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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T200000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
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SUMMARY:Book Talk: The Pain We Carry Workbook by Natalie Gutiérrez
DESCRIPTION:Based on the powerful self-help guide\, The Pain We Carry\, this workbook will help you heal the invisible wounds of complex trauma and reclaim your mind\, body\, and spirit. \nWritten by an author of color and based on her pivotal book\, The Pain We Carry\, this groundbreaking workbook provides a practical\, step-by-step\, and culturally informed approach to healing complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as it is uniquely experienced by people of color. Using skills based in internal family systems (IFS) therapy\, polyvagal theory\, mindfulness\, and more\, readers will discover ways to feel safe in their bodies\, build self-compassion\, and find personal liberation—despite living within an oppressive social system. \nIf you are a person of color who has experienced repeated trauma from the toxic stress of—discrimination\, racialized violence\, racial stigmatization\, traumatic grief\, legacies of intergenerational trauma\, poverty\, sexual trauma\, interpersonal violence\, or the remnants of colonial and historical trauma—you may struggle with intense feelings of anger\, rage\, mistrust\, fear\, anxiety\, depression\, or shame. You may feel unsafe or uncomfortable in your own body\, or find it difficult to build and keep close relationships. Sometimes you may feel very alone in your pain. But you are not alone. \nWritten by an author of color and based on her pivotal book\, The Pain We Carry\, this workbook provides a practical\, step-by-step\, and culturally informed approach to healing complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as it is uniquely experienced by people of color. Using skills drawn from internal family systems (IFS) therapy\, the cultural empowerment approach to healing\, ancestral wisdom\, and more\, you will discover ways to feel safer in your body\, build self-compassion\, reclaim your Self\, and find personal liberation and wholeness—despite living within an oppressive social system. \nLet this workbook be your guide to: \n\nLearn how trauma is connected to grief\nRelease trauma and burdens from your body\, mind\, and spirit\nBuild self-compassion and resilience\nReconnect with your ancestral wisdom\nDiscover how to heal your heart and Soul and live a life of intention\n\nIt’s time to find relief from the trauma and burdens you have been carrying and start celebrating and rediscovering who you are. With this workbook\, you will uncover your own strength and work toward healing your C-PTSD and live a life of empowerment\, reflection\, and perseverance. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \nNatalie Y. Gutiérrez\, LMFT (she/her) is a Puerto Rican licensed psychotherapist\, author\, activist\, and international keynote speaker committed to supporting survivors of complex trauma within communities of color. Her healing work centers on the deep wounds of racial\, ancestral\, historical\, multigenerational\, and interpersonal trauma and grief. \nNatalie weaves together ancestral wisdom\, Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy\, and Earth-based healing practices to guide people toward a liberation-centered path to wholeness. She is the author of the transformative books The Pain We Carry and The Pain We Carry Workbook\, and serves as a trainer at the IFS Institute. \nHer voice and work have been featured in NPR\, HipLatina\, The Washington Post\, Los Angeles Times\, Poderistas\, Born This Way Foundation\, Pop Sugar\, and across media committed to equity and healing. Experience her work at www.natalieygutierrez.com \nIN CONVERSATION WITH \nStephanie Foo is a writer and radio producer\, most recently for This American Life. Her work has aired on Snap Judgment\, Reply All\, 99% Invisible\, and Radiolab. A noted speaker and instructor\, she has taught at Columbia University and has spoken at venues from Sundance Film Festival to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. She lives in New York City with her husband.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/book-talk-the-pain-we-carry-workbook-by-natalie-gutierrez/
LOCATION:Yu and Me Books\, 44 Mulberry St.\, New York\, NY\, 10013\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250926T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250926T203000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20250828T044844Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250828T044844Z
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SUMMARY:Book Launch Party | Water Mirror Echo by Jeff Chang in Conversation with Hua Hsu and Chinatown Records
DESCRIPTION:A cultural biography\, both sweeping and intimate\, of the legend Bruce Lee\, set against the extraordinary\, untold story of the rise of Asian America—from the author of the award-winning classic Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and one of the finest culture observers of our era. \nJeff Chang’s first book\, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation\, was named one of the best American nonfiction books of the last quarter century. