Heart-forward greetings from Corporeal Writing. We see and hear and feel how many people are hurting right now. We should be listening and witnessing what is happening in the present tense in America, echoing globally in a variety of ways. We are outraged by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other Black people who have been brutalized by police inside a systematic racist social structure with white supremacy at its center. We recognize how we have all been complicit in the racist structures that organize American culture, as individuals and as a collective, and we are here for change from the inside out and the outside in.
We mourn the lives lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, a disproportionate number of which come from Black and Indigenous communities.
As a micro arts organization, we remain committed to building a polyphonic, feminist, intersectional and environmentally conscious art space and practice. We are not afraid of change and welcome ideas. When we fuck up, as everyone does at times, we try to learn and do better.
We are using this time to reflect and step into change with our real bodies. We commit to ever-evolving our micro arts organization, our collaborations, our offerings and our access:
o We commit to creating two new positions for people of color at the heart of our organization
o We commit to ever-evolving our programming to include more artists, writers and performers who are people of color and LGBTQIA
o We commit to ever-evolving collaborations and partnerships with POC-led, Black-led, and Queer led-organizations.
o We commit to continuing to amplify the voices of and improve access for Black, Indigenous, LGBTQIA, Non-nueronormative, Differently Abled, incarcerated, released, and recovering people.
Our main ethos is to help other people find their own voice and vision through artistic expression. But we are not passive in terms of social activism and intersectional activist efforts. If you would like to learn more about how to be an ally for people of color and how to be anti racist, we lovingly remind you of the following resources.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk Aabout Racism, by Robin DiAngelo
So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Boides by Resmaa Menakem
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi
Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Stragegy, by Chris Crass, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (forward) and Chris Dixon (Introduction)
Good Ancestor Podcast with Layla F. Saad: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Atahbqw5vurttEHrjR7TR
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/black-owned-bookstores
https://blacklivesmatter.com/resources/
The Black Resilience Fund, organized by Cameron Whitten and Salome Chimuku
https://resist.org/grantees/black-and-pink
No one knows what will happen next. But we are ever here for it. Resistance. Resilience. Change.
We love you.
Black Lives Matter.
With heavy and yet undaunted hearts we double down on our creative partnerships and support of the Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and individuals. The recent mass shooting in Georgia that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent, is not tolerable. We are against all forms of racialized violence.
We work as hard as we can to create creative community and invent a web of support between artists. Antiracism work is lifelong. The work to end white supremacy and terrorism is lifelong. The work to relearn how to love, create, sustain, and thrive together is lifelong.
Violence against Asian American communities in the United States—and in Portland, Oregon where we live and work--has an ugly and long history. For those wishing to learn about the deep layers of racialized violence against our brothers and sisters we recommend two important documentaries. Ignorance and silence contribute to racialized violence. We must be ever vigilant in education ourselves and working for change. Antiracism work is a lifelong journey.
Recommended by our friend Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Recommended by our friend Amy Wang:
We’d also like to continue to amplify and celebrate the brilliance and beauty of Asian and Pacific Islander Writers and Artists Recommendations:
Janice Lee, Imagine a Death
Alexander Chee, How To Write and Autobiographical Novel
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer and The Committed
Teow Lim Goh, Islanders
Rey Chow,Primitive Passions, Sentimental Fabulations, Writing Diaspora, Entanglements or Thinking About Transmedial Capture, Woman and Chines Modernity
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Reflector
Gabba Gabba
The Hum Hums
Pee Wee Gaskins
Yayoi Kusama
Recommended by our friend, Melenie Hammond-Reiter: Inclusion resources for educators and families, ways to support and donate, and allyship and action: https://generocity.org/philly/2021/03/18/anti-asian-hate-silence-is-not-an-option-and-allyship-needs-to-be-more-than-a-hashtag/?fbclid=IwAR1yQ7XazaxwR7o-9rSdFx6udeDFtj-vsroqi9e19kwuEzK3LUb-s1VeGeE
Mental Health & Social Service Resources in Portland
* Asian Health & Services Center’s mental health support
* Portland Racial Equity Lines for Life
* IRCO’s Pacific Islander and Asian Family Center (PIAFC)
* APANO
* Asian Mental Health Collective
Banner photo by Leonardo Yip