Issue #02: Unlocked
A monthly curation of Black, Global Indigenous, and POC voices
Unlocked is a monthly selection of content from Locked In, an unofficial BIPOC writing community on Substack. Each month’s issue will be curated by a different Locked In member, chosen from a monthly call for members to share posts that they’re most proud of. If you identify as BIPOC, request to join our private community.
Welcome to our second issue of Unlocked! Every month, we ask our BIPOC writing community to share posts that they’re proud of. If you missed our first one, check it out below!
I’m Shivani, one of the Locked In organizers. I write come in for tea, a newsletter that spills the tea of my life through braided personal essays. One post that I’m excited about from this past month is about the Boston Celtics winning this year’s NBA Finals, a love letter to my favorite basketball team and my best friend.
Here are a few other community submissions from July 2024 that I loved and think that you will, too.
IDENTITY
Home in the Spaces Between, by
Like most diasporic people, I think a lot about what it means to belong somewhere, to claim a place as home. As a Tamil-American, I often see my existence in the “inbetweens”. This essay from the Taiwanese-American perspective not only made me feel less alone in the existential questions of my life, but it also helped me reimagine belonging as a verb — constantly moving, always changing. But always grounded wherever my body is.
When I try to make sense of my history, I tease apart woven threads of east and west, but also of a Christian faith that is taking me a lifetime to untangle. Many traditional Taiwanese values intertwine and shake hands with fundamentalist Christian ones, after all. How do I separate what is mine and what was grafted onto me, and does that even matter in the end?
TRANSLATION
An Act of Creation: The Truth About Translation, by
This piece touched me so tenderly. As a poet, I can spend hours considering what words hold more weight than others. The intimate relationship I grow in that time is sacred. Here, we learn a bit about the experience of reading poems translated from the writer’s mother tongue, consider the questions of whether translations produce more harm than connection, and the vast spectrum of emotions that follow as she holds onto lineage and lyric alike.
The answer is simpler than the question itself: connection. The basic human desire to bond with one another, even across different cultures, defies any logic that we may try to assign it. To say, Look, I treasure these words. They mean something to me. Now you can have them, too. That’s what it all comes down to.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION LIST
10 Exciting Books to Read Aloud with Your Kids This Summer, by
Something about me? I love a list. And a book recommendation list? I’m there. Ladapo rounded up ten children’s books written by Black authors to read with the children in your life. However, after checking out this list, I am sure adults will enjoy the reads just as much
A stack of attention-grabbing and emotionally resonant children books, perfect for summer break or any time of year.
POETRY AND PERSONAL ESSAY
Loveless Games, by
What I love about this Susbtack is that it uplifts and highlights so many other Substack writers. Robinson reads others’ newsletters, finds a quote that touches him, and creates a poem from what found its way to his heart and soul. In this post, he also delights us with a personal essay about the memory of playing spades with his grandmother.
We made our bids as we normally did, but something was different this time. After each hand, I was the one with playful banter leaving my lips as my grandma bid board hand after hand. Although our roles had been reversed, her playfulness never left. “Grandson, grandson. Why are you doing your poor grandma like this?” she said with a voice still kissed by her childhood in Panama.
PURPOSE
whatever is mine is looking for me, by
Inspired by the great Alice Walker’s declaration, “I am not desparate for anything, really. I feel that what is mine is looking for me”, this piece employs deep vulnerability in confiding with the reader that they are, in fact, desparate for so much in their life, in their world. Buoyed by the understanding we are in this storm together, Nicole gently guides us along.
Maybe it's the messy conglomeration of desires I battle with daily – the yearning to be both a fierce protector and a gentle soul. Perhaps embracing the sad sack of shit days alongside the moments of earth shattering rage is the key to authenticity.
This issue of Unlocked was curated by Shivani Kumar, who writes come in for tea. To be considered for feature, request to join the Locked In community.
I can’t wait to dig through all of these. Thanks for curating this list!
I appreciate the inclusion family!
And Tiffany's piece is sooo good 😭