Day 373, March 25, 2021

In My Dreams I Am an Old Man

My son warned us that he had a foreboding premonition, and asked us to be careful. On a Zoom Townhall on Anti Asian Racism, one of the first questions, even before the facilitators had finished giving instructions about how to use the translation options and the question and answer feature, was about how to intervene in an attack against an Asian without becoming an victim yourself.

I am not ready to answer questions like that... to imagine rushing to the aid of our grandmothers and grandfathers, our mothers and fathers. I remember the confrontation my father told me about when he tried to find a parking space near a popular fishing spot, where the White man looked at him with such hatred and anger. 

How do we know when we are safe and when we are in danger? How do we know if it is safe to wait in line for an ice cream cone? How do we know if it is safe to wait for a person to vacate a parking space?

I once walked to school with a greasy bicycle chain coiled in my gym bag that I might use as a weapon. I have a nearly photographic memory of nearly every moment of personal racism where I can replay almost every moment with such fidelity that it raises my blood pressure and I can feel the moisture of sweat on my forehead. I worry about my parents, my children, my relatives. 

I am not a young man anymore. I know how much an injury can affect one's life, how fragile tendons, eardrums, flesh can be. A concussion can cause irrevocable damage.

How is it that we live in world where violence is so normalized? 

How is it that people walk among us harboring such anger?

In a multilingual presentation
the interpreters can not hear the messenger.

In my dreams

I am an old man.

Outside, the chicken struggles

to make that leap into the coop.

She has become frail

and her feathers are a flurry

of commotion. 

I wish to shower them with treats

so that their final days

are filled with pleasure.

Fear is a structural thing.

Inside, it buckles limbs

and my heart quietly stops.

The messenger is kind and forgiving

again and again

until I cannot look away.

Hate and deportation,

deep roots,

see differently.

The tenant could not advocate

for himself in English.

Reinvent

relief.

All of us here,

it is not new.

Take care and be well,

Leo

From Our Friends:

From AAPI Hate:

Our communities stand united against racism. Hate against Asian American Pacific Islander communities has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, we can stop it.

ACT NOW

From 18 Million Rising:

These (cop-free) calls to action:

• Creating a community-centered safety plan with our Asian American families.

• Reading the demands from NY-based massage parlor workers.

• Start unmasking Yellow Peril in the U.S.

• Attending a bystander training to intervene in your community.

From the Smith Poetry Center:

Crip Ecologies: Kay Ulanday Barrett, Petra Kuppers, and Naomi Ortiz

Thursday, March 25 at 8 PM EDT 

Join us for a reading with Kay Ulanday Barrett and Petra Kuppers, followed by a moderated discussion with Naomi Ortiz centering the intersection of disability justice and ecopoetics. How can access culture further the project of mutually sustaining care, for each other, kin species, and the planet? Poetry Foundation's events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This reading will include live captioning and ASL interpretation. If you require any other accessibility measures, please contact us by emailing events@poetryfoundation.org. 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/crip-ecologies-kay-ulanday-barrett-petra-kuppers-and-naomi-ortiz-tickets-142787931547

From Mass Food Delivery:

Wow, can you believe that it's been a year already? From our first 58 deliveries one year ago, MFD has grown to deliver hundreds of boxes every week, and connect our region's farmers and food producers to thousands of customers throughout the state. Together we have kept local farms operational, helped small businesses keep the doors open, supported food access in underserved communities, and provided fresh, local food to the state of Massachusetts. 

Start Shopping Today

From Higher Ed Jobs:

Reflections of a Woman in STEM 
by Sylmarie Davila-Montero, from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 

As we celebrate Women's History Month, Sylmarie Davila-Montero, who is working toward a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, shares some thoughts on what is it to be a woman in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). She reflects on her own experiences and what can be done to help create more inclusive environments and, ultimately, improve retention.

From the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum:

The six Asian American women who were killed in Atlanta faced specific racialized gendered violence for being Asian women and massage workers. We know firsthand that sexual violence, sexism, and racism are intertwined for Asian American and Pacific Islander women. They have always been a part of our lives — this horrific mass shooting laid bare what we used to face unnoticed.

This Thursday, join the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum for a national conversation on race and gender. 

From Hampshire College:

The Inaugural Kay Johnson Lecture in Asian American Studies at Hampshire College

"The Chinese Must Go:  A History of Anti-Asian 
Violence in the United States"

Beth Lew-Williams, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University

Wednesday 7 April 2021, 4:30 pm

The American West erupted in anti-Chinese violence in 1885.  Following the massacre of Chinese miners in Wyoming Territory, more than 165 communities throughout California and the Pacific Northwest harassed, assaulted, and expelled thousands of Chinese migrants.  Beth Lew-Williams will discuss this unprecedented outbreak, place it within the broader history of anti-Asian violence, and reflect on the implications for the present day.  As we confront a new surge of anti-Asian hate crimes amid the pandemic, how should history help to inform our responses?

Webinar link: 

   https://hampshire.zoom.us/j/91535339875?pwd=TVNOZjgvblcySmIzWjB1N294TFpSZz09

From UMass Amherst:

Black Landscapes Matter: Inaugural College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean's Distinguished Lecture with Walter Hood 

On Thursday, April 1 at 4 p.m., the College of Humanities and Fine Arts welcomes acclaimed landscape designer and public artist Walter Hood as the inaugural speaker in the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series. 

From the Massachusetts Town Hall on Anti Asian Racism:

A Resource Guide

https://bit.ly/aar_resourceguide