Issue 96 | Summer Break for The Cosmos + The Care Fund Grantees!
Dear Cosmos Community,
🌴The Cosmos is taking a summer break from June 1 until September 2022. We are tired. To be in alignment with our values, we are taking a break to care for our mental and physical health! 🌸
Here’s what that means:
We will not be actively programming from June 1 - September, with the following exceptions:
Group Hug, our group program in progress, will continue through the end of June.Â
June will be our last month for Collective Rest sessions for organizations.
For updates on Cosmos Book Club, please subscribe to The Cosmos Book Club newsletter.
We won’t be writing new issues of this newsletter until September. Paid subscribers: your subscriptions have been paused.
We won’t be posting on the @jointhecosmos Instagram or Twitter until September.
We will not be actively checking email until September.
As we rest, we’re excited to pass the mic to a community of storytellers that many of you funded as paid subscribers to this newsletter!! In this second round of The Care Fund, we supported *10* Asian women storytellers and doubled the support we were able to give from!!! Thank you for making this possible 💜
Karen + Cassandra, Co-Founders of The Cosmos
Introducing The Care Fund May 2022 Grantees!
A special thank you to Renee W. for her leadership on The Care Fund. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thank you for leading this effort with kindness, vision, and openness. To Helen, Jessica, Esther, and Lina — thank you for the intention and heart you brought to the Community Reading Committee 💛
Shubhangi Shekhar (@shubhidobopop) *in partnership with Brown Girl Mag*
My short film "Wrong Side Up" is an intimate look into a father-daughter relationship in the face of grief. Vimi is forced to reexamine her life choices and relationships as she learns more about her late mother’s life and her father’s fleeting one. This is a complex story about the messy realities of aging, generational love, the immigrant parent-child relationship, and acceptance. Within these characters are shades of me, my parents, and my loved ones. My hope is to encourage audiences to reflect on their familial ties, especially with those of another generation and culture, with greater empathy and acceptance.
Nafisa F. (@__petni)
I’m a queer, leftist, feminist, femme born in Bangladesh & raised in Queens. A public art project in Jackson Heights & Astoria, Queens in which a series of posters will be hung in public spaces on social movements that made serious gains during the pandemic, despite the consolidation of power by states, corporations and other fundamentalist forces.
Chanel Matsunami Govreau (@chanelmatsunami) and Alisha Acquaye (@alisha.acquaye)
Unblended is born out of our relationship as best friends and will use photography and interviews to celebrate the unique and transformative alliances that are Black and API friendships. Our project reflects the values we share as individuals and as friends: joy, love, respect, curiosity and patience. We’ve been practicing active listening, mutual solidarity and self education on how to support each other as Black and Asian people for nearly a decade.
Cecilia Villero (@GoddessCecilia) *in partnership with Asian Boss Girl*
A film of three conversations with other Filipino/a/x-Americans about our experiences with sex education, trauma and healing, and body image and self-esteem. These topics are near and dear to my heart as a Sex Educator, 1.5 Immigrant, and childhood sexual assault Survivor.
Kailla Coomes and Jacque Fitzgerald (@Livingtwoormore)
Living Two or More is a podcast where me and my cohost interview bi and multi racial humans. We talk about identity, relationships, hardships, and explore what it means to be more than one race. We want to give a voice to people who are navigating a world where people are telling them they aren't enough of something.
Dr. Monica P. Band (@the.mindful_healer)
I am a biracial Chinese American therapist located in Washington D.C. and am one of the few East Asian therapists in our area that takes insurance/accessible care for people in my community. My hope is to provide education and training for other therapists and psychologists on how to work with AAPI clients so more mental health professionals can provide ethical and culturaly competent and responsive care mental health to AAPI clients.
Julia Wang (@Julia.c.wang)
A novel about a young Asian American woman traversing across Northern China, Japan, and Taiwan in an effort to save her dad, who is suffering from dementia and believes that it is a result of a family curse. The protagonist has to discover the long-forgotten or buried histories of her family to bring healing not only for her dad but also herself. This story is loosely based on my father’s family, who lived in Japan-occupied Manchuria during WWII and whose lives took them across Asia, and learning it was the beginning of addressing the intergenerational trauma that kept generations of my family silent.
Dani Chin (@thejunebook.club)
The June Book Club idea was born in 2020 when my heart shattered in two from my Grandma June (aka my "ngin ngin" in Cantonese) passed away from COVID. I always thought we had more time with her. When Ngin Ngin passed, we not only lost one of New York City’s original ABC immigrants, but also the stories, and dishes, that were generations old. The idea began as a recipe sharing group text and turned into the June Book Club: a creative website and video archive of recipes of all different cultures, from all different places, passed down by beloved elders. The unconditional food love we all receive from our elders shouldn't be a "family secret." It should be cherished, celebrated, and kept alive.
Vaidehi P. (@diaspora_fostered_us)
As an Indo-Caribbean woman, the art of printmaking has been a really important part of connecting with my South Asian heritage while also expressing the experiences of living in the diaspora in a place like the American Deep South. While my prints often connect to and allow me to explore my diasporic identities, it has also evolved into a means of solidarity with transnational communities that also have or currently experience colonial violence and occupation.
Julie L. (@offday_goth)
A booklet that depicts a fruit’s remnants and messages on maternal love. It is about cut fruit as a love language between an Asian parent and child, where love is often expressed in actions rather than verbal affection. I am hoping to print the image of the fruit in CMYK and have the messages be made transparent (reflecting how strong the Asian mother’s physical act of affection is, even when there are verbal missteps, distances). I hope for this booklet to give viewers a peek into an Asian mother’s heart and feel her care, and appreciate her more for always being there.
See you in September! 💜