The things I don’t know enough about

Poster Artwork by **Samia A. Halaby**, via **The Slow Factory**.

BERLIN,

Tuesday, May 25th, 2021

The things I don’t know, or don’t know enough about. I titled this newsletter like this because the past days I’ve also been thinking about the things I don’t know enough about. Free Palestine. And India. We had a WAYV team dinner Friday night, in which we gathered over zoom together, to enjoy some delicious Jamaican plantains (support a local Black business here) and Nidhi and Arun, our team members from India, shared with us the alarming realities over there. It’s been tough to keep up the spirits.

Before writing this, I also read Fariha Róisín’s On Palestine newsletter. In her words, she describes how she grew up with a pro-Palestinian mindset. How her own family were freedom fighters and how capitalism eventually consumes us all. Yet, we must resist. And continue fighting. Her letter was also filled with resources, videos and reading material. So, I am here for that kind of work. To continue to unlearn. My friend Sham Jaff’s project What Happened Last Week also keeps me up to date in a more calming sense. To me, her summaries create the feeling that it is okay to not know everything. Thus, I highly recommend. On social media, I really appreciate the accounts of Céline Semaan as well as of my friend Aisha Qamar. (If you have more resources, feel free to share them with me, I am happy to spread the word and amplify.)

Amidst the spiritual discouragement and the rage, there is also joy as Cathy Park Hong discusses in Still Processing. Yesterday, when I cleaned my apartment, I savoured her words when she said: why can’t my book be about a U.S. American perspective, why does it only have to be an Asian-American perspective? I still think back of my time in NYC – and maybe these last days, I miss the atmosphere there even more. How my own perspective could be read, seen and understood as universal as I was surrounded by so many Black and brown perspectives. And speaking of moments of joy, I felt incredibly excited when Cathy herself signed our Open Letter which some of us German speaking Asian diasporic community members, activists and scholars wrote last month.

Another moment of joy post-11km this past Sunday with some of my team members
from WAYV RUN KOLLEKTIV.

A friend and I chatted over the phone recently, he advised me on my master thesis (which is finally taking some shape as my topic about Solange's performance at the Elbphilharmonie got approved! YAY! If you happened to witness it, please get in touch with me as I would love to interview you! :) and so, when I asked him about his day, he answered: I am taking it slow today and I am trying not to let capitalism rush me. So I have been mainly doing that, taking it day by day, resisting urgent feelings of capitalistic machinery and trying my best to continue imagining and creating new realities.

Currently,
I am taking: nude drawing classes. I have been painting and drawing again, so that has been healing and really stimulating. Do you have a hobby that you loved doing as a child and then eventually stopped doing it because your parents, or society did not deem this activity as worthy? Maybe now is the time for you to make space for it. Spring time is all about rejuvenating and refreshing the mind and spirit.

I am reading: Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Committed as well as
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee, as it was recommended by Cathy and Ocean Vuong.

I am drinking: Boba = bubble tea and a friend recently took us
to this very hip Berlin spot The Alley.

...and I am running: a 5KM this weekend for the ones affected by the Tigray genocide. My dear friend Mekdes has been advocating, sharing resources and overall raising awareness about what is going on in Tigray right now. Please learn more here and come join her, the GlobalWomxnRunCollective, my international friends and me for this 5KM fundraiser.

I hope you're taking enough offline time to garden and nourish yourself with good food and good books. In resistance and solidarity, xx
Huyền