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and\, among numerous other honors\, has won the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. Chang has written three other acclaimed bestsellers on American history and culture\, music\, and the arts. In May 2019\, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of his award-winning book We Gon’ Be Alright for PBS Indie Lens Storycast. Chang was featured in Nguyen’s ESPN Bruce Lee documentary\, Be Water; the PBS series\, Asian Americans; and Lisa Ling’s CNN series\, This Is Life. \nIN CONVERSATION WITH \nHua Hsu is the Pulitzer Prize winner of Stay True and a staff writer at The New Yorker and a professor of Literature at Bard College. Hsu serves on the executive board of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He was formerly a fellow at the New America Foundation and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at the New York Public Library. He lives in Brooklyn\, New York with his family. \nWITH A DJ SET BY  \nChinatown Records 華埠錄音 is a homegrown community effort to celebrate the sonic tapestry of music\, memory\, & history that comes with inherited family collections. Homebased in NYC’s Manhattan Chinatown\, DJ historian yiuyiu 瑶瑶 takes on her childhood name to care for & activate the Chinatown Records archive of over 30 record/CD/tape collections inherited from her family & neighbors. As a community-taught & -powered DJ historian\, yiuyiu 瑶瑶 has the most fun playing golden records at senior centers\, leading karaoke dance floors on the streets of Chinatown\, & training up our next generations of DJ historians of all ages through sonic histories\, listening sessions\, & oral history workshops. With each beloved song & memory\, Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 evolves as an ever-growing record of the people we love\, who bring all this music to life with us.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/book-launch-party-water-mirror-echo-by-jeff-chang-in-conversation-with-hua-hsu-and-chinatown-records/
LOCATION:New Design High School\, 350 Grand Street\, 6th Floor\, New York\, NY\, 10002\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250822T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250822T200000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20250809T032447Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250818T041404Z
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SUMMARY:Book Talk: Where are You Really From by Elaine Hsieh Chou
DESCRIPTION:For this Book Club discussion with the author\, we’ll be discussing Background: A Short Story. Read it first here! \n\nFrom the critically-acclaimed author of Disorientation\, a multi-genre story collection that \n\nexplores the limits and possibilities of storytelling. \nA mail order bride from Taiwan is packed up in a cardboard box and sent via express shipping to California\, where her much older husband awaits her. Two teenage girls meticulously plan how to kill and cook their downstairs neighbor. An American au pair moves to Paris to find herself\, only to find her actual French doppelgänger. A father reunites with his estranged daughter in unusual circumstances: as a background actor on the set of her film. And in “Casualties of Art\,” a writer’s affair with a married artist tests the line between fact and fiction\, self-victimization and the victimization of others. \nIn these six singular stories and a novella that pivot from the terrible to the beautiful to the surreal\, Elaine Hsieh Chou confronts the slipperiness of truth in storytelling. With razor-sharp precision and psychological acuity\, she peels back the tales we tell ourselves to peer beneath them: at our treacherous desires\, our self-deceptions and our capacity for cruelty\, both to ourselves and each other. Expansive and provocative\, Where Are You Really From is a visionary achievement. \n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR\n\n\nElaine Hsieh Chou is a Taiwanese American author and screenwriter from California. Described as “the funniest\, most poignant novel of the year” by Vogue\, her debut novel Disorientation was a New York Times Editors’ Choice Book\, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award finalist and Thurber Prize finalist. A former Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow at New York University\, her Pushcart Award–winning short fiction appears in Guernica\, Black Warrior Review\, Tin House Online\, Ploughshares and The Atlantic\, while her essays appear in The Cut and Vanity Fair. She is a Fred R. Brown Literary Award recipient\, a Sundance Episodic Lab Fellow and a Gotham Series Creator to Watch. Her work has been supported by the Harry Ransom Center\, the New York Foundation for the Arts and Hedgebrook’s Writers-in-Residence Program.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/book-talk-where-are-you-really-from-by-elaine-hsieh-chou/
LOCATION:Yu & Me Books\, 44 Mulberry Street\, New York\, NY\, 10013\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book,In Person
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250813T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250813T200000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20250808T135323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250808T160811Z
UID:10001661-1755111600-1755115200@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:Book Talk: The L.O.V.E Club by Lio Min
