Monday Matter: Translating a person, a tiny care bot and Enes Kanter's new school
Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup
Every Monday, we’ll send readers of immigrant mental health newsletter Foreign Bodies a story (or six) we 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
Are you following us on social media?
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Reminder: Giveaway for Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko ends Friday! 🎁
Don’t forget to enter to win Korean American writer Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a saga about four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fighting to control their destiny in 20th century Japan after being exiled from their home.
Pachinko was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2017, a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2017.
I’ll be mailing the winning subscriber a copy of this phenomenal novel, packaged with a note from the beloved author herself. Entries accepted through Friday, Jan. 17 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
Resource(s) of the week
Something helpful and interesting and cool
@tinycarebot: A delightful Twitter account from Canadian actor and illustrator Jonny Sun with random reminders to take breaks, stretch your legs, look up at the sky, drink a lil’ water and so on.
Pittsburgh Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment Academy: A summer program for immigrant and refugee youth in Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, organized by University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon undergraduates that’s “proven to help participants develop literacy and leadership skills, build personal confidence, prepare for the school year, and deepen youth’s sense of belonging.” Last year, campers from 15 countries of origin attended. | Volunteer and camper applications
Read this!
Stories we’re loving
Translating a Person (Alejandro Zambra, Believer Mag): A seriously stunning essay from a Chilean writer on learning English as a second language (albeit hesitantly) and the ways literary translations can feel fragmentary or alien compared to one’s original tongue. “The famous suspension of disbelief that operates in the reading of a novel also functions in reading a translation, where it takes on even more weight, because the question about what was actually said or written is always slightly suspended.” Read here.
The Korean Community Garden in Queens (Sue Kwock Kim, Paris Review): A beautiful ode from 1998 to a community garden “in the vacant lot nobody else wanted to rebuild.” A snippet of the poem: “Planted by immigrants, they survive,/like their gardeners, though ripped from their/native plot. What is it that they want, driving/toward a foreign sky? How not to mind the end/they'll come to.” Read here.
I’ve Been Mispronouncing My Own Name for 20 Years (Shruti Das, ZORA): “When I think about my name now, I cherish the cultural context that goes along with it. But it’s been a long journey of accepting my own cultural identity that’s gotten me to this point.” Me during this entire piece: Girl, same. Read here.
CW: Domestic abuse | Violence Girl (Alicia Velasquez/Alice Bag, Longreads): A young bilingual Latina punk icon who knew Mariachis better than rock music discusses her rise to center stage. Bag, who started with the name Velasquez, writes of the guilt she felt in abandoning her now self-sufficient mother with her historically violent Mexican American father and of the rage that somehow trickled down to form her own reputation within the Los Angeles punk scene. 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.
NBA player Enes Kanter seeks to open school in Oklahoma City (AP): Former Oklahoma City Thunder player Enes Kanter, a native of Turkey, intends to open a new school in Oklahoma City dedicated to serving low-income minority students and immigrant students from families with limited English proficiency. “The school would offer a syllabus that highlights reading, writing, math and science skills with an emphasis on physical, emotional and mental health education.” Kanter currently plays for the Boston Celtics. Read here.
Sick Migrant Children Are at the Whims of U.S. Border Guards (Jeremy Raff, The Atlantic): The Migrant Protection Protocols policy—announced by the Trump administration in January 2019—prevents asylum seekers from waiting for their court dates inside the United States. But the guidelines vaguely address exceptions involving sick migrant children. How sick is sick enough to stay? “Does that mean the 2-and-a-half-year-old boy who has uncontrolled seizures living in the camp? Should he get admitted? What about the pregnant women?” Read here.
Mental health: How we've improved and where we need to do better in 2020 (Nicole Spector, NBC News): Not immigrant-centric, but a good general overview of the West’s progress toward stigma elimination, the role of tech in mental health improvement and how American federal laws have (or have not) adjusted to a growing need for services. Read here.
+1
One sorta unrelated story on my mind
‘Too Much’: Dread Fills Puerto Ricans as New Earthquake Stuns Island (Patricia Mazzei, NY Times): A magnitude 5.9 aftershock on the 15th day since tremors began terrorizing southern Puerto Rico has rattled the island. As of Saturday, more than 6,000 people are still sleeping outside their homes—half in outdoor government shelters and half in improvised camps. Read here. | How to help: Miami Herald + Mashable
Bookshelf
Books and collections I’m currently reading (plus reader-recommended works!)
Recently read: The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Wang, a fantastic compilation of personal essays detailing Wang’s intimate relationship with identity as someone living with schizoaffective disorder—a condition the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual suggests involves a “lifetime of illness, and not an episode of illness,” Wang writes. A favorite quote of mine: “Some people dislike diagnoses, disagreeably calling them, boxes and labels, but I've always found comfort in preexisting conditions; I like to know that I'm not pioneering an inexplicable experience.”
What my parents are eating up on the train to Florence as I’m typing this roundup: Circe by Madeline Miller (mom), a heartbreaking retelling of Homer’s Odyssey from the perspective of the unlucky sorceress. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (dad), his bestselling second novel. Two of my all-time faves.
Read rec from Hannah Bae: Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay, a generational novel high on my to-read list for 2020. “Two families separated by race and culture are compelled to unravel the mystery of the violent acts that afflict them like hereditary curses,” describes the LA Review of Books.
Remember, we always have tons of wonderful stories and resources available at foreignbodies.net.
Love to see it
Shout-outs, thank-yous and more
We made a tiny appearance in Jonathan Levitt’s tech-focused newsletter on the current state of mental health around the world. Levitt highlighted a story we shared on Muslims and mental health from a previous Monday Matter roundup.
Thanks for the recent love, Elly Belle and Kimeko!
Freelance Pod host Suchandrika shared this awesome podcast interview with Syrian comic Abdulwahab Tahhan a while ago, but I only just remembered to tune in! Give it a listen:
#AnnoyedAsian = a mood.
That’s it for now.
Did you absolutely hate this? Open to criticism and suggestions. See ya later!
Love,
Fiza