Saying Hello to 2022

What's Up and Let's Connect!

Dear Readers of Definitely Not Okay,

Thanks for following me into the future—present. I’d like to give you some updates on my end and ask about you.

I closed the last year with the record number of books read, thanks to the pandemic: 45! I chose the top 4 of them (two written in English and two in Korean), and here are the first two: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (my review) and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. It turns out all four books were written by Korean or Korean American women authors. I was deep into finding my voice among others who look like me and share my experiences.

I also invested my time in listening to the voices of Black and Indigenous people in the United States. This month, my partner Chris and I finished the First Peoples of Rhode Island tour that we started last year. We learned about more massacres of Narragansett people and an increase in marriage between peoples of African descent and Native Americans in the 1700s due to Rhode Island’s prohibition of marriage between White citizens and “any Negro, Indian or mulatto.” We took a hike in a wildlife refuge near Nipsachuck Swamp where Quiapen died during the summer of 1676. Quiapen was a powerful Niantic female sachem and the last Narragansett-Niantic leader to be captured and killed in King Philip’s War.

Frozen Second Pond in Audubon Fort Wildlife Refuge

In 2022, I will continue my commitment to antiracism, anticapitalism, and inclusion through my teaching and writing, well represented in these two quotes by the late activist author bell hooks and my friend M respectively:

A community is “a place that is life-sustaining and mind-expanding, a place of liberating mutuality where teacher and student together work in partnership.”

Part of my antiracism work is to not uphold the culture of hustling and over-productivity, and instead embrace an act of meditative presence.

Also, I am expanding online platforms where I write. I post short reflections on Twitter @KoreanLindaPark, and I post books reviews on The StoryGraph. I finally made a switch from writing reviews on Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon. Check out this article if you want to see a comparison between these two websites.

I’d love to connect with you more wherever you are. Feel free to leave a comment or reply to this email. You can see my letters from 2021 and before in this archive. I wish you a wonderful year ahead!

Love,

Linda

Proud nerd writing vulnerable thoughts

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Check out my other letters on the topic:

What It Takes To Become An American

Protest, But Don't Be A Protester