Monday Matter: How to be a husband, cassava pie and six giveaway winners
Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup (public)
Today’s roundup is public to announce our giveaway winners. 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.
First things first
A little housekeeping
Congrats to our six giveaway winners! 🎁
This was one of the biggest giveaway turnouts Foreign Bodies has ever had! Thanks to everyone who entered to win. Congrats to…
Shaistha K. of Bangalore, India, for winning a copy of Book 1, A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home edited by Catapult Magazine's Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary
Hasheemah A. of Louisiana for winning a copy of Book 2, A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South, edited by Cinelle Barnes
Jason K. of Virginia for winning a copy of Book 3, Know My Name by Chanel Miller
María M. of Texas, for winning Esmé Wang's “Rawness of Remembering,” a self-paced online course about restorative journaling through difficult times, built by someone who’s been in the trenches
Colleen H. of Maine for winning the BestSelf Co. SELF Journal, an undated, 13-week positivity planner
And last but not least, Kamil A. of Connecticut, for winning three prints from my art shop *and* a year’s subscription to Foreign Bodies for you or a friend
I’ll be in touch with you all this week! So excited to share the love.
A musical start to your Mondays 🎧
One international song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share
I came upon Algerian Berber singer-songwriter and guitarist Souad Massi on Spotify a few months ago and have fallen in love with her voice as an accompaniment to my nightly painting ritual. According to her Wikipedia page, Massi began her career performing in the Kabyle political rock band Atakor before leaving the country following a series of death threats. She eventually moved to Paris, where she performed in 1999 at the Femmes d’Algérie festival and signed with Island Records. “Salam” is from Massi’s 2019 album, Oumniya, meaning “my wish.” The album is delivered in Arabic and French and, according to the World Listening Post blog, it spans themes of “betrayal, freedom, gender equality and the competing gravitational forces of home and homeland.”
Resource(s) of the week
Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)
The Latinx Therapists Action Network, which holds a presence in 20 U.S. states, works with therapists committed to supporting immigrant communities and the movements allied with them. Learn more about how the group is supporting immigrants during the pandemic here. On their official website, you’ll find a therapist directory, resources and more.
*The Wall Street Journal is looking for voices under age 35 for personal essays related to working during the pandemic. It would be great to hear from more voices of color! Deadline to submit is Jan. 8. All selected submissions will be paid. Read the prompts and submission guidelines here.
*Bitch Media is looking for pitches of features, essays, and interviews for their new issue on plastic that “seeks to examine plastic as both a generative material and a societal condition, interpreting this theme through an assortment of lenses. “Whether your idea revolves around Instagram models, Barbie dolls, or sex toys; whether it takes the form of an interview, cultural analysis, or critical read, consider questions as well as answers.” Read the detailed pitch guide and send in your pitches by Jan. 23!
Read this!
Personal stories I’m loving
Why My Mother’s Cassava Pie Is More than a Comfort Food (Stephanie Wong Ken, The Walrus): “In my half-Jamaican family, cassava—a white fleshed fibrous tuber with thick brown skin—is not a poison. It’s the main ingredient in a fluffy dessert pie. It’s the fried slices we eat with a garlic and vinegar sauce. It’s essential family food to celebrate a milestone or mourn a death or acknowledge gathering at the same table. It’s also the texture I crave when I’m feeling stressed or anxious, which right now is all the time.” An ode to a dish born from resistance. Read here.
How to Be a Husband (Christine H. Lee, Catapult): “When I became a wife, I did not know that my marriage would end suddenly after the birth of my child… I did not know what else to be.” A beautiful, vulnerable essay on the aftermath of divorce and learning to be alone with no framework at all. Read here.
These Precious Days (Ann Patchett, Harper’s Magazine): “Even if she hadn’t been painting, she saw the world as a painter, not in terms of language and story but of color and shape. She painted as fast as she could get her canvases prepped, berating herself for falling asleep in the afternoons. ‘My whole life I’ve wanted this time. I can’t sleep through it.’” A really beautiful look inside a talented writer’s mind as she pens about love, friendship and craft. Read here.
Future Fashions: The Imagination (K-Ming Chang, Guernica Magazine): “I imagine wearing my brother’s shorts with the fake Nike logo printed on the left leg, his old Pokémon t-shirt handed down from our cousins in Taiwan, the yellow Lance Armstrong rubber wristband he’d gotten for free at the YMCA. I would be wearing soccer cleats, like the kind my brother ogled in the window of Budget Sports. I adopted his wants, leashed them to me. I plagiarized the shape of his desires. At night, on the lower bunk, I dreamed of girls who called me by my brother’s name, tugging at the waistband of his shorts, girls who didn’t lean back from me and say we shouldn’t be doing this. Clothing was the first conduit for my queer imagination.” A gorgeous essay from the Bestiary author that joins an entire series of Guernica writing on “clothes, uninterrupted.” Read here.
