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A note: For this article, I use the terms 'men' and 'women' to frame my opinion; but I recognize that gender is not a binary. My goal is to share observations I’ve made and opinions I’ve formed, while acknowledging that aspects can be shifted by sexual orientation, race, and gender identity. I have a confession—I am an active Webkinz World user with a deluxe membership. How is this relevant? Well… it’s a path made of the barest connections but it got me to this conclusion: Kalshi, the gambling adjacent app, will not be getting the women’s share of the market. Let me walk you through what happened… I was on the Webkinz subreddit, and saw that a spin-to-win wheel within the game was retiring an item that I needed to complete a room design. What devastating news! For context, you have a house in Webkinz and room decorating is a large portion of the game. Upon reflection though, it got me thinking about how I found myself there, slightly upset over a virtual item. Webkinz is not a game of risk, it’s a game of collection—you do nothing but win…something. There are rarely any negative consequences in Webkinz, in fact, I can only think of two and they don’t occur very often. These types of collection games are what many women are drawn to, and they often build up small niche communities and trading groups surrounding them. A screenshot I took when we got a high score on Dex Dangerous and the Lunar Lugbotz. Kalshi, like many brands before them, is looking to build community and create culture around the usage of their app and casual gambling to expand and capture the female market. If you have a TikTok account, you have seen the (very illegal) influencer ads on Love Island and the text says something along the lines of, “Watching Love Island knowing you’re about to make money off of Melanie and Sincere.” That’s just one example of its insidiousness. There’s also ads on betting on the weather, earthquakes, everything. The great news is that this expansion WILL fail! From what I’ve observed about myself and friends of mine, women (and those who tend to have feminine traits as categorized by society) seem to be predisposed towards collection. That’s not to say men can’t collect (Pokemon cards exist). We also prefer to put less money up front - there’s an economic principle called the lipstick effect that connects purchases of smaller luxury goods during economic downturns. We can see this most recently with the horror Japan has wrought across the world with blind boxes. God, everything’s a mystery these days. Can’t buy anything straight up anymore. With this, and many other indulgences women have, there’s at least a return. If we’re not getting something out of it, why even try? If you were curious, blind boxes originated in Japan as a new years tradition called fukubukuro, or lucky bags. The blind box began in the 1980s and was iterated on by the Chinese to shape the world as we know it today. In Vegas, taking pictures at the feminine slot machines. That’s not to say there’s no slippery slope when it comes to women, in fact I find it hard to see where they draw the line. The American Journal of Psychiatry published an article saying that traditionally at a casino, men prefer face-to-face or ‘strategic’ forms of gambling like blackjack while women prefer less interpersonal games akin to slots. Do women have a better understanding of risk versus reward? With slots (assuming feminine), the mindset I assume is that you already know you’re losing the money and it’s just fun to press buttons. With craps (assuming masculine), there’s more personal investment and a sense of betting on yourself to win. Is this a protective measure, since women may see gambling as an upfront loss? Is this giving them an edge with addiction prevention? Is it more or less sad to have the knowledge upfront, and passively throw away money? Is it bad that women aren’t betting on themselves? There’s a camaraderie around gambling that men share, a risk that they can all take together. I chatted with several men on this topic to explore their thoughts, and the most thought provoking question I heard was, “Why not spend $5 to make more?” And I said, “Well, why would I?” The truth is, to the both of us, we gave the most obvious response in the world. and therein is the answer. Men see the potential and women see the loss. There’s probably something to be said around misogynistic cultures and how women likely still have a scarcity mindset due to us only fairly recently (in the grand scheme of things) obtaining rights that allow us to fully participate as citizens in society. Gambling is so ingrained in masculinity and class structure, so men will get into it because of their friends. When I asked why many of these men downloaded a sports betting or prediction markets app, the response was always, “my friends” and “they’re way worse than me.” They also proceeded to share some of the most ridiculous bets I’ve ever heard, one being, “if there was an earthquake over a 7.0 on the Richter scale from July to the end of 2026.” Apparently he only bet that because his friend had been betting on earthquakes for the past four months and winning every time. Matter of fact, how did sports gambling pop back up in America? Doesn’t it feel recent? It was in fact banned in 1992, and surely the men were better for it. Blame New Jersey! In 2018, the Supreme Court (Murphy v. NCAA) ruled that the federal government overstepped their bounds and violated the 10th Amendment. The simplest way I can explain this, is it was the same result as the abortion law being overturned, the power went back to the states to regulate. And just a few years later, Kalshi was born. While the house always wins, with Kalshi, who is the house? Kalshi is gambling masquerading as “prediction markets,” which could be called a cousin of stocks. Prediction markets are based on real world events, and people buy and sell contracts based on what they believe will happen. What you pay per contract is the % that the market thinks that the event will happen. Part of the reason this is not seen as gambling in the USA is because there is no “house,” you’re trading against other participants. There is also a constantly changing probability which allows you to pull out early. The contract pays $1 if the event happens, $0 if it doesn't. If a contract is trading at $0.80 = event has a 80% chance of happening. If you buy at $0.80 and the event happens, you get $1.00 per contract. If the event doesn't happen, you lose your $0.80. If before the event happens, you see the price of a contract go down to $0.50, you can sell early and mitigate your losses. To get here, Kalshi has sued and been sued, and is currently embroiled in so many lawsuits I could sit here and explain for five more paragraphs. Just know that Kalshi is an… audacious company. Donald Trump Jr is also on the board for them and another prediction market company called Polymarket. Women are not entirely immune to the allures of traditional and online gambling. We show these tendencies in other ways, like the “holy grail” search in makeup. The main difference is we want a return. The return can be shit, but we still want it. When speaking with women on the topic, I met one girl who had bet on Kalshi on the NBA championships, and paid her rent with it. Of course, I had to know why she had gotten Kalshi in the first place. The answer, interestingly enough, was her boyfriend, who loved sports betting and Kalshi… and Draftkings…and Fanduel. Another girl I spoke to said she wanted to get into it because all of her (male) friends were into it. Most others said they would never bother. As per usual, the greatest enemy to women—when it comes to gambling—will be men. Altogether an unsurprising conclusion, but not one Kalshi seems to have come to. Word of mouth wins over every time! It’s a real shame we are where we are when it comes to gambling, sports betting, and the like. I have a particular dislike for Kalshi (can you tell?) because of how they’re evading regulation. I suppose many may take from this that gambling won’t get you. Listen, Kalshi might not, but take a look around your home. Have you fallen prey to the blind boxes? TikTok shop coupons? Mystery bundles? It’s okay, I’m just as guilty as you. Again, I have a Webkinz Deluxe membership. Twins!

On October 19th, hundreds of visitors stopped by the Midway for the second annual History of the Bay Day. Dregs One, a Bay Area artist and host of a podcast with the same name, gives a platform, respects local Bay Area hip-hop legends, and features up-and-coming artists. Artists come from all over the Bay Area, including Vallejo, Oakland, and San Francisco. The Midway venue had indoor and outdoor vendors selling clothes, prints, paintings, chains, and various Bay Area merchandise, inspired by transportation and sports teams, such as MUNI, BART, and the SF Giants. On the rooftop patio, the Cloud 415 Lounge, visitors could smoke and shop for marijuana products while eating burgers, pizza, and other food items bought from downstairs in the Bay Cafe. The event program also allotted time for more serious conversations and discussions about Bay Area history and issues. Dregs One and Chuy Gomez talked briefly about the effects of gentrification in the Bay Area and the incarceration of family members of the community at San Quentin. In an interview panel, Women in Hip Hop, Shay Diddy, DJ Shellheart, and Xarina delved into their stories of breaking into radio, navigating challenges in a predominantly male workspace, and ways they were empowering girls and young women and welcoming them into the industry. In an interview with the SF Chronicle, Soul of Mischief’s Tajai remarks on Dregs One’s impact on the Bay Area community, “He’s a scholar and a historian, not just a graffiti artist or a rapper. He’s really doing it and not putting it together from CliffsNotes. He has the actual people behind the history (of hip-hop in the Bay Area).” The event ultimately served as a community space to learn and celebrate hip-hop culture and history in the Bay Area while also offering a place for community members to gather, shop, and bond on a sunny San Francisco weekend. You can listen to Dreg One’s podcast here on Spotify, and watch Club Rambutan’s recap of the event below!

A calm breeze in late September. You enter the San Francisco Botanical Gardens doors and hear a melody playing in the distance. Where can that be coming from? Walking down the paved and dirt paths, past the trees and greenery, you find a piano placed in a hidden corner of the garden. You brush off the leaves from the seat, crack your knuckles, and place your fingers on the keys. What tune will you be playing today? For the ninth year in a row, Flower Piano returned to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens for ten days, September 13-22, 2024. For more information regarding Flower Piano, check out their page here. For more events at the gardens, check out their event calendar here.

