BLACK/ASIAN SOLIDARITIES
ABOUT
Interwoven is a community, workshop series, and zine that explores the radical and inevitable solidarities between Black and Asian communities in the U.S. It was created by Kim Huynh, Rhetta Morgan, Dwight Dunston, and Sophie Dipti Sarkar, four creative activists and friends who wanted to learn to love each other better.
During the summer of 2020, we offered a virtual community building series for 23 Black and Asian people across the US. The overarching question of the series was: how can we, as Black and Asian people living in the U.S., see our struggles and liberation, as deeply interconnected?
Interwoven: Black/Asian Solidarities zine is a compilation and expansion of many of the learnings we unearthed in our workshop series and beyond. It features written and visual works by nineteen Black and/or Asian contributors across the U.S. and was edited by Endria Richardson and Sophie Sarkar.
As our Black and Asian communities continue to experience many different forms of racial violence—from physical attacks, to police brutality, to climate injustice, to displacement and deportation—the tender and vulnerable work of building solidarity between our peoples has never been more essential. Our main hopes in creating Interwoven is to support our communities to heal, build empathy and awareness, deepen our relationships, and strengthen social movement work toward our collective liberation. May we be softer towards ourselves and one another, and fiercer as a collective.
To get in touch with us, please email: interwovensolidarities@gmail.com
Screenshot from the 2020 Interwoven Black/Asian Community Building Series
Photos from our zine launch at Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia on April 1, 2022
CONTRIBUTORS
Aisha Fukushima (she/they) is an award-winning African American Japanese Performance Lecturer, Justice Strategist, Vocalist, Producer, and RAPtivist (rap activist). Fukushima founded RAPtivism (Rap Activism), a global hip-hop project, and has had the joy of creatively collaborating with changemakers across 4 continents. https://aishafukushima.com/
Anayi Jackson is a 16 year old sophomore at Parkway Center City Middle College high school going for her Associates degree. She is an aspiring writer with the hopes of becoming a Journalist in the near future.
Deseree Fontenot
Dwight Dunston is a West Philly-based facilitator, hip-hop artist, educator, and activist with roots in the Carolinas and deeper roots in West Africa.
Endria Isa Richardson is a black, malaysian, and gay american writer from Worcester, Massachusetts. Her stories are in Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, FIYAH, Nightmare, and other fantastic/al magazines. In her past life, Endria was a prison abolitionist lawyer. You can find more of her work at www.endriarichardson.com.
Haifa Bint-Kadi
Jordan Penland is a 25 year old, half Black, half Ecuadorian multimedia narrative artist from Los Angeles, CA. When he isn't busy drawing, he is listening to the bees, trying to hear the rhythms of creation; you can contact him on instagram @mostlymildmidnightmocha.
Jude Feng is a transmasc somedays-guy/somedays-non-binary Chinese/Taiwanese American, born and based in Texas. They are committed to a collective liberation and embrace justice work as the healing of our collective spirituality.
Julia Chatterjee is an American-born confused desi korean baby queer living in West Philly, dreaming of Kolkata. A lover of languages and words, friends and family, warm days and summer storms.
Keena Graham is an Alabama native who loves to weave dreams into schemes that can be redeemed.
Kim Huynh is a Philly-based community organizer, movement facilitator, and Core Trainer with Training for Change who brings her rebel heart, boundless curiosity, and an unwavering belief that transformation is possible and constant to her liberation work.
Lin Lin is a high school senior in Philadelphia, PA. They started the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Union to organize Asian students at their school.
Lisa Doi (she/her) is a community organizer with Tsuru for Solidarity, a national network of Japanese American progressives, and a PhD student in American Studies at Indiana University. These engagements help her blur the boundaries her academic and community work, so that they emerge as deeply interrelated efforts of remembrance and repair.
Matthew Armstead lives in Philadelphia and works at the intersections of art, spirituality, and social change. When Matthew is not training, facilitating, and coaching, you can find them in the garden or the kitchen sharing the joy of food.
Paula Te is thinking about the interfaces of learning, crafting, and community. She's always starting too many projects and never finishing them. Find her collaborations on Indonesian-Chinese identity at http://50years.today
Reverend Rhetta Morgan is a singing healer, spiritual activist, and interfaith minister who has been gathering tools for healing and inspiration for over 40 years. Through her gifts of prayer, poetry, facilitation, and sermonizing, she cultivates hope and nurtures connection in her community as a pathway back to belonging and wholeness.
Robert Liu-Trujillo is father, husband, artist and an author based in Oakland California. Insta:@Robert_tres
Sophie Sarkar is an artist and environmental organizer. Raised by a mixed Asian family in the rural grasslands of the Palouse, Sophie’s work is often about making home in unexpected places. www.sophiesarkar.com
Vasu Sojitra is a disability access strategist and a professional athlete with the motto of “#ninjasticking through the woods to bring intersectionality to the outdoors”