DESCRIPTION:From the acclaimed author of Beating Heart Baby\, an immersive novel following three estranged high schoolers who are pulled into a video game to pursue the disappearance of their friend\n \nThree years ago\, Elle (the “E” in the self-proclaimed L.O.V.E. Club) disappeared from Calendula\, an affluent Chinese American suburb in inland California. Soon afterward\, Liberty and Vera (“L” and “V”) moved away\, leaving O alone with her grief\, abandonment\, and confusion. . . until Liberty and Vera return for their senior year of high school. \nThough the L.O.V.E. Club’s three remaining members once bonded as outcasts and gamers\, they can’t pick up the pieces of their friendship. But the girls are drawn back to their old clubhouse\, where they discover\, loaded for them to play\, a new game created by none other than the missing Elle. \nOne click\, and Liberty\, Vera\, and O are ported into Morning Glory\, an ever-evolving botanical fantasy coded with their lived experiences\, complicated history\, and repressed insecurities. Unbeknownst to the others\, O can’t remember the events surrounding Elle’s disappearance—but within the game\, Elle has sent O a cryptic hint about Morning Glory’s real nature. \nWhile Liberty and Vera defeat increasingly sinister bosses\, O grapples with the secret knowledge that her deepest wish\, to reunite with Elle\, might just come true. But as the girls progress through Morning Glory\, O begins to wonder how well she actually knew any of her former best friends and if she’s ready to confront the hard truths—and dangerous revelations—about Elle in her returning memories. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \nLio Min is the acclaimed author of Beating Heart Baby\, a long-time music reporter\, and a fullmetal optimist. They live in Oakland\, California\, and write toward the future. \nIN CONVERSATION WITH \nKazimir Lee has lived for almost equal amounts of time in Malaysia\, the UK\, and the US. They have been published by the Slate\, the Nib\, OJST and NY Mag. Their work has won a Lambda and an Ignatz. Their first solo YA graphic novel\, Low Orbit\, is now available from Top Shelf. They now reside in Brooklyn with all the other freaks. Kazimir enjoys queer subtext\, parenthood\, ghost stories\, and karaoke.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/13687/
LOCATION:Yu & Me Books\, 44 Mulberry Street\, New York\, NY\, 10013\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book,In Person
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250722T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250722T200000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20250626T204900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250626T204936Z
UID:10001497-1753210800-1753214400@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:Book Launch | Maggie by Katie Yee
DESCRIPTION:This event will take place in person at Chatham Square Library. \nPlease join author Katie Yee as we discuss her debut novel Maggie; or\, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar: A Novel. Booksigning to follow Q&A. \nKatie Yee is a writer from Brooklyn. She has received fellowships from the Center for Fiction\, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop\, and Kundiman. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books\, No Tokens\, The Believer\, the Washington Square Review\, Triangle House\, Epiphany\, and Literary Hub. By day\, she works at the Brooklyn Museum. By night\, she writes\, usually under the watch of her judgmental rescue dog\, Ollie. \nThis event is produced in collaboration with our community partners Yu & Me Books and Asian American Writers’ Workshop. \nRSVP
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/book-launch-maggie-by-katie-yee/
LOCATION:Chatham Square Library – NYPL\, 33 East Broadway\, New York\, NY\, 10002
CATEGORIES:Book
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://potluckasianamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.22.25KatieYee_1.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250613T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250613T200000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20250603T152611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250603T152611Z
UID:10001455-1749841200-1749844800@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:Book Talk: Friendship as Creative Act with Stephanie Niu and Juliana Chang
DESCRIPTION:Can friendship be a creative act? In this book talk\, debut poets (and college roommates!) Juliana Chang and Stephanie Niu will discuss their publication journeys and explore the myriad of ways their writing has been intertwined with and influenced by friendship. Juliana and Stephanie will read from their debut collections\, So Long This Wound Stayed Open and I Would Define the Sun\, and discuss the ways friendship has shaped these works\, whether editorially or emotionally\, in order to ask: how can we make space for friendship in the creative process? What do we gain when creativity and community flourish together? \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \nStephanie Niu is a poet and writer from Marietta\, Georgia. She is the author of I Would Define the Sun\, which won the inaugural Vanderbilt University Literary Prize\, and chapbooks Survived By (Host Publications\, 2024) and She Has Dreamt Again of Water (Diode Editions\, 2022). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review\, The Missouri Review\, Literary Hub\, Copper Nickel\, Ecotone\, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn\, NY. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \nJuliana Chang is a Taiwanese American poet. Her first full-length collection\, So Long This Wound Stayed Open\, was published with ELJ Editions in 2024. Juliana’s work appears in The American Poetry Review\, The Chestnut Review\, diode poetry journal\, Burningword Literary Magazine\, Best New Poets 2023\, and elsewhere. She holds a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Sociology from Stanford University\, and a JD from Harvard Law School.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/book-talk-friendship-as-creative-act-with-stephanie-niu-and-juliana-chang/
LOCATION:Yu & Me Books\, 44 Mulberry Street\, New York\, NY\, 10013\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book,In Person
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250401T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250401T203000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20250327T125402Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250327T125404Z
