Mission
The Brown Orient was founded in response to the dire underrepresentation endured by creatives from South Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia. In the midst of mainstream media's popularization of the idea that East Asia is representative of Asia in its entirety, and consequently results in a conscious erasure of Asia's diverse voices, we utilize contemporary art and literature to weave our resistance into something tangible. We refer to these less acknowledged Asian regions as Brown Asia, an often challenged terminology that is in fact a concrete attempt to reclaim the word that holds more depth than mere association with the stigma that we also fight against: the word that speaks volumes about our color, culture, and collective strength. Our name puts our primary purpose to simpler, perhaps thought-provoking, terms: calling the Orient (a term often associated with East Asia, although it should not be) brown, as a means of metaphorical reclamation.
In commitment to this promise of uplifting marginalized talents, we choose to exclusively feature writers and artists who identify as a woman or as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, who remain sidelined even within their immediate communities. The Brown Orient is a creative space dedicated to the silenced, the inspired, the enraged.
Through art and literature, we aim to spark conversations that lie on the intersection of race and gender, championing equality for brown-skinned Asian women and queer folks by ensuring a platform that is founded solely to host their bold artistic expression.
Although we began as a humble literary and art journal, The Brown Orient has managed to slowly become something greater. To date, we now identify as an arts organization spearheading various projects and activities aimed at uplifting Brown Asian women and LGBTQIA+ folk through contemporary art and literature. Aside from the semiannual release of our journal issues in print and digital formats, we are also an independent press that shall publish micro-chapbooks on prose and poetry. We are an online community based on Facebook, moderating and curating opportunities for connection and collaboration among Brown Asian women and queer creators. We are a blog that exclusively publishes high quality work that convey the realities of the culture and current sociopolitical climate of the Asian regions that we cater to through cultural criticism and literary journalism. We are a collective in pursuit of partnerships with other like-minded Asian groups in creating collaborative projects such as a forthcoming four-part series on Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Asia.
In commitment to this promise of uplifting marginalized talents, we choose to exclusively feature writers and artists who identify as a woman or as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, who remain sidelined even within their immediate communities. The Brown Orient is a creative space dedicated to the silenced, the inspired, the enraged.
Through art and literature, we aim to spark conversations that lie on the intersection of race and gender, championing equality for brown-skinned Asian women and queer folks by ensuring a platform that is founded solely to host their bold artistic expression.
Although we began as a humble literary and art journal, The Brown Orient has managed to slowly become something greater. To date, we now identify as an arts organization spearheading various projects and activities aimed at uplifting Brown Asian women and LGBTQIA+ folk through contemporary art and literature. Aside from the semiannual release of our journal issues in print and digital formats, we are also an independent press that shall publish micro-chapbooks on prose and poetry. We are an online community based on Facebook, moderating and curating opportunities for connection and collaboration among Brown Asian women and queer creators. We are a blog that exclusively publishes high quality work that convey the realities of the culture and current sociopolitical climate of the Asian regions that we cater to through cultural criticism and literary journalism. We are a collective in pursuit of partnerships with other like-minded Asian groups in creating collaborative projects such as a forthcoming four-part series on Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Asia.
Masthead
|