For the longest time, I thought about how I couldn't speak my parents’ native languages. It's honestly kind of a letdown and disappointment that I was not able to pick up any of the four languages that my parents speak: their native dialect (Hokkien/Teochew), Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. On top of that, when they came to America, they learned English. And I only know how to speak one of them. Well, two. Maybe three? It's hard to say. The point is I can only speak one language well (and even then, I still mess up my English grammar). As I grew older, I felt ashamed and disappointed in myself for not being able to speak. Even though I was able to go to Chinese school growing up, and even though I heard my parents speak Mandarin and Cantonese interchangeably all the time, I was disappointed in my younger self for not taking the initiative to learn and soak in the words and conversations that were happening around me. For the longest time, I felt like I could only blame myself for not being able to speak the language, but as I grew older and started taking ethnic studies classes in university, I began to notice the external factors and other forces at play. In the 2000s, the No Child Left Behind Act affected many bilingual education programs and emphasized testing and placing children in ELL/ESL (English Language Learning/English as a Second Language) programs. Specifically, in California, Proposition 227, largely funded by Rob Unz who spent 1.2 million dollars on the ballot initiative, required that public school instruction be conducted in English, impacting English learners receiving instruction in bilingual programs and sending a message to students, parents, and staff: to succeed, you must learn English. At the time the proposition was passed in 1998, civil rights groups, such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, filed a class action lawsuit in federal court but were ultimately unsuccessful. Although in 2016, Proposition 58 was signed to implement bilingual programs again in California, the damage from Proposition 227 and the No Child Left Behind Act had already been done. In elementary school, I have a faint memory of a paper form we were asked to fill out to write down what languages we spoke at home. I remember a sense of pride writing down Chinese on that sheet of paper, only for it to be met with a parent-teacher conference about my answer. For my parents, there was a fear that their children would never assimilate, that their children would fall behind in school, and never catch up with their peers. It's the confusion of seeing your child potentially be considered for ESL classes and having to argue with their teacher: My kid speaks English. It's the innocence of childhood. Of not knowing why parents hold on to their native language so much, and why it is so important to them. It’s only natural that parents want to feel attached to their kids, to feel connected to them, and to be able to connect with them. But for many families, as time goes on, maybe it’s hard to keep it up. After a long day of work, it’s tiring to argue with the kids about what language to speak. Instead, silence fills the dinner table. It's easier not to say anything. But recently, over the last one to two years, I’ve been adopting more of a growth mentality. Every day, I’m learning more and more about the world around me, whether it’s something about myself (I hate standstill traffic), something about my friends (I’m so thankful for them), or the world around me (nobody has life figured out). I realized that it's never too late to learn. Language learning is a lifelong process, and it involves being able to immerse yourself in the language. It means taking the extra time to understand and to be comfortable with the unknown, with making mistakes, and being patient with yourself. At the same time, this means unlearning narratives and stories we tell ourselves about our associations with language. It can either be a childhood experience where other children teased you for not knowing your native language, or even your family and friends who tell you you can’t speak properly. Why is there an all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to language? Whether you’re practicing reading a newspaper or you keep messing up counting to 10, acknowledge that you’re making an effort to improve, and that is perfectly acceptable. Recently, I had a conversation with a friend who mentioned her fear of passing down language to her children. How can we continue to pass down the languages we already struggle to speak with our parents? There is a fear of losing language, of losing culture, of losing ties with the generation before. I couldn’t help but think about this liminal space we live in. There is a narrative we’re forced to consume. I don’t think we have to balance between living in two worlds, trying to fit in, or pleasing others. Clinging so hard to the past but not allowing ourselves to assimilate. Because it doesn’t have to be one or the other. There’s this narrative told to us over and over again that we start to believe it. So often we try to conform and fit this mold, the expectations of others, but we are enough the way we are. Knowing how to speak a language, speaking a language poorly, or learning to speak a language later in life: none of these dictate anything about your worth or value. Maybe just as the succeeding generations changed after the first, it’s okay for cultures to change. Our culture is melding and becoming anew. It means being creative and working with other communities to come up with something new (hello, fusion food…). It can mean accepting how the people of our past have paved the way for us now, and in turn, how we can/should pave the way for the future generation. Change is inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be scary. Don’t be confined to what is expected of you. I encourage you to create something new. Read more about Proposition 227 here: NPR “The Return Of Bilingual Education In California?” (2016) PBS “Battle of bilingual education once again brewing in California” (2016) UCLA Civil Rights Project “Proposition 227 in California: A Long-Term Appraisal of Its Impact on Language Minority Student Achievement” (2008)

It’s been a while, SF! Club Rambutan has been on a month-long hiatus since we published Issue 3, but we’re back into the swing of things! I’m taking you all on a little detour from our usual Bay Area content, as I just returned from a one-week trip to New York City. *cue Alicia Key’s part in Empire State of Mind* “But for the San Francisco newsletter? Really?” I mean… this article might be helpful if you find yourself going to the Big Apple or are considering joining the all-too-common SF-to-NYC pipeline (or vice versa). Also, in case you haven’t heard, Club Rambutan is expanding to its third branch in Brooklyn come Fall 2025 (if you happen to be in Bushwick on April 3rd, pull up to our one-night-only pop up)! So without further ado, this is what I did for my first time in NYC. A LOT OF FOOD Prepare yourself for a lot of sweet and savory combinations that I’m still dreaming about! Mei Lai Wah Pineapple Bun with Roast Pork - $3 Where do I even start? The golden crackly crust of the pineapple bun is the perfect sweet contrast to the tender cha siu glazed in a savory sauce on the inside. The bread is soft but not soggy, the ideal medium to hold the delicious filling on the inside. Soothr Panang Duck Lychee Curry - $27 I’m telling you right now, you have to ration the lychee. The lychee, arguably, is the star of the show here and completely changes the dish. I never imagined lychee to be found in a curry but it honestly makes sense. My perfect bite is a spoonful of rice with curry, a piece of roasted duck, and a sliver of lychee on the top. L’Industrie Pizza L’Industrie Pie and Fig Jam and Bacon Pie - $38 for half and half Oh, wow. The fig jam and bacon pie is the best of both worlds. Crispy, flavorful bacon contrasts with the sweet, sticky jam… a lot of textures to take in. Creamy burrata and fresh basil are always welcome on top of the pizza. Looking for something more classic? The L’Industrie is a tomato-based pizza with slabs of prosciutto and burrata on top for a more classic slice. Ravagh Persian Grill Koobideh Kebab with Albaloo Polo - $31 I’m still thinking about this Iranian restaurant on Madison Ave…the beef was so incredibly tender and melt-in-your-mouth, and my friend and I made the best decision of substituting white rice for albaloo polo, which is basmati rice cooked with sour cherries. Juicy kebabs on a bed of purplish rice dotted with cherries… a joy to see and taste. A LOT OF MUSEUMS You can spend an endless amount of time in different museums around the city. I stopped by the Metropolitan Museum of Art ($17 for students, $30 for adults) first. Ranging from European paintings to American art, I needed a few days to hunker down and go through every room. but I tried my best to look through as many as I could in one day. There was a special exhibit for Caspar David Friedrich, most famously known for his painting, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. It was a treat to be able to dive deeper into his work and see how his interests and desire to illustrate vast landscapes changed over the years. Another museum I enjoyed is the Cooper Hewitt Museum, which is right by Central Park. Focused on historical and modern design, it was really interesting to see the different exhibits and how design plays a role in shaping our communities. One exhibit dived into the design of senior living communities and how to help retired and older generations stay connected, while another exhibit dove into a high school Spanish teacher’s design process to create opportunities for students to interact with the local Spanish-speaking community. I found myself pausing and reflecting as I walked through each of the exhibits, seeing how design goes under-noticed but can play a huge role in shaping our lives. A LOT OF METRO If you’re going to NYC, you’re going to be taking the metro. For me, I paid $34 up front for a week of rides (but you can also tap-to-pay with the same card to up to $34, and all other rides in that same week are free - just as you continue to pay with the same card every time!). It took one or two rides to get used to the station and the lines, but as long as you follow the signs, it’s pretty easy. Service does change at late nights/weekends, so pay attention to the signage if so. It’s a change from BART as the NYC metro has more stations, more lines, and more riders. Although BART was once hailed as an example for other transit systems, its financial model depends on rider volume and is now its Achilles heel, which was especially hit hard during the pandemic. And although you can go practically anywhere in NYC with the MTA, you can’t say the same for BART, as you have to use Muni and/or AC Transit to get around. I got the chance to explore the history of the NYC metro through the New York Transit Museum located in Brooklyn. Spanning back to the 19th century and detailing how the metro system continued to grow and expand over the years, the museum is a great chance to learn more about the history of the city through public transit. That’s it for my New York City trip! Stay tuned for more in the upcoming months as we prepare for our usual Bay Area programming. But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing Club Rambutan soon in the Big Apple.

