficult week. Pushing Issue 18 to go live Aug. 19 (previously Aug. 12). I’ll also be tuning in to the Asian American Journalists Association national conference, where, on Saturday, I’ll be part of a panel on mental health taboos in AAPI communities. Join!
In general, I’m considering publishing the issues every other month instead of monthly to take some pressure off myself during this especially trying/awful/exhausting year. Money’s tight, energy’s low, and I tend to need several more breathers! 🙂
Don’t forget to enter to win Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century!
Have you entered our latest giveaway yet? Win a copy of this galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers with a note from Disability Visibility Project founder and book editor Alice Wong. I’ve already read some of these essays two or three times over and can’t adequately express how powerful they are.
A musical start to your Mondays (new!) 🎧
One international song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share
Coming to you from Brazil this week is jazz-funk-folk composer, arranger and producer Arthur Verocai.
Resource(s) of the week
Something helpful and interesting and cool (🗣️ = storytelling opportunity)
Eyes Emoji On Migration: a newsletter from CQ Roll Call immigration reporter Tanvi Misra on “the history of human migration and all the ways we have reacted to it”
The Asian Mental Health Collective: a network of folks looking to normalize and de-stigmatize mental health within the Asian community featuring a resource library, therapist directory, web series and more. Follow @asiansformentalhealth on Instagram!
🗣️ The Real People, Real Struggles, Real Stories: Writing about Mental Illness Fellowship: The Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow is accepting applications for writers interested in a two-week residency (with meals!) in charming Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Thanks to Hannah Bae, who won the fellowship last year, for sending this along! Apply here.
🗣️ BuzzFeed India is accepting personal essay pitches for its Dialogue section. Send pitches to buzzfeedindiapitches@buzzfeed.com.
Read this!
Personal or creative storytelling we’re loving
How Being a First-Generation American Affected My Mental Health (Jonathan Borge, Health.com): “The adults in my life helped their children self-soothe with silly nursery rhymes they were raised with like, ‘sana, sana, culito de rana (heal, heal, little frog’s tail),’ which my folks would jokingly reference into my adolescence and adulthood each time I expressed emotional pain they couldn’t quite understand.” One first-gen’s candid personal essay on being dismissed as “sensitive” and the immigrant paradox. Read here.
Milked (Veena Dinavahi, The Rumpus): “My breasts survived the first two children. Like me, they are resilient and spunky. And then I had Milo. Milo, the love of my life who measured small throughout pregnancy. Milo, born with fluid in the lungs. Milo, whose eyes crossed and whose spine was slightly too long. Milo, who spent one week in the NICU, and went from the NICU straight to the third floor of my best friend’s house because our power went out the day he was discharged. Milo, who couldn’t eat.” A vulnerable, gutting essay from Indian American writer Veena Dinavahi on losing youth in motherhood—and yearning for self-desire. Read here.
We Were All We Had (Elham Khatami, Guernica Mag): One of the best personal essays I’ve read on the immigrant experience. Khatami writes beautifully about experiencing ghorbat—“the uncomfortable feeling of being alone, of not belonging, in a foreign land”—and the invisible burdens of protecting immigrant parents and the roots they represent. “I worry about the unknown—the when, why, and how of death. I worry about losing my parents and trying to make sense of myself in America without them… Sometimes, when I visit my parents, I pull out my phone while we are talking and hit record on the voice memos app. Other times, I interview my parents, asking them specific questions about their lives in Iran and their beginnings in America. Every time, I have more questions.” Read here.
Daughters of the Bomb: A Story of Hiroshima, Racism and Human Rights (Erika Hayasaki, Narratively): “Classes at school did not teach me about the internment of Japanese-Americans, nor about all of the rest of the groups deemed subhuman,” writes Hayasaki. “So, as a teenager, I went searching for more books that did.” A gorgeous essay reflecting on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and one of the last remaining survivors’ “unequivocal pursuit: a nuclear weapon-free world.” Read here.
I’m A Blind Woman. Here’s How COVID-19 Has Changed The Way I Ask For Help. (Milagros Costabel): An essential account on the problems with stranger-imposed help that involves accessing personal space without permission. “I’ve learned that saying no and explaining my needs is not only an act of protecting my body, my desires and my ability to act individually, but now, it’s also a way to demonstrate that my health, like that of people without disabilities, matters too.” Read here.
In the news
Relevant news coverage that doesn’t really fall under our larger mission to de-stigmatize through personal storytelling, but is still essential reading for anyone who wants to stay up-to-date on immigrant and refugee mental health and well-being.
