Page 38 - Vo Vo | FIX MY HEAD #6: QTPOC PUNK ARTISTS

open me up to related concepts, refer me to similar essays written by strangers that i never would have known existed.
i think that is very cool. but i also sometimes prefer the distance
-
an important way to absorb and understand the kind of personal experiences i share in that zine
What were your experiences around playing in hardcore bands, or the hc scene where you grew up?
i just released a very heavy involuntary sigh. most of it was really shitty.. let me tell you the parts i liked and then i’ll broadstroke through the parts i didn’t like retrospectively. two cool things about the one band i was in: it was fronted by my partner-at-the- time who was a thoughtful lyricist and really fucking great person,
dudely (but also heavily white, heavily straight and heavily
being vegan and straightedge to assure them they are not terrible people who then continue to do terrible things because they don’t put work into unlearning oppressive behaviors and analyzing their privileges; band cults that manifested in things like worshipping
that meant nothing to me; misogynistic hostility; boys-club antics; lack of a more comprehensive understanding of the network of oppressions (“intersectionality”); classist, fat-shaming, racist, ignorant, xenophobic, imperialist, capitalistic veganism.
positive thing i got out of it was sharing a life with that partner- her in 2 years but she is still a motivating ideal for the kind of
characteristics i aspire to realize.
i guess, also, it was my introduction to punk and then to whatever the fuck else. i’ll give it that, but not an inch more. it was only a stepping stone. that sank after i passed onto the next one
Tell me about Đẹp Trai & Chó.
that was just a photoshoot my friend vivian did with me. it was just for fun. vivian’s a queer vietnamese-american photographer friend who i met through tumblr
What’s your relationship to being Viet these days? Wanna go there some day?
i’ll stop here
joined this group of progressive viet-american kids in socal. all of
until i started interacting with those people. identity, migration -
talked about. it’s incredibly satisfying
i actually have been to vietnam! twice! i think going back now
relationship with that land and its people
my relationship with vietnameseness has come a long way. i wrote about internalized race-based self-hatred and realizing that it
will never completely dissolve. i still believe that, but that doesn’t stop me from putting in work to weaken it. i practice speak-
ing vietnamese more, especially with my older relatives because i know that is important to them. it pleases my mom a lot (she also thinks it’s funny sometimes because i mix up accentuations and end up saying absurd things.) this person quyen who i met because of my zine, included me in documentary about queer