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Move(s)ment

Fifteen pieces on song, dance, and revolution

By The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
Devyn Mañibo
Ten Years of The Margins | Rebellion, Revolution, dance, music
September 12, 2022

This list is part of the celebration of the tenth anniversary of The Margins, which highlights portions of the magazine’s archive organized around a theme.

To paraphrase anarchist writer Emma Goldman: it’s not a revolution without dancing. Song and dance support and inform our survival as people, artists, and communities. Music can be a lifeline, celebration, escape, remembrance, and transcendence. Here are works that pay homage to the rhythms of our histories and rebellions, that harmonize with our histories of rebellion.

Read the full list below.

Pieces from top to bottom, left to right:

  1. “Beyond the Horse Dance”
    by Sukjong Hong (2012)

  2. “From Banana to Third World Marxist”
    by Fred Ho (2014)

  3. “Nonstop Mixing: The Bay Area’s First Filipino Mobile DJ Crew”
    by Oliver Wang (2015)

  4. “Breaking the Silence with Theater”
    by Rahima Nasa (2016)

  5. “No Radio”
    by Sokunthary Svay (2017)

  6. “Our Lady: Two Poems”
    by Jack Saebyok Jung (2019)

  7. “The Kingdom That Drips in Gold”
    by Noah Flora (2020)

  8. “Finding Solidarity and Survival Within a Transnational, Intergenerational Zoom Dance Party”
    by Tiffany Diane Tso (2021)

  9. “Please, Get Out and Dance”
    by Ysabelle Cheung (2021)

  10. “Two Rohingya Lullabies”
    by Mayyu Ali (2021)

  11. “Three Little Lullabies”
    by Pop Bop, Miaozi (2021)

  12. “After watching that interview with Um Kalthoum, I dance-cried in the bathroom for an hour: Two Poems”
    by Kamelya Omayma Youssef (2021) 

  13. “Percussion”
    by Aqdas Aftab (2022)

  14. “Orchid Near the Door”
    by Gail N. Harada (2022)

  15. “Unexpected Solace: An Interview with Michelle Zauner”
    by Ruth Minah Buchwald (2022)

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is devoted to creating, publishing, developing and disseminating creative writing by Asian Americans, and to providing an alternative literary arts space at the intersection of migration, race, and social justice.

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