Features
A collection of reported features, personal essays, and more featured in VICE, Huffington Post, Complex, and more.
Click any title to see the piece in full.
VICE Identity
Finding Asian Identity in a Black and White America
For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled to figure out what being Asian American is supposed to mean. What I learned early on is that it’s defined by liminality—always positioned in reference to another, more dominant culture; it rarely feels distinct and coherent enough to stand alone.
i-D
Meet the long nail goddesses who celebrate identity through nail art
Now, 15 years into her career as a professional nail tech, Ortiz works to create spaces where people can celebrate who they are, no matter their differences. And the “Long Nail Goddesses,” a group of Ortiz’s clients who grow their nails anywhere from a few inches to 20 inches long, is a perfect example of that. Their nails feature swirling patterns, sometimes one solid color, sometimes many. Gems, pearls, and other dangling adornments overlay the base design, turning the canvas of nails into a complex visual world.
VICE Magazine (print)
Instagram and Snapchat Are Ruining Our Memories
Somehow, whenever I find myself scrolling aimlessly on my personal Instagram feed, I always end up near the end, fixated on the first photos I posted, in June 2016. I don’t know if it was the music—Rihanna, Chance, Drake, and Kanye all released life-changing albums around then—or the freedom that came with traipsing all over Europe those three months, but that summer is the last one that’s really clear in my memories.
“Rather than let their words break me, I molded my online image to embody sexuality.”
KQED (NPR)
What It Means to Make Art as an Asian American in the Pandemic
Now, during the pandemic, our art carries a different weight entirely. Asian-American artists have a sense of responsibility of tackling issues of identity—of fighting this hate and xenophobia. That very feeling is what inspired me to make the projects I recently released on social media: a photo series with friends that denounced these attacks of racial violence, posts that spoke to how Asians were unfairly targeted for wearing masks.
Broadly
The Young Brujas Reclaiming the Power of Their Ancestors
The video for Princess Nokia’s “Brujas” opens with a striking yet intimate visual: A group of brown women clad in all-white wade in a body of water, tightly interlocking hands against the horizon of a gloomy sky. An indigenous song scores the cinematic scene as the camera hones in on a single figure veiled in blue, a reference to Yemayá, the ruler of the seas in Yoruba and Santería religions.
“Perhaps Asian-American identity doesn’t have to be entirely distinct. By nature, the Asian-American experience is an ongoing act of hybridization—and that can be beautifully productive. It doesn’t have to look like assimilation or appropriation, as long as we’re respectful and mutually giving to any marginalized cultures that inform our own.”
Complex / Pigeons & Planes
More Than the Music: How Savvy Artists Like Soulja Boy, Junglepussy, and Cuco Are Setting Themselves Apart
Historically, in the grand scheme of creating an artist’s brand and business, merch wasn’t always a top priority. Music, naturally, came first: The album was created, the songs perfected, the tour planned—and merch was just something quick and easy you could throw together to sell at every stop for some extra cash. But with the advent of the streaming model and its lightning-fast music turnover rate, that’s all starting to change.
The Believer
Changing the Way We Paint Gravity
One point three billion light years away, two black holes collide. Both are around 30 times the mass of the sun, neither small nor supermassive, but these two black holes are, like all black holes, a prodigious kind of death: collapsed stars that are only able to be seen through the movement of their still-shining celestial counterparts. When they collide, they generate the most energetic event observed in the universe, changing the distance between the Earth and the sun by the width of a single atom. They also generate the first gravitational waves ever to be detected.
VICE Magazine (print)
As a Teen, I Was Haunted by the Sexual Persona I Created to Protect Myself
"Why don’t you want to have sex? I don’t understand.” Fifteen-year-old me is in the backseat of a classmate’s car. I would call him a friend, but he never really was that. We are half-dressed, eager, and young enough to think this is cool.
I blink, stalling for time.
“I don’t get it. It totally looks like you’re down. Why else would you post pictures of your boobs, like, bursting out of bikinis on Facebook?”
My whole life has been caught in a feedback loop of battling the public perceptions of the very internet persona I created to feel safe.
“The origins of contemporary brujería—especially as presented through its Afro-Latinx roots—can be most vividly understood through the development of spiritual practice in the face of the Spanish Inquisition and its colonial tribunal in Mexico.”
Complex / Pigeons & Planes
5 Emerging Asian Women in Music to Watch Right Now
Asia is comprised of 48 countries, houses 60% of the world’s population, and exists as our largest and most diverse continent. But when you look at the historical lack of Asian representation in popular music, that hasn’t been reflected internationally. Today, Asian musicians worldwide are breaking through to the mainstream, no matter their genre or style. From indie rock favorites like Mitski to pop sensations like BLACKPINK, we’re finally at a point in time where Asian musicians—especially Asian women in music—are becoming the role models they’ve searched for their entire lives.