UID:10001144-1743534000-1743539400@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:Book Launch: Boat Baby by Vicky Nguyen with Hoda Kotb
DESCRIPTION:In a memoir where heroism meets humor\, NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen tells the story of her family’s daring escape from communist Vietnam and her unlikely journey from refugee to reporter with laughter and fierce love. \nStarting in 1975\, Vietnam’s “boat people”—desperate families seeking freedom—fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could\, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia\, Vicky’s family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to go to America. \nBut deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story…figuring out how to be American is the other. Boat Baby is Vicky’s memoir of growing up in America with unconventional Vietnamese parents who didn’t always know how to bridge the cultural gaps. It’s a childhood filled with misadventures and misunderstandings\, from almost stabbing the neighborhood racist with a butter knife to getting caught stealing Cosmo in the hope of learning Do You Really Think You Know Everything About Sex? \nVicky’s parents approached life with the attitude\, “Why not us?” In the face of prejudice\, they taught her to be gritty and resilient\, skills Vicky used as she combatted stereotyping throughout her career\, fending off the question “Aren’t you Connie Chung?” to become a leading Asian American journalist on television. She delivers a uniquely transparent account of her life\, revealing how she negotiated her salary in a competitive industry\, the challenges of starting a family\, and the struggle to be a dutiful daughter. \nFunny\, nostalgic\, and poignant\, Boat Baby is a testament to the messy glue that bonds a family. In the tradition of We Are Dreamers by Simu Liu and Dear Girls by Ali Wong\, Vicky Nguyen offers an optimistic story full of heart that illuminates the promise of what America can be.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/book-launch-boat-baby-by-vicky-nguyen-with-hoda-kotb/
LOCATION:New Design High School Library\, 350 Grand Street\, Library (4th Floor)\, New York\, NY\, 10002\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book,In Person
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://potluckasianamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/unnamed-36.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241119T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241119T203000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20241028T014711Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241119T090738Z
UID:10000262-1732042800-1732048200@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:DOGEATERS by Jessica Hagedorn w/ Patrick Rosal & Lucy Yu
DESCRIPTION:Join us to celebrate the Penguin Classics launch of DOGEATERS with a conversation featuring Jessica Hagedorn\, Patrick Rosal & Lucy Yu!\n\n\nABOUT DOGEATERS \n“An original\, raw\, and wild novel that has held its power and demands to be read.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen\, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer \nWelcome to Manila in the turbulent period of the Philippines’ late dictator. It is a world in which American pop culture and local Filipino tradition mix flamboyantly\, and gossip\, storytelling\, and extravagant behavior thrive. \nA wildly disparate group of characters—including movie stars and waiters\, a young junkie and the richest man in the Philippines—becomes ensnared in a spiral of events culminating in a beauty pageant\, a film festival\, and an assassination. At the center of this maelstrom is Rio\, a feisty schoolgirl who will grow up to live in America and look back with longing on the land of her youth. \nJessica Hagedorn is the author of the novels Dogeaters and The Gangster of Love\, Dream Jungle\, and a collection of poetry and short fiction\, Danger and Beauty. \nPatrick Rosal is an interdisciplinary artist and author of four previous books\, most recently Brooklyn Antediluvian\, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award. He earned fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation\, the National Endowment for the Arts\, and the Fulbright Senior Research Program. He is Professor of English and inaugural Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers-Camden. \nLucy Yu is the owner of Yu & Me Books\, the first female Asian American-owned bookstore in Chinatown\, Manhattan. She loves reading\, running\, and resting.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/dogeaters-by-jessica-hagedorn-w-patrick-rosal-lucy-yu/
LOCATION:New Design High School Library\, 350 Grand Street\, Library (4th Floor)\, New York\, NY\, 10002\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book,In Person
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://potluckasianamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/1c21e57835e35fbc5c8712110c52dabc.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241118T220000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241118T235900
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20241028T014709Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241118T053336Z
UID:10000261-1731967200-1731974340@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:Midnight Release Party: The City and Its Uncertain Walls
