Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

We’re incredibly proud to announce the release of Hyphen’s newest issue, Issue 24: The Survival Issue (Winter 2011).

Survival is on the minds of many in days like these, but our charming cover models Sadako and Hiroshi Kashiwagi faced tough times 60 years ago when they were both sent to World War II internment camps.

In “Sea Change,” Food and Agriculture Editor Nina Kahori Fallenbaum traveled to the Gulf Coast to report on the struggles of the Vietnamese American fishing industry there, post-BP oil spill. Photojournalism legend Corky Lee’s photos from the Gulf also provide glimpses, in vivid detail, of the resilience of the Asian American community there.

Helen I. Hwang discusses how Asian American students contend with bullying by analyzing the devastating events at a Philadelphia High School in December 2009, when a group of Asian American immigrant students were the victims of violence at the hands of other students in a schoolwide melee.

Contributing Editor Catherine A. Traywick describes the survival of a group of Filipino nurses in San Francisco in the face of workplace discrimination, budget cuts and sweeping changes in the health industry. Contributing Editor Nicole Wong visualizes the Census numbers to illuminate how the Asian American community is growing and changing.

Books Editors Abigail Licad and Cathlin Goulding assembled a roundtable of poetry experts for a fascinating look at how Asian American poetry is enduring decades after community activists used it as a political tool. And in our First Person essay section, Meeta Kaur writes about the threats to the persistence of the Sikh tradition of wearing turbans, particularly post-9/11.

We also take a look at women using the Internet to stand up to street harassment; viral videos that raise money for charities; and how Japanese internment camps are being experienced through video games.  

We also get fungi with a new startup hoping to turn home mushroom-growing kits into the new ant farms; dig into our closets with an online archive of fashion histories of women of color; and learn about the art of craft blogging with Sally J. Shim.

And you definitely won’t want to miss the winner of our 2011 Asian American Short Study Contest, “The Understudy” by Timothy Tau.

The stories in this issue prove that our community continues to work to ensure not only the survival of the past, of our traditions and our livelihood, but also deft and innovative adaptation to the these ever-changing times. We here at Hyphen are nothing short of inspired by these stories of persistence and vitality --  and we're in it for the long haul, too.  

So go pick up a copy at these fine bookstores, or better yet, become a subscriber and contribute to Hyphen’s survival.