Deva Rani is an Oakland-based South Asian artist. Her recent single, “darling”, was released in September 2024. Read my interview with her below to learn more about her upbringing in Oakland, her journey as an artist, and her music influences and inspirations. FELIX: You released your first single, “Blue Raspberry”, in 2020 during the pandemic and I’m curious to hear about your growth as an artist. With your most recent release, “darling”, do you notice any changes in your music style or approach to making music? DEVA: I actually wrote “Blue Raspberry” in 2018 when I was in high school and I was going through a break up so it’s been around six years since I first wrote that song. I noticed after Blue Raspberry, as I started putting out more and more music, my lyrics became less and less personal. I was so fixated on writing something that I knew people were gonna hear, and so I started censoring the stories that I was writing about. And because of that, my lyrics were losing vulnerability. But, in the past year, the songs that I’ve been writing are truly coming from my heart and I’m basing them on real experiences. I’m still working on trying to be more personal in my lyrics, which is something that can be hard for artists because it’s like showing someone a page in your journal, but when I do end up putting it into a song, it makes me feel like I can give my audience a piece of my experience. I’ve also definitely improved my producing skills. A majority of the songs I write I also self-produce, and it comes down to how well I can make a song sound like what I’m hearing in my head and feeling in my heart. I’ve noticed that with practice I’ve gotten better and better at that. At the end of the day, I was a producer first and songwriting is something that came afterwards. FELIX: I see the cover art for “Golden Eye” as well as your other song cover art has South Asian influences. Has your cultural background influenced your creative process in any way? DEVA: My family and my culture influence everything that I do. My grandmother was a pianist and used to teach me growing up. My dad was also a pianist and played in a rock band growing up. My affinity towards music is undoubtedly genetic. South Indian music has influenced my production a lot. The rhythms you hear in Carnatic music are so complex. It has inspired a lot of what I put in my music. I’m heavily inspired by seeing South Asian artists like Sid Sriram and Priya Ragu come out with music that blends elements of Western music and South Indian styles. Of course, growing up as an Eelam Tamil, MIA was an artist who inspired me both as a producer and as a performer. She was the first Tamil artist to gain international recognition, and she did it while shedding light on the genocide against our people. She has always been radical in her art and has been an inspiration to me and many others. I’m hoping to incorporate more and more elements of the music of my ancestors into my sound. With that being said, the culture I grew up around in Oakland has been equally inspiring to me and how I’ve formed my identity. FELIX: As a creative, one of the things that artists can struggle with is burnout. How do you balance spending time with your music and taking breaks? DEVA: This is something that I definitely experience more often than not. I was talking to one of my friends about this who is also a songwriter, and she described it as the changing seasons throughout the year. A tree can’t produce fruit year-round. Being in the studio all the time is not sustainable from a creative standpoint. My music is a space where I can express my emotions and bring life to them. But this only manifests when the sounds build up inside me and I can’t help but hop on my computer and let it all flow out. When that happens, you can’t pull me away from my computer for hours until the song is practically complete. If I take ten days out of the year doing just that, I’ll have a full project. Or at least I wish it was that simple, but the creative process is never on a timed schedule. I am also a full-time student; I focus a lot of my energy on school and music is something that I get to do in my free time. Songwriting is something I definitely can’t do when I feel like I’m under stress, however during certain parts of the year where I have free time that’s when I get most of my music done. Once I have a decent amount of music created, I can focus more on releasing it and promoting it. Through this cycle, I’m able to be productive on my music year-round without having to constantly create. The other thing I find important is to spend time producing music that I know no one will hear. This takes some of the pressure off of having to be creative for an audience and instead, I can be creative for myself. FELIX: One final question! As a Bay Area creative, are there any creatives you look up to in the Bay Area? Do you know of any local up-and-coming artists from the Bay Area? DEVA: The Bay Area has always been a hub for creativity. However, I think we’re coming into a new era of Bay Area music that will transform the culture here. There are so many artists I have had the chance to see come out of Oakland and shake up the music scene. Shout out to my producer friend ShawnIsADHD. Shawn is so talented and has taught me so much about producing. He not only makes R&B music, but he also produces for rappers and other experimental artists. He’s got a great vision. I also want to shout out Red Heron Studios in Oakland. They host incredible Bay Area talent for their live shows. The studio is also run by artists who are making waves in the Oakland music scene. They’re doing so much to highlight the talent here. I look up to everyone who is hustling as artists in the Bay Area and dedicating themselves to their craft. They’re the real inspiration. I’m very lucky to be living in Oakland during an era of immense creativity and musical evolution. You can follow Deva Rani on Instagram, Spotify, and Apple Music. Watch her visualizer of Moon Dweller below:

When I was in college, I was flat broke. When flat broke, the best thing you can do for yourself is get a library card, especially if you enjoy books and third spaces. In Arizona libraries, we have this wonderful resource called “Culture Pass,” provided by Act One, which is pretty much exactly how it sounds. Free entry, free tickets, free access to the arts and cultural sites around Arizona. Not to get personal, but the Sunset Library and I have been on and off since 2012; we’ve quite recently separated again due to me moving to midtown Phoenix. People always say long distance relationships never work out, and they were right! After any breakup you absolutely must do something drastic, so let’s walk through the process of getting a library card at the Burton Barr Phoenix Library - the flagship location for the Phoenix library system. Conveniently, I live only 7 minutes away (by car). First off, the entryway is insane. I only have the picture below to show the side of the hallway. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of the front while so many people were going in and out. Sorry! Just imagine huge glass doors and then a wide hallway with frosted glass walls that opened up into a massive ground floor with a nice medium sized water feature. After I got over the shock of a water feature being in a library, I took a left to the librarians on duty to open up a card. Now, if you’ve never opened up a library card, here’s what you need - photo ID and proof of residence. The proof of residence can be on your ID, a piece of mail, or a copy of your lease if renting. The rest of the sign up process is boring, so we’ll skip to the fiction section since I’m a freak for reading. The signage in this section was incredible, and dare I say, accessible. Now, I haven’t personally checked one out yet at the Phoenix Library but in Chandler, it’s a very similar process. You approach this stand pictured, and select a pass to take to the front desk. The librarian will trade the physical pass for two tickets to whichever exhibition or place you have chosen. Last year, I used a culture pass to go to Arcosanti (as seen below), an experimental town/bronze bell forge located in central Arizona. Some other places you can check out are the Phoenix Art Museum, the Desert Botanical Garden, the Heard Museum, and much more. Once you use the culture pass, you can also fill out this form to win tickets to a local exhibition or show! Something so wonderful about this particular library is that there is an art gallery on the first floor and often various little exhibitions around the different floors available for to peruse. On the second floor, there was a cultural exchange photo exhibition called “Through Each Other’s Eyes,” where two Japanese photographers and two American photographers swapped cities and took photos of anything that piqued their fancy. The Central Gallery can be found on the first floor to the right of the water feature. Right when I was going to go in, I overheard the security guards talking about how they were going to lock up since it was near closing. I got nervous and decided to leave instead, as one does. To wrap up this beautiful experience, I was asked to sign an Elon Musk funded petition as I was leaving. Not really how I thought this would end, but an accurate representation of Phoenix. I did not sign it.