DESCRIPTION:Join us to celebrate the midnight release of Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Walls! Featuring games\, prizes\, tea from Kettl Tea\, sake from Kato Sake works\, Milk Bar muffins (“Murakuffins”) inspired by the book\, and more! Be the first to receive your copy right at midnight! \nABOUT THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS \nFrom the bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World comes a love story\, a quest\, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them\, and a parable for our peculiar times. \nWe begin with a nameless young couple: a boy and a girl\, teenagers in love. One day\, she disappears . . . and her absence haunts him for the rest of his life. \nThus begins a search for this lost love that takes the man into middle age and on a journey between the real world and an other world – a mysterious\, perhaps imaginary\, walled town where unicorns roam\, where a Gatekeeper determines who can enter and who must remain behind\, and where shadows become untethered from their selves. Listening to his own dreams and premonitions\, the man leaves his life in Tokyo behind and ventures to a small mountain town\, where he becomes the head librarian\, only to learn the mysterious circumstances surrounding the gentleman who had the job before him. As the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds\, he meets a strange young boy who helps him to see what he’s been missing all along. \nThe City and Its Uncertain Walls is a singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/midnight-release-party-the-city-and-its-uncertain-walls/
LOCATION:Yu & Me Books\, 44 Mulberry Street\, New York\, NY\, 10013\, United States
CATEGORIES:Book,In Person
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://potluckasianamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/090e00bea38634996e2cbec23ab7f738.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241114T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241114T203000
DTSTAMP:20260601T051810
CREATED:20241028T014707Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241028T014707Z
UID:10000260-1731610800-1731616200@potluckasianamerica.org
SUMMARY:I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying by Youngmi Mayer w/ John deBary
DESCRIPTION:Join Youngmi Mayer and John deBary for a conversation celebrating the launch of I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying!\n\n\nPlease note that attendees who purchase their book ahead of time (in the ticketing options) will receive priority in the signing line after the book talk\, and will have their books signed first!\nUpon arrival\, you will check in with a staff member and receive your number in the signing line.\n\nBooks will also be available for sale at the event itself\, until sold out. \n \nCan’t make it? Pre-order your signed copy here. \n \nPlease also consider making a donation with your RSVP! Donations go to Seward Park Campus Library (@SparkCampusLibrary)\, a proud NYC Public School high school library. Our library serves the five high schools in the building\, and in partnership with New Design High School\, we have been able to build a podcast/music recording studio to help students build 21st century skills. To that end\, we are in the process of building MarkerSpark – a creative Makerspace focused on 3D engineering and design. Your donations are crucial to making this happen. Help us build out the vision of next year’s leaders. \n \nABOUT THE BOOK \nFrom standup comedian Youngmi Mayer\, an unforgettable memoir written with “raw\, enviable freedom that simply floors you\,” interrogating whiteness\, gender\, and sexuality in America\, navigating a tumultuous childhood in Korea and Saipan\, and coming to terms with her parents’ shortcomings (Michelle Zauner). \n“Do you know what happens if you laugh while crying? Hair grows out of your butthole.” It was a constant truism Youngmi Mayer’s mother would say threateningly after she would make her daughter laugh while crying. Her mother used it to cheer her up in moments when she could tell Youngmi was overtaken with grief. The humorous saying would never fail to lighten the mood\, causing both daughter and mother to laugh and cry at the same time. Her mother had learned this trick from her mother\, and her mother had learned this from her mother before her: it had also helped an endless string of her family laugh through suffering. \n \nIn I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying\, Youngmi jokes through the retelling of her childhood as an offbeat biracial kid in Saipan\, a place next to a place that Americans might know. She jokes through her difficult adolescence where she must parent her own parents: a mother who married her husband because he looked like white Jesus (and the singer of The Bee Gees). And with humor and irreverence and full-throated openness\, she jokes even while sharing the story of what her family went through during the last century of colonialism and war in Korea\, while reflecting how years later\, their wounds affect her in New York City as a single mom\, all the while interrogating whiteness\, gender\, and sexuality. \n \nYoungmi jokes through these stories in hopes of passing onto the reader what her family passed down to her: The gift of laughing while crying. The gift of a hairy butthole. Because throughout it all\, the one thing she learned was one cannot exist without the other. And like a yin and yang\, this duality is reflected in this whip-smart\, heart-wrenching\, and disarmingly funny memoir told by a bright new voice with so much heart and wisdom.
URL:https://potluckasianamerica.org/event/im-laughing-because-im-crying-by-youngmi-mayer-w-john-debary/
LOCATION:New Design High School\, 350 Grand Street\, 6th Floor\, New York\, NY\, 10002\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://potluckasianamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/6da3f7d7f8a2fbe1b8d6611995c75531.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR