Who is your kin?

Kin

Is the holding of hands,

It is the knowing look from the only other POC in the room…

Kin is the smell of spices and aromatics.

It is when someone says, “Khỏe không?”

Kin is crying at brunch,

Sharing stories of our ancestors and the history lost to our displaced narratives.

Kin has brown eyes and sun-kissed skin.

To find creative ways to hold one another in an ongoing pandemic and protect each other from harm.

Kin is being bored but listening anyway.

It is expanding and stretching.

Kin is the flowers that grow between concrete cracks of memories -

Flowers that bring colour to the walls we have built in our hearts.

Kin is love that goes beyond obligation.

It is blood.

It is skin.

It is what we connect to within.

You may notice the use of the word "kin" in my work. In my own meaning, I use "kin" to describe folks I find closeness to or have affinity for. This can range from how we think, act, feel, and experience life. Sometimes, this means in culture but is not exclusive to ethnicity or nationality when I use the term.

I have many hopes for the future, and one of those is to build kinship amongst our respective communities through bridge building and sharing of tools, resources, and revelations. I open my heart and hands in all of the ways I have done wrong and all the ways I am trying to do right. Through all of this, I know the only way forward is together and thus I am attempting to gather us as kin so we see one another in our likeness and celebrate our differences (the non harmful differences that is).

With Love & Solidarity,

Chantel