The Tender Archives: 012
“A piece inspired by cell phone repair shop in my neighborhood called “U BREAK I FIX,”. It strikes me as a metaphor for something deeper, like the unpolished art of mental health. The truth is, it’s on me to clear out the debris of old traumas—the damage from storms I didn’t even brew. You break, I fix.”
From Simran to Sweety
Siona shares her journey towards accepting her lesbian identity as an Indian American and how Bollywood shaped their understanding of love.
Young, Broke, and Overlooked: Why being the future means getting ignored in the present
“I have been on my own for almost 4 years now, paying bills, rent, making sure my car is gassed and I have something to eat at the end of the day. This constant struggle is overlooked and so is the majority of my generation especially in the workplace.”
Real Life Handmaid's Tale: The Not-So-Fictional Life Of Women
Carolina Dionísio establishes parallels between fiction and real-life to prove that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not an exaggeration, and that the world is growing more and more dystopian and abusive towards women.
A Little Revenge Can’t Hurt, Right?
Kennedy Smith takes a journey through some acts of revenge that she regrets (and some that she doesn’t), bringing in a bit of new scientific research that claims revenge sets off the same pleasure that addiction does.
The Exotic Subject
Inspired by thinkers like Clarice Lispector, Hélène Cixous, Susan Sontag and Fernanda Young, Thais Diniz explores how femininity and trauma become aesthetics under the algorithm.
kapwa: what is necessary / we are
A poem by Summer Smith.
Beaten: An Exploration of Kink in Popular Media
Daniel G. critiques the shallow and sensationalized portrayal of BDSM and deviant sexuality in mainstream media, calling for more authenticity, nuance, and respect for the subcultures it attempts to depict.
move? : A poem by Amy Lu
“The light the media paints Indigenous peoples in is often racially-profiled, unfair and from a settler-colonialist point of view. I want to help rewrite the narrative with my poem and show the struggles these people are going through to protect their traditional territories. “
My Mid-Twenties Are Ghetto: A Testimony in Progress
A raw, reflective, and darkly funny meditation on what it means to hold faith, Black womanhood, and burnout in the same body by Leeyan Redwood.
American Grown Filipino: Comfort Food Keeping Memories
Summer Smith explores how classic Filipino dishes like lumpia, balut, and sinigang connect them to family, culture, and key moments in their life.