“Now I see That if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family’s heart” As a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines, a Christian, and a lesbian, I consider Mulan’s “Reflection” to be my coming-out anthem. This isn’t just because Mulan was the first Asian Disney character – she wasn’t even the right […]
Growing up playing video games, there was one constant I couldn’t help notice. I would always question, why do the ‘baddies’ always have darker skin? As someone with dark skin myself, I couldn’t help but think this was a judgment against me. In recent years the world is slowly becoming a more progressive place but […]
I recently found myself in the oddest of circumstances. In the exhausting and exasperating position of explaining my existence, again. Explaining to someone why the lives of people other than those they consider worthy should matter. Explaining why indifference is acceptance. It’s a situation that’s beginning to feel quite familiar these days. The ignorance of […]
As a Black queer artist, I understand how ones identity, background and perspective determine our relationship with art. The way we experience museums, galleries, and art spaces correlates with the lack of representation of diversity in cultural British society. Museums and galleries are public spaces, and there is a lot to say about how we […]
“Notting Hill is a very unique community where many people from the West Indies live, it is a community born out of resistance to a series of backwards attacks from the police… It has something that was located somewhere in the stench of British colonialism. His masters again. In defending themselves against an attack, a […]
Grief is the emotion that we experience after a loss, but that loss doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. We can grieve ourselves, our autonomy, our identity, our ancestors, our sense of self-worth, our financial stability, our homes, any person who has distanced from us, or disowned us for who we are and how […]
A couple of weeks ago, Issa Rae did a hilarious skit for Saturday Night Live, in which she tried to explain HBO’s Lovecraft Country to a group of friends, leaving them bewildered and disinterested. The skit really hit home for me, as I’ve spent the last two months justifying my affinity for the show that’s […]
For as long as I can recall when asked to discuss family or asked to draw a picture of my family at school, my response was always met with awkward intrigue. I would draw my sister, and two glamorous women, one white, the other mixed-race and watch the cogs of the polite middle-class mind try […]
As I scrolled through the modern-day newsletter, otherwise known as the bird-app (or Twitter), I came across a link to a Google Doc titled ‘Am I A Lesbian Masterdoc”. This document, which has been widely shared amongst queer youth, highlights the concept of compulsory heterosexuality or ‘comphet’. It particularly leans into the ways women and […]
