Showing posts with label roundup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roundup. Show all posts

A Paper Cut, A Korean Spa, and Aspen, CO: Speaking & Publications of Late

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

I've just flown in from Aspen (and boy are my arms tired! #throwbackjokes). This week has been a flurry of activity - from getting a piece published on Refinery29 to speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, I and my words have taken me all over. So this week I'm giving you a recap so that I can get around to talking about my recent US travels and then maybe, just maybe, write something new! Stay tuned.


I spoke at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival on a panel called "Millennials Losing Faith" with Casper ter Kuile, Naomi Schaefer Riley, Jane Shaw, and Mark Oppenheimer as moderator. My position is that Millennials are often spiritual but unaffiliated with organized faith for a variety of reasons, one major one being that traditionally marginalized groups (LGBTQI folks is one we talked about most) are not welcomed in these spaces. I talked about the importance of creating our own spaces within organized faith and making a distinction between 'bucking traditions' and not finding value in faith communities. Check out the video of the full session above! We also got a nice little write up in The Atlantic.

I also was asked to write a post for the Aspen Ideas Festival blog. I ended up interviewing myself! Read my thoughts on doula work, social justice, and art as spiritual ritual.

Refinery29 asked me to write a piece based on a Tweet I had about vulnerability and body self-consciousness at a Korean spa, so you can get into my head about that experience here.

And if you haven't gotten enough of me talking, I did an interview with Paper Cuts on ClockTower Radio alongside Elvis B., Sadie Barnett, and host Christopher Kardambikis. I read a potentially bloody, potentially hilarious segment of a perzine called By Their Proper Names.

And a final zine-y thing, my former boss and Feminist Zine Fest co-conspirator Jenna Freedman just wrote an awesome roundup of black zines for Bitch Magazine that shouts out the controversy at the BZF. Stick around for the rest of her series!

Midterm Hiatus

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

I'll be taking off the next week or so due to midterm exams and papers rearing their ugly heads, but in the meantime you should check out some of my previous posts! Here are some of my favorite categories:

Lessons (they're good for your health!)

And the World Grew Quiet: Living Between Adventures

Sunday, May 20, 2012


Hey there, Jordan - long time, no see! Or writing, rather. How appropriate that the last post in this blog, over a month ago, was entitled 'On Writing Nothing at All.'

This past month, I've been running downhill. I've hosted workshops at conferences, tabled at zine fests, been elected to club president, written over 30 pages of essays and exams, interviewed 15 people about Asian American psychology, and seen the President speak at our college's commencement. Oh, and did I mention that I'm in Seattle for a brief week before flying to Bangladesh for two and a half months? Yeah, there's that. I'm leading my own quiet life revolution and, unfortunately, I've had to sacrifice my writing time in favor of sleep. I know, I know, creative people should sacrifice for their art. But I enjoy being able to function, thank you very much.

Right now is an interesting time because I am resting in the space between adventures. While it is true that I'm working on a final research paper and reorienting myself to the west coast, it's for a brief flickering instant. As short as this time is, I feel a bit of anxiety in this space. Nothing scheduled? Nowhere to explore? I was reading Sarah Wilson's blog post about happiness that doesn't depend on what happens and I totally resonated with the obsessive list-maker, adventure-seeking Sarah in her attempts to justify that happiness would come when something... well, happened.

But for now it's just wilting into the Seattle backdrop, claiming a few hours of shut-eye, and preparation. What does a person like me feel when there's nothing going on?

Well, it's something like death.

But fortunately, as for the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, a little death can be a good thing once in a while.

In a few weeks, I'll be halfway around the world in another country and (hopefully) catching a very different energy than I have in my life in New York City. I'll still be researching, but hopefully I'll also be writing and reading (in that unstructured free way that someone described as joy). I'll be exploring new lands, eating new foods, and hopefully recuperating from the run-yourself-into-the-ground burnout mode that I've been in since I hit Seattle soil. I plan to be blogging throughout the months that I'm overseas, though it may be on a less regular schedule due to internet connections. But the stories will be totally worth it.

