July 2025 Updates

Hello! I hope July has been treating you well! My updates for this month are below.

I’ve been working more on my current adoption-related fictional essay. It’s definitely been taking turns that I haven’t been expecting, and it’s been fun wrestling with the complicated feelings and dynamics that being an adoptee brings.
I mentioned on my Darcy Hongyue account months ago that I was reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad. I finished reading it a little bit ago, but reading it dragged me down a rabbit hole where I listened to a bunch of Wilson’s podcast interviews so I could learn more about her translation process. Now that I've exhausted all the Iliad-focused ones, I’ve been listening to her Odyssey interviews, and I enjoyed hearing what she had to say about translation and ethics in these two episodes. I’ve been learning so much about the complexity of translation and how to grapple with complicated texts from the past.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to share any adoptee-related writing you have been doing or interesting podcasts you’ve been listening to in the comments! This month, I urge you to support USCPR’s Water Is Life Gaza campaign, which is a Palestinian-led project that delivers clean water to families displaced by Israel’s ongoing genocide. I also encourage you to support Refugees in Libya, an organization advocating for refugees throughout North Africa and Europe. Finally, please support the Massachusetts Bail Fund, which is an abolitionist direct service organization that pays bail for those who cannot afford it. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

June 2025 Updates

Welcome back! I hope June has treated you well! My updates are below.

I worked more on my current adoption-related essay. I find it interesting how ocean imagery always seems to come to me when I write these fictional essays.
I’ve been listening to more Daughters of Ferrix, a Star Wars podcast, and I’ve been enjoying how they bring together culture, history, and politics in an informative and entertaining way.

Thank you for reading my updates! Please feel free to share any adoptee-related writing or podcast recs in the comments! This month, I encourage you to donate to the Sameer Project, a Palestinian initiative working to provide medical aid, supplies, and food in Gaza. Also, please check out ‘Āina Momona, a community organization working toward environmental health, social justice, and Hawaiian sovereignty. Thirdly, Hope Relief and Rehabilitation is a Sudanese organization supporting people with disabilities, particularly in the Nuba Mountains, where famine has been declared. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

May 2025 Updates

Happy May! I hope you are all well this month. I have shared my May updates below.

I worked a bit more on the current fictional, adoption-related essay I’m writing. I’m trying to take on a different perspective than I normally do when I write these essays, and it’s been an interesting time.
I’ve been reading more of Adeeb Khalid’s Central Asia, which has been very illuminating, and I have been learning a lot of history that I unfortunately was ignorant of.

Thank you for reading my updates! Feel free to share any adoptee-related writings or history book recommendations in the comments below. This month, if you live in the US, I encourage you to contact your congresspeople to urge action regarding the ongoing forced famine in Gaza here and to advocate against cutting SNAP here. Please also review Saroyah’s Twitter list here for updated information regarding the continuing humanitarian crisis in Sudan. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.

April 2025 Updates

I hope you are doing well this April! I have shared my updates for this month below.

My friend shared this interesting video on how to go to hell in five of the world’s major religions with another friend and me. I enjoyed learning about the diversity between and within these belief systems.
I started a new fictional essay from the perspective of character Wendy Stoneman. I also created a Neocities site and a Wix blog that you can find on my Carrd.

Thank you for sticking around this month! Feel welcome to share any interesting videos you’ve watched or adoptee-related writing in the comments. This month, I encourage you to support the Basandja Coalition, which lifts the voices of Indigenous and local communities in the Congo Basin, and FiveforFive, a collective fund for trans women in the UK. Also, please check out AILA’s immigration advocacy resources. For more resources and organizations to support, please look here.