The Truth Behind Indian American Exceptionalism (Arun Venugopal, The Atlantic): WNYC Race & Justice reporter Arun Venugopal writes about his family’s immigration from India to America, offering essential reading on the model minority trap and on America’s nonlinear narrative. “Immigrants from India, armed with degrees, arrived after the height of the civil-rights movement, and benefited from a struggle that they had not participated in or even witnessed. They made their way not only to cities but to suburbs, and broadly speaking were accepted more easily than other nonwhite groups have been.” 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.
New Stimulus Package Could Help Immigrant Families That Were Left Out The First Time Around (María Inés Zamudio, WBEZ): “Under the new relief package approved by Congress this week, mixed-status families would receive the $600 stimulus check for each family member with a valid social security number. The government will not be able to withhold checks for an entire family, if one member doesn’t have a valid social security, according to U.S. Rep. Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia.” The $900 billion relief package is now waiting for Trump’s signature, though Trump said he may veto the bill, reports Zamudio. Read here.
The Citizenship Exam Puts an Unfair Burden on Low-Income Immigrants (Heba Gowayed, Teen Vogue): A first-person reported feature from someone who has been documenting the experiences of Syrian refugees in the United States. “Designed to encourage ‘patriotism among prospective citizens,’ the exam expects immigrants to recount civics questions in English. But like other low-income immigrants, Rajaa and her husband, with other attendees of the clinic, are struggling to make ends meet with jobs that do not pay a living wage or expose them to the language. The $725 per person fee to apply for citizenship (which Trump attempted to increase to $1,170) is daunting; they cannot afford to fail.” Read here.
How the Invisibility of Brown Eating Disorders Affects Recovery (Imaan Sheikh, The Juggernaut): “Recovering from an eating disorder, just like most other mental illnesses, is no easy feat, but in a culture where the problem is invisible — whether due to a lack of awareness or trivialization — so is the need for a solution.” What does recovery look like in a Brown household? Read here.
The mental health toll of being a 'model minority' in 2020 (Kimmy Yam, NBC News): “Asian Americans are the racial group least likely to reach out for help. And that fact — coupled with an already existing belief that AAPIs don't struggle — has only exacerbated pandemic-related problems for the community.” Read here.
How Immigrant Communities Beat Back ICE and Helped Flip Georgia (Sonam Vashi, The Appeal): “In November, voters in Gwinnett and nearby suburban Cobb County chose Democratic sheriffs for the first time in decades… Along with teenage and college-age Latinx people, who’ve become politically engaged around issues that affect their parents or family, undocumented community members in Gwinnett and Cobb have influenced the votes of others in their families or neighborhoods, and they’ve joined the movement as organizers.” A close look at Georgia’s immigrant organizers. Read here.
New research 📑
Reports show immigrants more likely to suffer from anxiety during COVID-19 (Marika Carrier and Jasmine Bhimani, Capital Current): According to this Statistics Canada survey, recent immigrants to Canada were far more likely to report moderate or severe symptoms of anxiety than either established immigrants (those in Canada six years or more) or Canadian-born respondents. Another survey of immigrant women from a Carleton University professor found that half reported psychological distress and needed support. Read the write-up here.
+1
One sorta unrelated story on my mind
Literary Quilt: A Covering for George Floyd (The Crisis Magazine): From the official publication of the NAACP, sixteen of the nation’s top Black writers—from Kiese Laymon to Imani Perry to dream hampton—give voice to the unrest and current movement for Black lives. A must-read. Browse here.
Bookshelf
Books and collections I’m currently reading (plus reader-recommended works!)
Currently listening to: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, a story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious times (Simon and Schuster)
Reader rec from Nisha L.: Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, a “profound and provocative” new work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Disgraced and American Dervish about an immigrant father and his son’s search for belonging in post-Trump America—and with each other (Kirkus Reviews)
Remember, we always have tons of wonderful stories and resources available at foreignbodies.net.
Love to see it
Shout-outs, thank-yous and more
Thanks for the love, Frances!
A few words from one of my favorite poets.
Sharing a journalist request for anyone who may want to share their experience:
You’re so welcome, Ina! Read her story here.
Leaving you with these sweet little texts from my Dada:
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., Alma C., Rebecca C., Rodrigo C., Katie H., Liz S., Puja S., Roz T., Diane W. and my mama.