I love reading. I read so much as a child and spent all my free time in the library between tennis class and choir practice. I read so much that in 4th grade, I won 2nd place in my school-wide readathon (apparently I “cheated” because I was supposed to track all the books I read since the start of the school year, but I listed everything I’ve ever read…ever. But I couldn’t be at fault because the kid who placed first definitely did the same thing). As I grew older, I naturally lost my hobbies…only to rediscover my love for them as an adult. And earlier this month, Meet Me in SF’s book swap helped me find others who are currently doing the same. At least 25 or so guests were brought together one stormy night under the cozy roof of Kopiku, a cute Indonesian cafe on Lombard street. The event was executed in a highly organized fashion. I first heard about it from their Instagram, where they linked a form that all interested participants had to fill out. It was almost like preparing for a blind date, but with less pressure and a heavier emphasis on literature. From there, I had to wait a few days until I received an email with the meet up address and confirmation that I’d been matched. After Venmo’ing a flat fee of $10 as instructed (which included 1 complimentary drink and cookie), I was all set. As soon as I arrived to Kopiku, I was asked to fill out a name tag, but not with my actual name. I had to write down “a topic that I could go on and on about”, so I just filled in Club Rambutan (lol). Afterwards, I explored the narrow coffee bar, where ZZ DJ’d all night long by the line for free refreshments, which was in parallel to a decorative wall of guests’ miscellaneous visual submissions depicting pictures of their childhood, screenshots of their notes apps, and things that inspire them. Fun fact: I heard a friend of MMSF coded an algorithm to make the book swap matches. And surprisingly it was a great fit! In our forms, TKim (who helped print the free bookmarks in the first image above) and I both mentioned that we read a lot of Asian and Asian American literature, so we both brought books that fall under that category. My match works in healthcare, and the book I gave her focused on Hmong culture within the lens of the American healthcare system (I highly recommend The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down). She got me On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. To end the night, I got to chat with Rose, the face and lead organizer for all Meet Me in SF events. Check out our interview below! **Questions provided by Felix Dong, SF Bay Area Managing Editor of the Rambutan Roundup. What drove you to start @meetmeinsf? How do you manage to put together all your events by yourself? ROSE: I didn't know what Meet Me In SF was going to be when I made it, I just knew I wanted to host one event and the rest was kind of this organic collective that came about.The first event I wanted to create was "Meet Me In Chinatown", an Asian American creators' collective featuring a fashion show, art exhibit, DJs, and vendors.  The majority of people displaying their artwork for the very first time. That event was the catalyst to starting MMISF. For a little bit of context in my own personal life, I worked as a community organizer at Chinatown Community Development Center for about a year and a half. I left my job because I was craving to do something more creative and pivoted to a gig at Sundance. After that experience, I felt so creatively inspired and had all these ideas! I just really wished that people like me, Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) creators, could have a platform, like bedroom DJs, people who don’t identify as photographers but love taking film photos, writers who only write in their room, people who make videos but have nowhere to put them. I could see there was a gap in the Asian American creative space and I wanted to bridge my past experiences to help fill it. What drove me to start Meet Me in SF began with my own journey as a creative and really trying to find my people. I think it kind of propelled me to uplift other people who are kind of like me, starting off or maybe just dipping their toes. And I may be the creative director and handle almost all the logistics behind the scenes, but it really does take a village.  Adhi is one of the founders of Kopiku, and he sponsored us. Like, there was no way I would have been able to have a venue and have drinks and food . And the whole Kopiku staff was there to support. And I had friends fly in to help support this event, you know? It was very much a team effort. What was the inspiration between the book swap? ROSE: I was super intentional about cultivating a space that allowed for genuine connections. I think books are already so intimate, it allows you to get a little nugget of a person -- what they're learning, care about, or want to feel. I thought a book swap would be an organic way for people to have fruitful and meaningful conversation. From the ideation stage of wanting plastic chairs and tables at the event that emulate the street markets in Asia, to asking attendees to submit their photos for a gallery wall, to the matching algorithm to swap books itself --- all of it was planned with the intention of allowing people to build those organic connections. What have been some of your favorite books to read lately? ROSE:  I’ve been leaning towards a lot of historical autobiographies. Like, I’m still working on A Man of Two Faces by  Viet Thanh Nguyen, and then I have big creative reads like Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. As the organizer for @meetmeinsf, what are some of the challenges and joys of being able to host events for the SF community? ROSE:  The first thing I thought of is the initial fear of just starting something and feeling like it could fail. Like, what if I make this event and it sucks and no one comes and I used up all my time and effort and it looks stupid, or it's just embarrassing because I tried and it fucking failed.  A personal challenge for me as an organizer who is doing something that I care about so dearly, I don't have anything to hide behind.  If it fails, it's, you know, something I created and I feel the pressure of something going wrong and it would be my fault. You just have to get over the fear of something terrible - it might not be exactly how you pictured it, but if you push through, the joy carries over. But I also learned that doing something that scares the shit out of you, the other side of the tunnel of that is some type of magic that I have only really experienced a few times in my life. I think with hosting these events, I feel like it's that type of special magic that happens when you bring people together and just put a lot of intention behind building community as creatives, as Asian Americans, as just people, as humans. I felt such joy being in book swap. It was really intimate and cozy, seeing people make friends and just connect. It is so great as a community organizer. It's like your greatest desire to see people mingle and have fun, you know, but you can't control it. You can only hope. You mentioned you’re relocating back home to San Jose soon. Do you have any plans for expanding @meetmeinsf into the South Bay? ROSE: Regardless of the title of the Instagram handle (@meetmeinsf), I've learned that this is something that I feel so much purpose in by hosting these events. Regardless of where I end up, I will always do my best to contribute or build some type of community in one way or another.

I keep going to local places in Phoenix, taking an obnoxious amount of photos, asking the owners questions, and then not writing articles about them because I don’t have enough to say. Therefore, here is a smorgasbord of some places that I loved recently. Yumi’s Coffee Currently: 3015 N 16th St. We mainly wanted to go to Yumi’s Coffee because my fourth roommate’s (a Russian Blue cat named Mayumi) nickname is Yumi. She’s 4, has 2 kids that she gave up for adoption, and loves everyone. It’s run by a lovely Japanese woman and her boyfriend (yes, he’s white) currently as a popup in Dig It Gardens on the weekends from 9 AM to 1 PM. I got a Yuzu Honey Matcha Latte which they just discontinued… sorry to my Rambutan readers because it was so deliciously amazing. I’d give it five big booms (sorry again). Besides the matcha and coffee and baked goods, the space was amazing. Outdoors, lots of greenery, ample seating for a chat, etc. An oasis in the midst of downtown Phoenix. Trolley Coffee Car Co Currently: 1949 E Osborn Rd 6 AM - 4 PM, M-F Okay so drinks - we don’t really have a good baseline on what the drinks were like, but the owner himself is definitely worth a stop in. I would love to say I remember his name, but I don’t. I got into the car after and wrote down everything I could remember and his name simply did not make that list. (Guess what? I just stalked them on Facebook and it turns out Trolley Coffee Car Company was first conceived in 2007 by John Logan.) What I do remember is he was wearing the craziest car shirt ever and told me he had 23 more at home, so take that as you will. He was in a motorcycle accident, which made him think about life or something (which I believe is a natural reaction for people after they go through a near-death situation and want to reflect and reevaluate on their journey) and drew up the plans for a coffee shop contained inside of an old school trolley car. Once he retired from the construction industry, he decided to gift himself his ultimate dream, a trolley car coffee shop. Never in my life have I thought to myself, you could definitely sell coffee out of a trolley, so I really have to applaud him for his ingenuity. The Trolley opened its doors in October and they are so excited to serve the great people of Phoenix, Arizona. You can find it at the address above and at First Friday, driving around (they have crazy lighting so you really can’t miss it). Cheese ‘n Stuff 5042 N. Central Ave Despite the name giving early 2000s, this establishment has been serving Phoenix since 1949. To give some perspective, this is prime Cold War era and the US Army just got desegregated. Their claim is that they are a New York deli transplanted in Arizona. As someone who has frequented many, many NYC delis, I am sad to say that the claim is incorrect now although it looks like it was true in the past. It’s still a fully working delicatessen though, so no worries on that end. The website is beautifully dated in a way that I find endearing, light orange background with Times New Roman font for everything. I actually, upon further investigation, believe it has not been updated since 2009. What did we get to try? You’ll never guess - two deli sandwiches. Would I give it five big booms? Yes.

