Monday Matter: Going biweekly, coming into focus and the sex talk
Your biweekly Foreign Bodies roundup (public)
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
We’re going biweekly!
Hi friends! It’s been a while. I just returned from an international trip and have been inundated with deadlines on deadlines on deadlines. It might not come as a major surprise then that I’m choosing to take it a little easier now that I’m in school and working full time. Moving forward, these formerly weekly Monday roundups will appear in your inboxes every other week. And yes, I had to Google the meaning of biweekly about a hundred times before typing this up.
I’ve been debating whether or not to call it quits altogether, but I love this newsletter and I love sharing these stories and resources with you all. I’m hoping by cutting down my hours a bit and sustaining the newsletter with the same monthly subscription rate ($5/mo or $55/year), I’ll get the peace of mind to never feel burdened by what I feel is something worth keeping around. Please continue to share your favorite reads with me. I love hearing from you!
A musical start to your Mondays 🎧
One song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share
This week’s pick, recommended by reader Naayab M., is Yemen-born Emirati singer and actress Balqees and her catchy 2021 hit song about moving on from unhealthy relationships.
Resource(s) of the week
Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)
How you can help someone experiencing a mental health crisis: A video recording of a webinar from Seattle Times reporter Michelle Baruchman (my former AJC intern!) who spoke with five experts about how to identify a crisis situation and get someone the care they need
The Sex Talk: A Muslim’s Guide to Healthy Sex and Relationships: This is a hybrid (in-person and virtual) event scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday at Atlanta’s Charis Books hosted by HEART, Raksha, Inc, and SisterLove, Inc. featuring authors Nadiah Mohajir and Haddijatou Ceesay in a conversation moderated by Dr. Alia Azmat. Written by Muslims for Muslims, The Sex Talk is a trauma-informed, queer-inclusive, and survivor-centered book with faith-inspired and culturally-sensitive information. (Hat tip to Dr. Rose Deighton-Mohammed!)
*Writing About Your Immigrant Experience: A three-hour workshop scheduled for 10 a.m.-1 p.m. EST Saturday, Sept. 17 from Rutgers University’s Cooper Street Writing Workshops and taught by Immigrant Strong newsletter writer Vesna Jaksic Lowe. Attendees “will read excerpts from contemporary immigrant writers’ memoirs and personal essays, discuss some of the themes and topics that often come up, and get started with our own writing.” Tickets range from $10-$60.
*palabra, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ digital magazine, is looking for 6-7-minute audio story pitches in English spanning “evergreen, people-driven features” of reproductive justice, immigration, climate and the environment, and economics and finance for an upcoming podcast. Rate: $700 per story. Send pitches to Aria Velasquez at aj.velasquez192@gmail.com as well as Valeria Fernández at valeria-palabra@nahj.org with the subject line “ASI FUE PITCH” plus the beat you’re pitching. Deadline: 8 p.m. EST Sept. 14. (Hat tip to Study Hall’s weekly newsletter)
*Huellas Magazine is accepting pitches for a special issue dedicated to Latinx and Latin American immigrant writers from Queens, New York. Rate: $300. Deadline Sept. 30. (Hat tip to Sonia Weiser’s Opportunities of the Week newsletter)
Read this!
Personal stories I’m loving
Coming Into Focus (Carla Ciccone, Harper’s Bazaar): “This feeling of not quite knowing how to perform adult life was familiar, but combined with the guilt inherent to motherhood, it became unbearable... I chalked up my personal and professional disasters to a deep personality flaw that left me feeling like a frightened clown trying to blend in at a cocktail party.” A must-read reported feature about the silent ADHD epidemic among women. Read here.
Alejandro Varela on the Reality of Being an Anxious Writer (Nicole Chung, The Atlantic): “All illness, including mental illness, is exacerbated by a lack of community, by feeling alone.” The Town of Babylon author Alejandro Varela talks to Chung about the complicated anxiety of being in the public eye as an already anxious writer—and how authors with anxiety might be better supported by their literary communities. Read here.
When Migration Is a Gesture of Love (Ucheoma Onwutueba, Catapult): “I am certain that, just at the same time as my family mulled over my potential departure, the same topic was deliberated in another Nigerian home, and prayers and plans were made to disrupt that family’s equilibrium by encouraging the migration of one of its members. Economic hardship and few employment opportunities left lots of people despondent, and migration by whatever means became a clarion call.” The first installment of Onwutueba’s Notes of a Nostalgic Nigerian, a column about emigrating to the United States. Read here.
