Essays written before Ecolalia, but never formally published (2016 – 2023).
Hungry for resilience
On the 2021 community pantry phenomenon in the Philippines as an example of “social innovation.” Written in December of that year for a graduate course, while trapped in a Christmas COVID quarantine at that. This is by no means my favorite piece of writing, but I was thrilled to be able to incorporate anarchist theory…
To the disabled future, with love
A review of The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mournings Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Written in May 2023 in grad school for a portfolio course. Underneath the hoity-toity academic tone, be assured the book moved me and often to tears. It finally made me “come home” to my own dis/ability and neurodiversity,…
The border that cuts the heart
An review of binary thinking and politics in Locust Girl: A Lovesong by Merlinda Bobis. [Written in December 2016 for an English class and excavated ten years later, like some long-maturing insect rising out of the earth…] From rising tensions in Europe resulting from the Syrian refugee crisis, to the anti-immigration sentiment that fueled Great…