Recapping Resonance: A DIY Music Festival Locals Make it Happen When you grow up in Arizona, it’s easy to say that there’s nothing to do here. A lot of people who live here think that moving to California, New York, Illinois, or wherever else will bring them closer to the up-and-coming artists. But finding a local music scene really shouldn’t require you to move states. I thought the same for so long, but what really makes a good underground music scene is seeking out those artists and meeting the people who make it all possible. Despite being someone who is a little more shy, I have always loved concerts and live music. It’s a great way to be around a lot of people who enjoy the same things as you, but you aren’t necessarily pressured to make conversation. When you go to enough of the same venues, you start to recognize people, and slowly, it’s a little easier to make new friends and get more familiar with the local scene. Soon enough, you’ll know exactly who to call and how to help when the time comes. That’s how Ash Uss and her friends accomplished the first annual DIY music festival, Resonance. the first Resonance If I told you this whole music festival was planned five weeks before it was executed, would you believe me? Ash Uss couldn’t believe her and her friends pulled it off either. From March 15 up to the event on April 25, 2025, Ash recruited over 50 volunteers to find staging equipment, curate the lighting and decor, build the stages, and book all the gigs and vendors. With their venue contract, the festival crew was only able to set up at 1 p.m. the day of the event- only hours before the doors opened at 6:30 p.m. To say the event was divinely timed and supported is an understatement. The first annual festival was hosted at the IceHouse with three stages, twenty three artists on the lineup, seven local art vendors, and five food and beverage vendors. Ash curated this festival in hopes to inspire artists and attendees to show a night like this is possible - local bands, DJs, and vendors can come together to dance and enjoy music unique to Phoenix, Arizona. With Arizona’s geopolitical landscape in mind and the recent increase of racial attacks on migrants from the Trump Administration, Ash wanted to uplift the artistry of immigrants and Latinx musicians. She wanted to highlight the “stewards of the sound” with Arizona desert artists like Pijama Piyama with their salsa-cumbia-psychedelia, DJ Tranzo with his cumbia mixes, and Sativan with their contemporary heavy psych. Along with the artists above, Ash wanted to bring in her friends, some established local talent, and newer artists with technical skill and experimental sounds. Each ticket was only $35. For 23 artists, you could never find that anywhere else. But, in return, the artist's payout is also rarely replicated in Phoenix due to overhead costs at venues. With the proceeds from the event, the bands were able to be paid between $350 to $500 - a revenue uncommon to small artists for a one night gig. Event Flyers for Resonance Ash Uss photographed by Nico Rodriguez BY the numbers Vendor Photos by Nico Rodriguez Local food vendors like Monsoon Market, Maya’s Cajun Kitchen, and Urban Rez Eatery were available, along with local art vendors. Tickets to the music festival and a portion of bar proceeds also gave back to Sonoran Prevention Works, raising $1,200 for the non-profit. Attendees were also encouraged to tip the artists directly through QR codes leading to their Venmos, CashApps, PayPals, etc. Missing Spaces Further into the event space, a large interactive art installation called “Missing Spaces” curated by Jessie Demaree (clarinetist for Jerusafunk) and Seusanna Rivas to honor the missing DIY spaces that shaped the city’s music scene connected the Cathedral stage to the outdoor space. This poster board spanned across the room and honored all the DIY spaces in Phoenix that came before. Attendees were encouraged to add to the board with any thoughts they wanted to share. What’s next This summer, Ash Uss and Josh Caballes will be starting a new monthly series at Strip Mall Coffee called “SOUNDBYTE” Encouraging musicians to be experimental with their sound, the duo will be calling for proposals and will be providing artists with financial resources to rehearse and perform new material. Resonance 2026 is scheduled for Friday, April 24, 2026 at the Ice House. We are so grateful to the Ice House and to Cloth and Flame for believing in this event and what it means. Ash Uss photographed by Nico Rodriguez SOME Videos from Resonance Josh Caballes at the Cathedral Stage Morphia Slow at the Desert Stage Sativan at the Desert Stage Hyperbella at the Cathedral Stage The Color 8 at the Cathedral Stage Photos by event photographer nico Rodriguez & More photos by puredevotion

It’s a nice sunny afternoon on the day of Tori’s third pop-up. Despite it being the last Sunday of September, it still felt like summertime in San Francisco instead of autumn. A minute's walk away from the 24th Mission BART station, I reached the hosts’ apartment and rang the doorbell, hidden between the corners of the square tiled wall. One of Club Rambutan’s photographers, Ricky Chen, greeted me at the door and welcomed me to take our shoes off and come in. Up a steep flight of stairs and down the hallway was where the magic of Tori’s resides. Sunlight peeks through the living space windows as the vinyl record plays, with many other records sitting in the queue waiting to be spun. Amongst all the talking and tunes, guests can order an in-house specialty drink or snack at a table by the kitchen. I recommend the Einspeinner: creamy and foamy at the top, and a delicious drink to down. They also made hojicha lattes, brimming with the roasted tea flavors that complement the coming autumn. Cheese bread and cinnamon rolls were also up for grabs. The savory bread is soft and fluffy with cheese chunks folded inside, and the sweet rolls are perfectly decadent with a light glaze on top. With plenty of space to stand and sit, we chattered on about our weekends, flipped through the coffee table books, and waited for our orders to come. After the dust had settled, the table and chairs rearranged, and the apartment back in order, I sat down with the three housemates – Felix Fuentes, Josh Alvarez, and Ricky Chen – to learn the origins of how Tori’s came about, some of their favorite stories, and the future of their pop-up. Check out Club Rambutan’s interview below. You can follow Tori’s on Instagram here!

Edge on the Square recently organized The High Five Festival, the Asian American art hub’s third annual contemporary art festival. Spanning from Jackson to Sacramento Street, San Francisco’s Chinatown was bustling all afternoon on that sunny September 7th and into the early evening. The festivities began on Grant Avenue in front of Edge of the Square’s exhibit space, where the organizers began with introductions followed by performances from LionDanceME, Grant Avenue Follies, KOEX, and Audiopharmacy. Inside their building, many art installations decorate the walls for visitors to peruse and learn more about current events. A street over, there were plenty of stalls selling food to visitors. Events and performances were strategically spread across the neighborhood so that visitors could walk the streets without overcrowding in a single area. All locations of the festival were mapped out by different earthly elements, where guests could not only explore the events at hand but venture through several iconic locations in the city. The festival was spread out across five streets and alleyways in Chinatown. Earth 土 | Grant Avenue Fire 火 | Waverly Place Metal 金 | Ross Alley Water 水 | Wentworth Place Air 气 | Joice Street In Waverly Place, the Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Clubhouse held Avenues, Alleys, and Alchemy!, a panel discussion on the elements, feng shui, and urban planning design. Outside, guests flock to temari installations to learn more about the woven craft of Japanese handballs. In Ross Alley, it is only fitting that a metal music band, NONSENSE, rocks out at the center of this colorful brick narrow. The alleyway hosts a string of small businesses - including the historic Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory - and begins to fill up with spectators. Camaraderie, the sweet scent of baking dough, and riffs of an electric guitar charge the energy in the air. In Wentworth Place, the path is glazed over with wet paint as painters work on a new mural organized by Vida Kuang. It’s a bit of a challenge to remind both tourists and locals to avoid stepping all over it. Uta Tamate Weiss & Kai Tseng perform a blood ritual together with a drum and guzheng instrument while visitors observe on the sidewalks. And on Joice Street, a curtain of warped, reflective sheets are draped like chainmail on the wire fences parallel to the west gate of the then-barren Central Chinese High School. At the end of the block, a Bruce Lee mural greets the passersby. Want to learn more about the festival and experience it for yourself? Club Rambutan’s Editor-in-Chief takes the viewers through the streets of Chinatown while also completing an impromptu scavenger hunt. Check out the interview below.