Curious to see what I've been working on in the last month? Here's a list: 

Facilitating a workshop on Asian American mental health at the NYCAASC conference.
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Facilitating a workshop on body image to high schoolers at the Crossroads conference.
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Attending both the Brooklyn Zine Fest with new zines in tow!
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Creating the infozine Chasing Perfect: A Primer on Asian American Women and Psychology, available online.
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Watched this commencement speech happen.
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...and much much more.

Guest Post on ThinkSimpleNow & Some More Lessons

Monday, January 23, 2012


Today, I have the great pleasure to be featured on ThinkSimpleNow, a website that I have repeatedly recommended during the course of writing this blog. Check out my post on The Power of Rituals over at their website and, if you're interested in taking a few other leaves from my book, check out this collection of my top advice articles:






Caught My Eye: Articles from 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

Yesterday, I wrote up my retrospective of 2011, so today I offer you some further great reading to reflect on for the year - pieces I've loved and wanted to follow up with. Here's to a new year and new material to come!


Guest posts
I've been submitting several pieces into the larger internet world this year, including one I didn't know was published on The Rumpus: Last Book I Loved - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This year I was writing for Refuse the Silence, a blog about women of color on college campuses. I blogged with HellaBus and the Barnard Zine Library blog, including a feature on the event I read at, Meet Me At the Race Riot. My interview responses were posted on the Brooklyn Zine Fest blog and I got a mention on Brown Pundits. All great work that I hope to continue in the coming year!

Life Lessons
I've been learning a lot about the power of living in the moment, having positive body image, and being mindful of break-taking. I've also really enjoyed learning about living life like it's an experiment, writing well, following your dreams, blogging, keeping balance, gratitude and habit formation.

Political/Identity pieces
I talked a lot about my South Asian identity this year. I wrote about Muslim women, becoming an activist, and embracing single sex education. It was quite an amazing year for self-exploration!

On Location
As I mentioned yesterday, I attended a lot of events this year: everything from Slutwalk NYC to Seattle Pride. I attended Occupy Wall Street, a vigil for Troy Davis, and several writing events at the Nuyorican and The Moth. I attended the Stand Up for Women's Health Rally, Take Back the Night, and the blogging event Ain't I A Woman? Such a sweet year for being out there in the world.

Series
I did a lot of series this year. There was Caught My Eye, Project x Project (and its follow-up Creative Every Day), and DIY Interlude where I explored my own creative process. I also experimented with making a zine video tutorial and another video on progress. So, on top of everything, I feel that this year was also great for experiments.

And that marks the airing of all my 2011 pieces of note. Now that the closets are cleared, let's welcome in the new year!

The Cowation Retrospective of 2011

2011 has been a fast-paced emotional and creative rollercoaster for me: I moved from having my sophomore meltdown to being a fairly stable junior in college, I met my family for the first time, I made great strides in focusing on self-love and getting away from hurtful relationships; I cut off all my hair, created some of my greatest art pieces, and went to a bunch of amazing activist-y events to show my support. This year's been a big one.

Throughout, this blog has been a part of that experience - documenting my follies, triumphs, and experiments in between. It was only really this year that I started blogging again in earnest, and it's already time to reflect back on what a momentous year it's been. Tomorrow I'll be listing some of my favorite articles and pieces from 2011, but today is the retrospective of what got me here. So let's put on our traveling caps and take a momentary time shift through 2011!


Always Learning: A Round-up of Life Lessons

Friday, November 4, 2011


This week, I looked back through the archives of life lessons that I've put up over the last few months and picked out some of my favorites. I've been learning so much from just thinking about how to teach others the methods that have worked well for me, that it's nice to revisit some of my past ideas. Here's a brief retrospective:






What Blogging Has Taught Me

Let me know what your favorite life lessons have been, from this blog and otherwise, in the comments!