Mia Mingus and Stacey Milbern are two queer disabled diasporic Korean women of color in the process moving from the South to the Bay to create home and community with each other.
This tumblr documents their journey. For more info about Mia, visit her blog at the meeting place of truth and narrative
Dear Mia,
It’s been a long time since I’ve written you. Someone I care about, a friend who is also a disabled queer woman of color, told me recently that her work was invisibilized in this tumblr. I wanted to take the time needed to really hear her and reflect on ways I can be more thoughtful in how I engage with this tumblr and To the Other Side of Dreaming. (Fighting pace of capitalism to do things on the timeline I need to really learn from conflict is something I have not historically done very well. Trying to change my ways! :-) )
Much of the hurt/critique my friend shared with me was around maintaining personal integrity and political authenticity in an age of instant publishing. I have written quite a bit on ableism and the difficulty of crips moving, but almost nothing on the fact that we both have people throwing down for us with everything they have. (For example, the friend I mention is opening her home to me until we find a place, teaching me the ropes of finding accessible housing/hiring a PA/using the stupid BART ticket machines, scaring the bejesus out of me when I am not taking things seriously enough for our moving timeline to actually happen…)
The support systems we have are so extraordinary and rare. I don’t want to tell a single story of oppression when it is not my reality (none of ours really). I don’t want to fall into the social movement trap of sacrificing truth for narrative.
When you and I talk about the home we want to build together, I want to remember that the core of what we believe is that we are not alone. You do not have to be Bonnie, I don’t have to be Clyde. We can build home with community.
I can’t wait to join you in the Bay this spring, Mia. I miss you so much.
Love,
Stacey