It’s almost been a year since I've left my stable, cushy corporate job. I was never happy nor truly felt fulfilled there, despite the [false] sense of security it offered me. I didn’t leave with the intention of becoming a creative freelancer, or to even start a business. Honestly, I never thought I had what it took to be a business owner to begin with, so I had always chosen the “safe” traditional route. As the daughter of Cantonese-Vietnamese immigrants, it was always instilled in me that my career would result in 1 of 3 options: a career in the medical field, a career in STEM (my dad is a computer science nerd and engineer), or a career in business (preferably finance; and to be clear, not starting your own business because that is seen as unstable). However, I’ve always been creative, and everything I excelled at growing up was in the arts but therefore not seen as important (to my parents). I was never good at math but excelled in reading and writing. I have a core memory of my 6th grade teacher pulling me aside to tell me how great of a writer I was and encouraging me to keep doing so. I remember expressing to my parents how I wanted to be an author, to which my Dad immediately said, “Writers do not make money”. In that moment, I realized that to my parents success = “stable” 9-5 w/ guaranteed income success ≠ anything but a 9-5 w/ guaranteed income To preface, I don’t fault my parents for thinking this way - there’s nuance given that they were always in ‘survival’ mode growing up and had to make the best possible decision to secure their own stability for the sake of their own future. Still, it doesn’t mean that’s “right” or applicable to me and what I want to make out of my own life. I realize that their mindset has engrained itself into my subconscious, despite my doubts about it. It’s something I am still actively unlearning today. Because of it, I have always played it safe. I followed the safe path and did everything “right”: I went to college, got a degree in Business Administration (marketing), and secured a salaried job in tech. I remember sitting at my desk and often asking myself how I got there, how I landed such a mundane job and genuinely felt like my work was meaningless. There was always an itch for me to do something, anything other than plug numbers into an excel sheet. I mean, I taught myself how to use the sewing machine and make corsets out of curtains for crying out loud! Being self-employed is difficult because the system is not designed for “creative freelancers”. Being self-employed means you have to pay more in taxes (self-employment tax is 15.3%, not including income tax), and health insurance is daunting. You have to work twice as hard when you work for yourself. But I have learned it is not impossible. I love my job(s)! I own grl curated, a vintage clothing shop (online & IRL pop-ups), and I’m also a freelance website manager and designer for small businesses, such as Soul Real Market as of recently. Within this past year, I have learned so much about myself and the reality of choosing to work for yourself. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned since leaving the “safe” route and pushing myself out of my comfort zones. Self-discipline and consistency Self-discipline and consistency are rooted in how much you believe in your vision. Starting a business, freelancing, and generally becoming self-sufficient is hard and it only works if you continue to show up and hold yourself accountable. It took a while for me to find my footing, but I now follow a rigid schedule as if I had a “regular” job. When I first started selling vintage, I constantly got into my head, “Am I wasting my time?” “Am I naive for thinking I could do this?” "Can this become a stable income for me to live off of?” “Am I delusional?” There were days when I was paralyzed by my thoughts and couldn't bring myself to do anything. “I realized over time that I had 2 choices: put 8 hours of work into grl curated (i.e. sourcing, mending, repairing, cleaning, and photographing clothing to list, vend at markets,etc) OR put 8 hours into applying to roles I couldn’t care less about on LinkedIn and play it safe.” I decided to clock in for myself and to see how far I could take both my shop and freelance career. With time, discipline, and consistency, I started to see results. Exploring Career Paths I was talking with a fabulous friend of mine, JH (brilliant visionary) and he told me how important it is for me to explore and not just stick with /one/ thing. Specifically, he was telling me to not just box myself in as “just a fashion grl.” It was a nice reminder of the importance of being multifaceted, and that my 20s are for exploring different passions. I have multiple passions: sustainable and vintage fashion, community building, website design, writing -the list goes on. For me, self-employment has been a great tool for self-discovery, exploration, and confidence. I found myself designing an entire website for Soul Real Market, a popular flea market in Southern California earlier this year. My previous role in corporate was a Site Operations Coordinator (TLDR; I was the point person in coordinating online promotions for all of these big corporations). I have a strong background in website management and have always loved front end website design (I learned how to code HTML/CSS at age 12 so I could have the cutest Tumblr blog possible). Looking back, I love how I was able to explore this path, while simultaneously operating grl curated and contributing as a newsletter writer to the Rambutan Round Up. I initially took the job to have two incomes because it made me feel more secure. But with time, I realized how much I loved building and maintaining websites to uplift and spotlight small businesses and makers. Not only that, but I was good at it when given creative control. Learn from your community One of my favorite aspects of owning a small business is being able to connect with other curators, makers, and customers. Although grl curated started off primarily operating online, I do monthly pop-ups at markets all around the Bay Area. I love meeting people who share the same passions as me and are succeeding at it. It made me feel like I can do it, too (and I am proud to say that I really am!!). I started to regularly sell at markets because of my dear friend Anh (owner of a2rchive). I have learned so much from her and am grateful of how she’d always invite me to pop up with her even though I was a newer seller. When I first started doing pop-ups, I had NO idea what I was doing. I bought the smallest and worst racks, and was still figuring out how to source efficiently and how much inventory I needed. It felt intimidating, especially because of how saturated the vintage scene was. I learned so much from not just Anh, but other curators and makers I’ve befriended along the way. With time, my booth set up got better and my inventory tripled. With every pop-up, I made improvements and saw better outcomes. One of my favorite market memories was when I made $800 in one day (Wardrobe Project Flea). It was a milestone indicating that my hard work is paying off, and that I am proving to myself that my vision for grl curated IS possible. DO IT SCARED I was scared for a very, very long time, even long before I quit my corporate job. And sometimes I still am. Even now. But I have realized that the time will pass anyway, so why not just do it? I also remind myself that it is a privilege to have the freedom to even try working for myself. Being able to build something for myself makes my life feel meaningful everyday. Some days, I feel like I have no idea what I am doing but I do it anyway. When I worked a traditional 9-5 job, I felt like I was dreading the weekdays and scared of how my life would look if I continued to climb the corporate ladder. When I work for myself, I am scared of failing. Either way, fear is inevitable, but reflecting on how much my life has shifted in a year, I am really proud of myself. My days do not feel meaningless; I love that I get to find cool vintage pieces, repair them, and ultimately give them a second life. My focus with grl curated is meant to provide accessible vintage to all, and seeing customers fall in love with the pieces they purchase from me is incredibly fulfilling. On the flip side, I love working with small business owners to build their dream website and to be able to positively uplift their business in that way. Most importantly, I’ve realized that “job stability” is nothing but an illusion. The current state of the job market is proof of this - you can experience instability with any job (i.e. tech corporate layoffs increasing 62% in 2026). If you’ve ever thought about taking the leap to work for yourself, whether through freelance or by starting your own business, I’d say do it! It is liberating to become self reliant in this way, to spend your days doing work that feels fulfilling and having the freedom to choose your schedule. It is not easy, but if you have a clear vision and goals to work toward, everything just might work out in your favor :) “I’d rather work 10x harder for myself than work to make another rich man richer.”

The term “girl’s girl” has been brought up excessively within the past few years. Because of my television-catered social media algorithm, I see it primarily used by the media to dissect the friendships between women, such as in Sex and the City to Love Island. Its use is tossed around so frivolously that its meaning has become diluted. But I believe at its root that it means to appreciate, see, love, and support the women around you, as a woman yourself. And who doesn’t want to do that? This concept became top of mind for me when one of my comfort reality TV shows, Summer House, had its own scandal that plagued my For You page. Stars Amanda Batula had begun secretly dating West Wilson, the ex of Ciara Miller, who was long-term friends with Amanda. Joint statement from Amanda Batula and West Wilson confirming relationship I remember sitting on my close friend's couch reading the joint statement confirming the relationship between Amanda and West, letting out the loudest gasp, to the point of my friend asking if something happened to me. As a seasoned Summer House fan, I refused to believe the speculation of romance between the costars that had been leading up to the statement. Vanderpump Rules was the show for backstabbing, social-climbing friends with numerous infidelity scandals, while Summer House was its much more chill party-loving cousin. Think of Summer House as the bougie Jersey Shore, trading in the Jersey boardwalks for the Hamptons beaches. A long-running staple of the show was the friendship between several women on the cast including Ciara and Amanda. Scenes from seasons past would show the women giggling in bed, gossiping about fellow cast members, and being each other's shoulder to cry on. I was moved by their genuine support for one another in starting businesses, vulnerability about their mental health, and the constant reassurance they gave one another that their personal worth went far beyond their romantic relationships. On this latest season, we saw Ciara offering Amanda a room in her NYC apartment as Amanda goes through her separation with her then-husband Kyle Cooke, and being a source of comfort in the demise of her marriage. The finale culminates in Amanda and Ciara tearfully expressing their love for one another and the importance they have in each other's lives. Paige DeSorbo, Ciara Miller, Amanda Batula I always admired and saw myself in aspects of Ciara. I had never seen anyone speak so candidly of having an incredibly rocky relationship with their family as I do, and the loneliness that accompanies it. Similarly to Ciara, my friends took the mantle on becoming who I would consider to be my family. Being gay, it’s very important for me to have a community of queer women around me that I trust and rely on as if they were my family. My friends have seen me at my lowest, answering anxiety-induced phone calls and coming to my house on a moment's notice with no questions asked. They may call me out for questionable behavior, but it’s honesty and coming from a place of compassion. I never once felt like a bother to my friends or misunderstood. I felt seen and cared for. The holidays I once spent alone are now filled with friends that I love. That's why watching the tearful “I love yous” Amanda and Ciara exchanged felt heartbreaking. These weren’t reality tv costars, they were friends with six years of history together. As a viewer, I was only privy to their summer's broadcast on Bravo, but it was evident the love Ciara felt towards Amanda. In what should’ve been a sweet moment of love between friends is clouded by betrayal. How could Ciara be so supportive of Amanda for leaving her toxic marriage, uplifting her time and time again, only to throw their years-long bond away to go to happy hour with that same man that caused her heartbreak? West, Amanda, Ciara By the time the three-part reunion premiered, it was evident that Amanda didn’t think twice about betraying Ciara. “You can’t help who you like!” Amanda pleaded in part one. What makes this even more sinister is that Amanda was using Ciara’s own words back at her. During Season 10, Ciara expressed this exact expression when tearfully explaining the backlash she received from viewers regarding the interracial relationships she was in during her run on the show, specifically her relationship with West: “Yeah, I guess if I could help it, I would. But you can’t help who you love. You can’t help who you are attracted to sometimes.” The reunion was incredibly frustrating to watch as Ciara tearfully expressed her hurt, while Amanda stared blankly back, looking half asleep. “West was there for me all summer—” Amanda began. “And where was I?!” Ciara rebutted. Did Ciara’s support through Amanda’s divorce mean nothing to her? Or did West’s support mean more because he was a man, and Amanda prioritizes validation from a man over friendship with a woman? Not very girl’s girl. Ciara would repeatedly bring up how her biggest issue with the men she dates is that they only saw her for her physical looks, but never saw for who she is as a person. I believe the exact same sentiment is true for Amanda. Her lack of remorse and awareness of Ciara’s pain revealed the truth of how she really sees her in the context of her own life. “You're special and you're so beautiful. And you're important and your voice matters,” Ciara spoke as she tearfully looked into Amanda’s eyes in the Summer House finale. Ciara wore her heart on her sleeve in her friendship with Amanda in a way that inspired me. She saw Amanda and loved her. I hope Ciara doesn’t regret her friendship with Amanda despite it all. There is nothing shameful about showing up for your friends wholeheartedly - it takes an incredible sense of trust, loyalty, and [platonic] love when deciding to be an active supporter in people’s lives. The courage to display these qualities - regardless of the reality of possibly being hurt in the process - is admirable, and we need to remind ourselves that being vulnerable no matter the consequences is all organically part of the human condition.

