(Illustrations will come back as soon as Jamie retrieves her iPad from Philly)
Can you believe it's our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY?? yes, one whole year ago, we sent out our first newsletter. this is sort of the origin story:
jamie: hey i sorta want to start a newsletter. wanna do it with me?
melinda: sure, what about?
jamie: asian american news, history, and culture stuff??
๐ค๐ค both thought it was a good idea b/c (1) we both wished we had learned more about these topics and (2) we didn't see any newsletters doing this??
Anyhow, THANK YOU so much for subscribing to this newsletter! we appreciate each and every one of you ๐ฅบ ! As you may have noticed, this is a pretty big transition time in our lives us, so we're going to announce a summer break for the next two weeks as we get adjusted!! And afterward, we might make some changes to make this newsletter sustainable for our fully relocated, probably more social, possibly going-into-the-office lives. Stay tuned!
Love,
Jamie and Melinda
P.S. News is at the bottom this time.
๐๐ A Year in Review... ๐๐
A list of our newsletters from this year!
Each link to the newsletter with the specified topic! There are also more we didn't include with only news.
๐ Some things to celebrate
We wrote 44 newsletters (including this one)! While that's a terribly unlucky number in Chinese culture, this makes us happy ๐ that both of us were able to keep up with it amidst all our other commitments yay!
We gradually went from writing the newsletter days in advance to (heh) mainly the day of (but we still pulled through ๐ค )
lmao whoops - don't be like us procrastinating until the last minute ๐คก
We started an Instagram @around_thetable_ and Twitter @around_thetable! ๐ฆ
Our Spotify playlist has over 30 followers ๐ (bedroom pop vibes for the playlist)
We made surprise newsletters for each other ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ link here for Melinda's birthday and here for Jamie's graduation
We became friends through doing this newsletter together ๐ ๐ฅบ
We learned a lot through writing this newsletter and feel more confident on sharing about Asian American issues! ๐ข
โ What were your favorite newsletters overall??
Jamie: I really liked the historical pieces and the more reflective ones - e.g. our Oyama v. California*ย - on Property Ownership and Thoughts on competition. It's nice to be able to articulate thoughts that I've had for a while, and in the process of writing them and talking them through with people, I've realized that I'm not alone in feeling a lot of things. Also...sometimes I favor newsletters based on how good the art was for them...*
Melinda: I love when we share stories/pieces of history that arenโt told enough - e.g. our TIL on the Indo-Guyanese and TIL on Hmong Americans. Plus the art, spotlight, and other news we feature in these editions were qualityyy
โ How about fave pieces of art?
Melinda: honestly especially as someone who only took elementary school art class, I like all of them. all of them are so good. BUT, if I wanted to highlight a few aside from Jamie's faves, it'd be these:
Jamie: these 5 weeks I was on ๐ฅ FIRE ๐ฅ
โ How about fav TIL/culture piece to write?
Jamie: Early migration history in the US was one that I really liked writing. I just didn't know anything about it? And it hadn't occurred to me that even the groups of people from a single country were different and that foreign policy and labor played such a huge role.
Melinda: since Iโm really passionate about womenโs health, so the one about culturally competent sx education was a fave. And aside from the two I mentioned above already, I liked the one I wrote about "why are Pacific Islanders grouped with Asian Americans in the U.S."*
โ Favorite section of the newsletter?
Jamie: ~small feelings~
Melinda: while the news and culture parts are v important/informative, I do really like the spotlight (cool people) and chef's specials (cool links)!
(y'all should DM us about your favorite aspects of the newsletter hehe) ๐
โ What were your biggest learnings?
Melinda: one big learning is that I'm on a continuous journey to learn more about issues, stories, histories related to the Asian American identity. I really valued just spending time to read and share what I've learned, even if it was only Wednesday mornings haha. I learned that I enjoy getting to learn every week and as a consequence feel more connected to our communities (to y'all, to the people we're writing about).
Jamie: Outside of all the AAPI specific content, news, and people that I've learned about this year, it has been nice to realize that a lot of the thoughts and emotions that I've always gone back and forth about are shared by other people. It makes me feel a lot more connected to others and has really helped me develop more of a sense of Asian American identity.
Shout-outs?
Jamie: Shout out to Melinda for keeping me on track with writing and being such a great friend. I could not imagine doing this with literally anyone else! Also, big thank you's to all the people who have supported, read, and shared the newsletter. And, a special place in my heart is dedicated to the people I frantically text ideas to <3
Melinda: honestly huuuge shout out to Jamie for reaching out to me to work on this. I am so grateful we have learned so much this year and continued to develop our identities alongside each other. and huge shout outs to my friends who have supported this newsletter... just to name some people: Kelly, Sophie, Laura, Jamie, Ton, Cheryl, Heidi, Upasana, Sammy, Uma, Candra, Rynel, Danielle, Chris, Vanessa (my sis), Lan (my mom)... ๐ ๐
ALSO! Thank you SO MUCH! BIG SHOUTOUT TO ALL OUR READERS!!!! WE COULDNโT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!
