Voices

From DIGITIZE (by Yaslynn Makein) – “I’m okay,” she says as she pieces together a soft smile.

I’ve heard my mother say things were okay for years, but I knew it was never true. Staying in motels and shelters, my mother disappearing for days without a word, holding our breath when my (now former) stepfather walked through the door. These weren’t things to be okay with, but to my mother they were. At least, that’s what I thought.

From DIGITIZE (by Jehan Hashi) – During a period of heightened racial uprisings in the segregated 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. asserted in one of his most revered writings, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In other words, the struggle for freedom is communal.

From DIGITIZE (by Ánh Lê Võ) – It is only through the lives our ancestors led that our existence is possible… While preparing this collection of short stories, I interviewed my relatives and elders who host and prepare đám giỗ, to document the lives of those we celebrate. Through this process, I couldn’t help but notice how the lives of our ancestors, who we hold to such high importance, are slowly being forgotten as time and generations pass. To honor my ancestors, I wrote their stories, memorializing them to withstand the passage of time.