I feel the sweat clinging to my skin and the chill of the AC blasting overhead. Heads nodding in and out of sleep from my view at the back of the bus, swaying to the rhythm of the drive. Souvenir bags bulge out from the overhead shelves. The hum of the bus engine I’ve grown used to is playing in the background. The city lights peek out of both windows of the bus, and it’s a sea of stars. The tour to Sun Moon Lake is done. 2 hours back to Taipei. I’m processing everything that just happened today. There was a huge family that joined the same tour, and I couldn’t help but feel happy for them. The grandma holds onto her grandson’s back while they ride a bike around a picturesque lake. I’m sure they'll remember this for years to come. One of the tourists didn’t know how to ride a bike. The guide offers to give them a ride on theirs. “How do you like riding on the back of the bike?” I ask. “I really like it, I think I’m going to learn when I get back home”. I’m hoping they do. Wouldn’t that be the best souvenir, to have a life-changing bike ride that spurs you to learn a skill that you can keep with you for the rest of your life? We stopped by a famous tea store, and someone in our group was really excited to buy cakes and tea leaves; he bought two huge bags loaded with goods. An auntie took a photo of me in front of the visitor center that day. The fleeting nature of vacation tours makes me a bit sad once it’s all said and done. I start to think about returning to reality once my trip ends. This experience has been healing; I was able to take a well-needed break from work and spend some time with myself in a new environment. There were places that I wanted to check off my bucket list when I came to Taiwan, and going to Sun Moon Lake was a very memorable part of it. At the same time, I was hoping that this visit would somehow reveal to me the answers I was searching for. What direction should I go with my career? Will there be any creative projects that I can work on once I return? I worry about the uncertainty of the future, and I’m hoping that an “aha!” moment will end my anxiety. But I realize that it’s going to take some time for things to work themselves out, and that a trip can’t magically solve everything. The tourist next to me has spent the last ten minutes trying to take a picture of the moon. The highway walls and city lights start to meld together with the speed of the bus. What a human experience to find the moon so beautiful. I think about all the previous generations before me that looked up at the moon. The way that people around the world are so captivated by it that we’ve honored it through festivals across different cultures. We try to capture it through our phones, our paintings, our art, our writing, our eyes, all in the hopes of preserving a memory of its beautiful mysteriousness In an hour or so, we’ll all go our separate ways and bring our souvenirs home. There is a 99.9% chance I will never see these people again, but I don’t think I’ll forget them, at least not for a while. I see myself in them. In the way I wish to bring my grandma on a bike ride. In the way that I want to learn new things after experiencing different parts of the world. In the way that I can’t help but stock up on snacks for family and friends. It feels good to take photos for other tourists. I can’t help but look up at the sky and search for the moon. I walk back to the hotel, these thoughts lingering on my mind as I think about dinner plans.

In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, I (Kyla, Social Media Manager for Club Rambutan) had the opportunity to connect and highlight a few AAPI artists whose work is shaped by their identities, experiences, and communities. Through these questions I asked, I learned about their creative journeys that brought them to where they are today, the cultural influences that inspire their work and what being an AAPI artist means to them. Sherelie Lum: Filipino & Chinese-American Photographer The first artist I spoke with was Sherelie Lum, a Filipino & Chinese American photographer, videographer, dancer, and creative director from South San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout the interview we got to talk about her identity, family, and how culture continues to shape the way she creates art. Between Suns, Sherelie Lum For Sherelie, art has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. She first discovered her love for art when she was just eight years old in elementary school art class. What started with drawing and painting eventually grew into making polymer clay charms, and later expanded into what she does nowadays which is photography, videography, and dance. When asked about her earliest influences, Sherelie reflected and immediately thought of the teachers Ms. Castillo and Ms. Bonny, who encouraged her creativity. They introduced her to everything ranging from oil pastels, lanyard making, knitting, and many more. As she got older she found inspiration online through creators like Conan Gray, whose videos sparked her interest in photography and visual storytelling. Today, Sherelie’s work is deeply connected to her Filipino and Chinese heritage. Rather than existing separately from her art, her culture is something she intentionally weaves into the projects that she creates. One example is from her creative direction series Between Suns, where she wore an heirloom passed down from her lola as a way of honoring her Filipino roots. More recently, her cafe pop up Shlums Kapé, incorporated mahjong, a game that was a constant presence throughout her childhood. What started as a personal nod to her Chinese side later became something more meaningful when she additionally discovered the connection of mahjong to Filipino culture. Throughout the interview, one theme kept coming up which was the importance of memory. Sherelie shared how much of her inspiration comes from her grandparents and the stories they carried with them from the Philippines and China. Food was specifically the most important way she connects to her culture. Sherelie spoke about the relationship she had with her grandfather and how sharing meals became a way of understanding not only him, but the culture he came from. That connection between food, family, and identity eventually found its ways into projects like Shlums Kapé, transforming her pop up into something much more personal and intimate than being a typical cafe experience. When I asked what it means to be an AAPI artist, Sherelie described it as both an opportunity and responsibility. She sees art as a way to share stories that aren’t always told and as a space to navigate her own experience growing up between Filipino and Chinese American identities. What stood out most to me was her desire to create work that helps others feel seen. Whether someone is reconnecting with their own heritage or still figuring out where they fit, Sherelie hopes her work encourages people to explore their own cultural identities deeply. She also spoke about a challenge many AAPI artists experience which is balancing creative passions with cultural expectations around success. For many artists, pursuing a creative career can mean pushing against expectations that prioritize that stability and traditional career paths. Because of this, Sherelie hopes people take the time to understand that AAPI culture is more than an aesthetic or trend. It’s a lived experience filled with history, complexity, and personal stories that deserve to be respected. Talking with Sherelie reminded me that art can be more than self expression, it can be a way of preserving memories, honoring family, and creating connections between generations. Through her photography, creative direction, and community centered projects, she continues to celebrate both sides of her heritage while creating spaces where others can do the same. Darius Varize: Illustrator & Painter with Black, Japanese, and Filipino roots. The second artist I spoke with was Darius Varize, a Bay Area native with Black, Japanese, and Filipino roots. His art is primarily through illustration, painting and drawing. Growing up as the son of a retired clothing designer, Darius was surrounded by art and fashion from an early age. Those experiences shaped not only his creative interests but also the way he approaches storytelling in his art today. When discussing about his influences, Darius pointed to artists and creators such as Yoshitomo Nara, Otomo Katsuhiro, and Gainax animation. Their work helped shape his understanding of composition, and visual storytelling. Like Sherelie, Darius sees his heritage as inseparable from the work he creates. Rather than intentionally setting his art to be about identity, he explains that his Japanese and Filipino roots naturally influence how he views the world and the references he draws from. Through animation, fashion, and visuals, those experiences became part of his work. One aspect of Darius’ work that I found really interesting was his focus on representation. Inspired by Yoshitomo Nara’s use of cardboard as canvas, Darius began experimenting with similar materials while reimagining who gets represented within those spaces. He intentionally creates worlds that include black, brown, and more ambiguous bodies, people who have often been left out of traditional narratives and visual culture. For Darius, being an AAPI artist means contributing his own experiences and perspectives to larger conversations about culture, identity, and representation. As someone who comes from multiple cultural backgrounds, Darius embraces complexity and uses art as a way to explore how different identities can coexist. When asked about what he wishes more people understood about AAPI communities, Darius emphasized diversity. He challenged the idea that there is a single AAPI experience, explaining that AAPI artists bring a wide range of histories, influences, and perspectives into their work. To him, representation is not only about visibility, but about who gets the opportunity to shape culture and to tell these stories. As we celebrate AAPI heritage month, conversations like these remind us that art can be more than creative expression, it can be a way of preserving culture, building community, and telling stories that might go unheard. Whether through family traditions, food, photography, illustration, or storytelling, both artists honor where they come from while creating spaces for others to feel seen. Their work serves as a reminder that AAPI communities are incredibly diverse, and that those diverse experiences deserve to be celebrated and shared. Although Sherelie and Darius work in different mediums and draw inspirations from different experiences, both artists highlighted something that stayed with them throughout these interviews. Identity is not one dimensional.

