Part 1: Write. Photocopy. Fold. Staple. Disseminate. Repeat. I first learned about zines in 1999, during the WTO protests in Seattle. A friend and I left high-school early (there was a city-wide curfew at that time) and wandered into an anarchist bookstore where a large group of people were gathered. Someone handed me what […]

“The world is burning.” “The Amazon rainforest is on fire.” “We all need to go vegan.” “But Africa is on fire too.” “The lungs of the earth, everyone, the lungs of the earth!” These reactions might seem overwhelming because they are. Recent news headlines and media comments about the Amazon rainforest have been downright alarming. How […]

At the moment, the only experience that seems harder than serving seven years in prison is being free. Yes, you read that correctly. Make no mistake. “Gratitude” doesn’t even begin to describe how it feels to  be home, reunited with my family. I can finally eat, sleep, and bathe when I want. I don’t have […]

  You don’t have to be likable to be electable. Unless you’re a woman. In the run-up to the 2016 election I remember reading a number of articles, tweets, and Facebook posts claiming Hillary Clinton was not likable enough to win the presidency. She was cold. She was out of touch. She wasn’t relatable.  I’m […]

  Although I am fond of my childhood memories, I prefer some distance from the city that some belong to. Yet, as I am getting older, I keep finding myself at my mother’s apartment, or specifically, at my childhood home in Guangzhou. Nostalgia floods through the barred windows of her apartment—the vibrations of construction work […]

  I was eighteen and frantic the first time I heard the word “dichotomy.” The person that said it was the complete opposite of me: white, preppy, prepared. My eyes bugged out—what does that mean? I remember looking around the room, helpless, for anyone else who also had no idea what that word meant. But […]

Twenty four hours after the original writing of this blog I will officially be a graduate of Queens College. I’ll graduate with Highest Honors from the English Department, heading into a fully funded Masters program in the fall. I’d like to take some time away from talking about video games to reflect on one of […]

I knew my father was an addict at a young age. I still remember the day I found a stash of tiny amber vials with white powder dusted on the inside in the back of his nightstand drawer. I couldn’t tell you how old I was or if I really knew at the time what […]

Spoiler alert for all of Game of Thrones! I audibly sighed as I began writing this piece. This has been an article I’ve been thinking about since Season 7 of HBO’s mega-hit Game of Thrones. I had planned on writing this at the end of the penultimate season, when I believed the show had hit […]

Rarely older generations take Fall Out Boy as a serious band. This opinion, as it happens from generation to generation with popular music, is typical. No parent understands their child’s favorite band and vice versa. However, as someone who grew up more familiar with La Boheme and Rachmaninoff than anything playing on the radio, I […]