~ small feelings ~
Melinda: how i feel about writing this newsletter a year later? i feel like it's been a cherished part of my routine, and like i said before, just getting to read, write, and share some good stories and info makes me happi. i think i've gotten way more comfortable talking about issues and taking a critical eye to what I observe in news, media, art, conversations generally, etc. i'm in no way any kind of expert, but most of us aren't!! we just wanna become more informed and advocate for our AAPI communities. there's always going to be a lot that i don't know or miss (and I'm still figuring out how to become more aware), things i don't know how to respond to or form a solid opinion around, uncertainty on what to talk about or not since there's always sooo much going on (re: curating the newsletter). but in spite of all that, i'm comfortable in digging in, thinking about it, sharing about it.
it'd be super cool for more folks followed the newsletter to be on this journey with us, but i'm also very OK with having the group we have now... but perhaps creating more dialogue among more people?? as I got involved with my company's Asians in Marketing ERG, I'm still reflecting on how I want to be more involved in Asian American initiatives outside of this newsletter. but ya, once again, i'm super grateful to have gotten to write this newsletter for the past year and share what we've learned with all of you!!! this is very special. ๐ฅฐ
(on life stuff: wow Iโm moving in 1 week. This feels weirdโฆ Iโm excited but also trying to cherish the last moments at home and thinking a bit on the routine I adjusted to this past year because now itโs going to changeโฆ)
Jamie: I think this is a weird newsletter because we never specify who is writing what.
That said, I'm really happy with the way that this year has gone. I have learned so much from writing this newsletter, and even as I'm going through and writing today's issue, I'm remembering some of the topics that I've wanted to explore more and things that I've wanted to learn.
Sometimes I feel like there's so much going on in the world that I just don't have the time or the capacity to process, and especially this year (I'm including the early half of 2020 too), it's just been a lot... To tell the truth, I'm actually been feeling more uncertain and a little detached from AAPI related things and the broader community (what is this?) for the past couple of weeks, and I'm not entirely sure why or how that happened??
I echo a lot of what Melinda said about getting more comfortable confronting uncertainty and doubling down on conversation and dialogue. I hope to get better at that this upcoming year too!
(on life stuff: I'm also moving in a week! I'm excited! so excited! a little scary! But if anyone is in NYC and wants to hang, I'm literally free all of July!)
News
๐ TW: death. A hit-and-run, suspected to be an Islamaphobic attack, killed 4 family members in London, Ontario (Canada). The victimsโ46-year-old Salman Afzaal, 44-year-old Madiha Salman, 15-year-old Yumna Salman, and her 74-year-old grandma, were Muslim. The youngest member of the family, 9-year-old Fayez Salman, is the only one who survived.
๐ข As COVID reveals health inequities among Filipino and non-Hawaiian Pacific Islander communities in Hawaii, the state's Department of Health Equity is getting $25 mil in new funds to close the gap. The money will go towards addressing long-term health disparities, including adding resources for epidemiology, chronic disease research, and data collection and reporting.
๐ As much as I personally dislike Andrew Yang, it is still notable that he and other Asian Americans like Michelle Wu in Boston and Aftab Pureval in Cincinnati are running for mayors of their respective cities. If elected, they would bring the number of AAPI mayors in America's 100 largest cities up to 8 (the others are all in California). Read more about them here.
๐พ This is nice. :) "Chinatown Pretty" is a book that showcases the lives and styles of seniors in Chinatowns across the US.
๐ณ๏ธโ๐ TY to Shawna Chen (@shawnarchen on Twitter) for this really cool thread on queer AAPIs you should know for pride month:
โจ Spotlightsโจ
All these fantastic people featured in this post <3 Check it out:
Chef's Specials ๐๐
๐บ Dior announced that 53-year-old Jin Xing, a transgender woman from China, as the face of its new J'Adore fragrance campaign. Jin was the 1st person in China to publicly undergo gender-affirming surgery in 1995.
๐ A friend of mine put together an anthology of queer, South Asian stories!
๐ I only just came across this photo campaign that went viral back in 2019 (one pic below!)
โฒ๏ธ Asian women memorials/landmarks to visit this summer
OUR LINKS
๐ฅ Twitter: @around_thetable
๐ถ๏ธ Insta: @around_thetable_
Anonymous Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/198r2Tgu9ZYfTbCj7
Spotlight Form: https://forms.gle/AD5vGqgNbSYWn5wJ7
AAPI Artists Spotify Playlist (it's collaborative again!) :