Potato slaves: The cost of an H-2A visa in Texas (Patricia Clarembaux and Almudena Toral, Univision): A must-read on the thousands of Mexican and Central American immigrants currently experiencing forced labor. Afraid of retaliation and of losing their H-2A visas, many such immigrants are reluctant to report the abuse they face from employers. According to Carter Fellow Almudena Toral, the reporting has already gotten two supervisors at a potato farm in Texas arrested by federal agents. Read here.
On the shoulders of our parents — the cooks, nannies and gardeners — we’ve traveled far (Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times): For this a “tapestry of pride, spontaneously woven by the grown children of working-class parents,” Esmeralda Bermudez (who I just love to read!) asked Angelenos about the jobs their parents held to get them to where they are now. Read here.
The Effects Of El Paso Shooting On Latinx Community In The U.S. (Maria Hinojosa, NPR/Latino USA): An emotional, but essential listen addressing the trauma many Latinx communities in the U.S. are still reeling from one year after a white gunman killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso. Read and listen here.
Tune In, Drop Out: Did South Korea’s honjok predict life under the coronavirus? (Ann Babe, Rest of World): In South Korea, a country known for its collectivist culture, it’s becoming more common to be “individualist loners”—or honjok. “The term, which translates to ‘alone tribe,’ shortens and combines 나홀로, meaning ‘by myself,’ and 족, ‘tribe,’” writes Babe. “It’s used to describe a group of people who prefer, out of pleasure or practicality — and, often, utter exhaustion and sheer desperation — to live outside of conventional social structures and simply be alone.” Read here. | Also read: This interview about finding characters and empathy with Ann Babe via Britany Robinson’s excellent letter, One More Question
New research 📑
Sources of Stress and Barriers to Mental Health Service Use Among Asian Immigrant-Origin Youth: A Qualitative Exploration (Arora G. Prerna and Olivia Khoo, Journal of Child and Family Studies): This new qualitative study explores stressors and barriers to mental health service use among Asian immigrant-origin youth. Read here.
New Report Explores Innovation of Educators in Immigrant-Serving Districts (Harvard Graduate School of Education): A new policy report (fifth in the series) from Harvard’s Immigration Initiative looks at how immigrant-serving school districts are adapting and connecting with communities amid COVID-19. Read here.
+1
One sorta unrelated story on my mind
How the Pandemic Defeated America (Ed Yong, The Atlantic): “No one should be shocked that a liar who has made almost 20,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency would lie about whether the U.S. had the pandemic under control; that a racist who gave birth to birtherism would do little to stop a virus that was disproportionately killing Black people; that a xenophobe who presided over the creation of new immigrant-detention centers would order meatpacking plants with a substantial immigrant workforce to remain open; that a cruel man devoid of empathy would fail to calm fearful citizens; that a narcissist who cannot stand to be upstaged would refuse to tap the deep well of experts at his disposal; that a scion of nepotism would hand control of a shadow coronavirus task force to his unqualified son-in-law; that an armchair polymath would claim to have a ‘natural ability’ at medicine and display it by wondering out loud about the curative potential of injecting disinfectant; that an egotist incapable of admitting failure would try to distract from his greatest one by blaming China, defunding the WHO, and promoting miracle drugs; or that a president who has been shielded by his party from any shred of accountability would say, when asked about the lack of testing, ‘I don’t take any responsibility at all.’” Always read Ed Yong. Read here.
Bookshelf
Books and collections I’m currently reading (plus reader-recommended works!)
Currently reading: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson, a highly anticipated book on “the unspoken caste system that has shaped America” (Penguin Random House)
Reader rec from Nikhil S.: The Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto by Suketu Mehta, a “timely argument for why the United States and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants” (Macmillan)
Remember, we always have tons of wonderful stories and resources available at foreignbodies.net.
Love to see it
Shout-outs, thank-yous and more
Happening tonight: A For Us By Us panel on mental health in Black immigrant communities!
This interactive on being a person of color in journalism from Foreign Bodies editor Farah is so worth your time.
Save the date for Disability Rights Montana’s Intersectional Approach to Mental Health conference this September! Attorney Richard Diaz will speak to the mental health and institutional care of immigrant children in detention on Sept. 17. Event listing here.
For anyone needing a push to write (me):
Please, everyone, let’s pray this into existence.
Ending with this tweet from Zeba Blay. I only began being honest about canceling plans during depressive episodes in the last couple of years and it’s really added a new sense of comfort around mental illness discourse with my loved ones.
That’s it for now.
Did you absolutely hate this? Open to criticism and suggestions. See ya later!
Love,
Fiza
Special thanks to our Foreign Bodies Sustaining Members Hannah B., Safurah B., Alex C., Rebecca C., Rodrigo C., Katie H., Liz S., Puja S., Roz T. and my mama, Safia P.