Fifteen pieces on the places that have held us
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.
We become intertwined with the places that hold us, even if we’re merely passing through. Places keep our memories, witness our becomings, and evolve, like us, over time. They are the settings against which we find and build community with others. To be in these places is to feel the pulse of the vibrant culture and day-to-day lives of Asian American communities. But for many, to be out there in the neighborhoods is to also be visible, vulnerable—despite, often, an aching sense of loneliness and isolation. Whether it be the diverse boroughs of New York City, or the faint recollections of our childhood homes, places are transformed by our experiences and emotions.
Read the full list below.
Pieces from top to bottom, left to right:
- “Letter from a Hotel Room in Centum City”
by Alex Jung (2013) - “How Eighth Avenue Became Chinese”
by Tarry Hum (2014) - “Too Close to Home”
by Nadia Misir (2015) - “A House Made of Flames: Two Poems”
by Albert Abonado (2016) - “Men Loiter, Women Cloister”
by Chaya Babu (2016) - “A Living Room on Roosevelt Avenue”
by Jai Dulani (2017) - “A New Resistance in Brooklyn’s ‘Little Palestine’”
by Sumaya Awad (2017) - “Mapping Displacement and Resistance in Sunset Park”
by huiying b. chan (2018) - “Lemon Juice”
by Brian Cho Smith (2019) - “An Aquatic History of My Family”
by K-Ming Chang (2020) - “How to Dismantle an American Myth: An Interview with C Pam Zhang”
by Mimi Lok (2020) - “Asian American Loneliness and the Search for Solidarity: A Conversation with Jay Caspian Kang”
by Tamara K. Nopper (2021) - “‘We’re not just protecting the community, but also each other’”
by Teresa Mathew (2021) - “I Swam in a Cold Lake and Watched My Body Convulse on Shore”
by Emily Lee Luan (2022) - “Manchester Chinatown 2022”
by Sokunthary Svay (2022)