Pregnancy (Sylvia K. Ilahuka, Guernica Mag): “I am my mother’s kitindamimba; my son is my kifunguamimba. These are, respectively, the Swahili terms for lastborn and firstborn — kufungua being ‘to open,’ and kutinda being ‘to cull,’ trim, or cut into shape (as in the case of eyebrows). Mimba is pregnancy, as derived from a word that means ‘to swell.’ Both are nouns rooted in verbs, titles borne by bookended offspring. They tell us what to expect about where a person is situated in their family.” I love this short piece from Uganda-based Tanzanian writer Sylvia K. Ilahuka, who also serves as a Swahili language medical interpreter and writes here about sitting with women as they underwent miscarriages, abortions, pregnancies and related complexities. “In English there were the clinical realities; in Swahili, the emotional layers.” 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 as well as general mental health news.
White House eliminates potential hurdles for immigrants on public benefits trying to obtain legal status (Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands, CNN): According to newly released regulation, the Biden administration has finalized a rule eliminating elements of Trump-era “public charge” law, easing potential hurdles for immigrants using some public benefits and trying to obtain legal status. Read here.
St. Paul refugee resettlement agency launches nation’s first guaranteed income program for immigrants. (Hibachi Ansari, Sahan Journal): A pilot program at the International Institute of Minnesota has launched the country’s first guaranteed income program for refugees. Twenty-five families enrolled in the program, which is funded through private donations and foundation grants, will receive $750 per month for 12 months. Read here.
Scientology's decades of secret immigrant labor (Kevin Dugan, Documented and New York Magazine): For the last year, Dugan has been corresponding with more than three dozen former Scientologists from 12 countries on five continents. These sources described being trapped, unable to leave their laborious lives filled with assignments akin to involuntary servitude—even slavery, reports Dugan. “To boost numbers,” he adds, “[Scientology] church leaders have recruited thousands of people from abroad, making heavy use of the R-1 visa program — a strategy that is all but unknown to the general public and has never been fully scrutinized. Federal rules specify that R-1 applicants must have been a member of a given religion for two years and must promise that they are coming to the U.S. to work ‘solely as a minister or to perform a religious vocation or occupation.’ But former Scientologists told me that church officials instructed them to give statements about their work to immigration officials that would clear them to obtain a religious visa — then, once they arrived, found themselves doing nonreligious work for extended periods of time.” What an investigation. Read here.
New research 📑
The mental health burden of racial and ethnic minorities during the COVID-19 pandemic (PLOS ONE): A new study using data from 691,473 survey respondents in the U.S. and U.K. suggests racial and ethnic minorities bore a disproportionate mental health burden during the COVID-19 pandemic. From the authors: “The early phase of COVID-19 pandemic was incredibly disruptive to everyday life. We found that racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. and U.K. were more likely to screen positive for depression and anxiety. This suggests a disproportionate impact and mental health burden on persons of color, which need to be considered as we reshape health care systems to prioritize the long-term consequences of this disease.” Read the full study here.
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One sorta unrelated story on my mind
The Match (Bhavya Dore, Fifty Two): “Wouter Dijkstra always knew he had two mothers: his Dutch adoptive mother and his Sri Lankan birth mother. In September 2020, he found out he had three.” A compelling feature on international adoption about a generation of Europeans returning to Sri Lanka, where they were adopted as children, to search for their birth mothers. Read here.
Bookshelf
Books and collections I’m currently reading (plus reader-recommended works!)
Just finished: Praying for Sheetrock by Melissa Fay Greene, a work of masterful narrative nonfiction that tells the story of McIntosh County, “a small, isolated, and lovely place on the flowery coast of Georgia–and a county where, in the 1970s, the white sheriff still wielded all the power, controlling everything and everybody…”
Reader rec from Ali G.: Somewhere We Are Human, an anthology of authentic voices on migration, survival and new beginnings edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca
Remember, we always have tons of wonderful stories and resources available at foreignbodies.net.
Love to see it
Shout-outs, thank-yous and more
Check on your friends. Lean on your friends. (This is a note to self, too.)
Oof.
The internet has been a wild ride this last week.
Like, why.
Hannah, queen of reminding us all to give ourselves grace.
A few photos from the south of Portugal if you’re looking to be temporarily transported:
That’s it for now.
Did you absolutely hate this? Open to criticism and suggestions. See ya later!
Love,
Fiza
Special thanks to our growing Foreign Bodies Sustaining Members for keeping this newsletter going through all my ups and downs <3