I’m 26. I’m so young and yet also not. So much has changed and yet stayed the same, I’ve had fundamental realizations that I’m sure will be a laugh and a wave of a hand in ten years. After organizing my trains of thought, four stood out amongst the rest. You may have heard them before and if so, you’re going to hear them again. Perhaps there’s a reason everyone says them. Table of Contents Fail but also don’t Every day is a winding road… (Sheryl Crow) Core value-core Kill yourself (not ACTUALLY, please let me explain) FAIL BUT ALSO DON'T... We hear a lot about how starting something is the hardest part, or that “with intelligence versus persistence, persistence always wins.” I’ve personally found the entire cycle of trying something new to be difficult—I hate letting people see my ideas, my work in progress, or even the final result. Everything is easier with your cards held to your chest. But the worst part is that everyone knows what it takes to get better! Think about how the concept of struggle is often portrayed in the media - we love to root for an underdog, and getting a deep dive on how all their blood, sweat, and tears accumulate towards a seemingly overnight success. Theoretically, the knowledge is there to absorb and learn, and to apply it you must hypothesize, test, and fail numerous times before you get it. You want to make something happen? You need to have a voice and an opinion rather than be cordial and understanding. Ask for help; tell people you need them. Be afraid! Be afraid of the mistakes and looking stupid and as if you don’t have it together. People say you have to fail to succeed, but that’s really not so true, is it? Some failures are impossible to come back from. The cycle is persistent. The fear is real. Progress is painful and slow and tortuous and god, sometimes the reason you need someone from the corporate world is because those fuckers know that 80% of a project is real work and the last 20% is fretting over it. The world moves on and people will forget your accidents so fast - UNLESS it happens again. So fail and learn and fail and learn and never make the same mistake more than three times. Perfectionism has a place, but there must be an end to every cycle, a closing of every loop. A long time ago, I started only writing in pen because a dear friend of mine told me that it made you more deliberate with what you were writing, and you would make fewer mistakes. I just started crossing mad shit out. A long time ago, I started only writing in pen because a friend told me you would make fewer mistakes. I just started crossing mad shit out. EVERYDAY IS A WINDING ROAD (SHERYL CROW) Living with close friends is worth it. When else, other than your twenties, will you be able to live in such close, joyous proximity to them? The time with friends and family decreases drastically as you get older. People get married, have kids, vanish to Croatia, and it comes faster than you think. They’ll value other relationships more as they probably should. It’s the way of the world and the natural order of life. I realized how fast time was flying by when I returned home after college. By then, I’d been transiently gone for 6 or 7 years, starting with a stint in the hospital, to boarding school, then college. The house I returned to wasn’t the house I grew up in, and it was only half decorated because my poor father had no interior design taste. I was unemployed for months, eating greek yogurt in the morning and salmon in the afternoon—a rich, nutritious life indeed, benefitting from all the lessons my father had already learned without taking the time to learn for myself. There, I realized my brother was a fully formed human being during this time, and we slowly, awkwardly became friends. My brother actually is turning 21 during the publication of this newsletter. Everyone think to themselves, happy birthday Maya's unnamed brother! This isn’t a section on how you should live with your family, rather coming to the understanding that it’s truly about how you realize how much faster your life speeds up each year. It’s understandable, considering how the older you get, that each year is but a smaller fraction of what you’ve already lived. I first heard the phrase, “The days go by slow, but the weeks go by fast,” in the hospital when I was seventeen. Unfortunately, it’s true, and has been ever since then. What a curse! CORE VALUE-CORE You come to realize you have a core value. It shows up in all your relationships—platonic, romantic, familial. Once you find out what you truly value above all else, you’ll understand what you need moving forward. For me, it’s independence. I have a lot of confidence that I can do anything on my own (is this a little bad sometimes? sure) so I know I don’t need anyone. Even as I’ve grown, and to varying degrees wagged a finger at this part of myself, it’s still hard to not feel suffocated. To let something of this nature define you, it’ll be both your greatest strength and greatest weakness. The human race is hypocritical and paradoxical with our ideals, wants and needs. I’m sure you’re thinking along the lines of the attachment styles, but that’s not what I mean. I have a friend whose core value is kindness; her nature truly is to choose kindness wherever she goes. She’s still a stubborn bitch though, I’ll tell you that. What’s so terrible about being kind, you ask? The weakness there is the inability to truly be selfish. KILL YOURSELF Your taste narrows and you discover what you really like. Who are you? Settle into your bones. What lines work for your body? What colors? What makes you feel confident when you step into a room? What makes you feel happy? the ridiculous haircut I can still remember the first day I got blunt baby bangs (along with the rest of a ridiculous haircut that no longer remains) and how I felt looking into the mirror. Years of thrifting and accidental clothing overconsumption led me to realize that not everything interesting and cool and beautiful needs to be claimed. A very difficult lesson to learn. It’s not, “what do I want myself to wear,” it's “what will I wear?” It’s not, “what do I want myself to wear,” it's “what will I wear?” I like boots for the look and because they’re easier to take off than sneakers. I am somehow not a fan of Mary Janes even though I always think I will be. The strap over the foot is more annoying to buckle than a boot… and I always prefer a boot. I don’t like wearing sweatpants, especially out of the house. I value comfort in many ways, but too much comfort feels greedy and indulgent. I will always want shorts underneath any short skirt or dress so I don’t have to think about accidentally exposing myself. Some indulgent outfits from the past couple years, boot central. There’s an idealistic view we have of ourselves that we have to break. At some point, though, you gotta be real with yourself. Who are you truly? I’m a bitch who wakes up 20 minutes before work in the morning and barely makes it on time (and I’m remote). My bangs need to be this short because if they’re longer they require styling and then I’ll be a greasy bangs girl. I prefer short(er) hair to long hair because right now I have wonderfully long hair that doesn’t work with the hairstyles I enjoy. The sooner you accept you, the sooner you can adapt to what you really need. It’s time for some soul searching.

It’s April and it feels like the Bay Area has already gone through all 3 seasons (s/o climate change). This spring, I’ve been outside more: going to the beach, picnicking, and solo walks by the lake. The vibrancy all around me has indirectly influenced my style. I've found myself gravitating towards more color and collecting basics in natural fabrics. But what exactly goes into building my  perfect spring wardrobe?  Playful color & pattern combinations Rule #1 of dressing like Tiffany: don’t be afraid to mix patterns and textures! One of the best examples is my fit for my 26th birthday at Lake Merritt. Miraculously, the weather was gorgeous for early March! My outfit was heavily inspired by the spring time colors at the lake: an early 2000’s silk halter top with hues of green and blue paired with a Kimchi Blue  baby yellow satin patchwork mini skirt, blue sheer tights, and vintage Miz Moo yellow button ballet platforms. For my jacket, I brought out my signature vintage penny lane, as it naturally goes with almost every outfit. I also remembered my Tiffany blue picnic basket I found at a yard sale some years ago - it was the cherry on top. WHY IT WORKS: The silk top and satin skirt complemented each other well, adding an interesting texture to the whole look. The blue tights were a fun touch aesthetically, but were also functional as it kept my legs warm. My Miz Moo shoes were also the perfect pop of yellow, tying in the warm tones from my skirt and penny lane.  Shoes <3 The key to a comfy-cute outfit is the shoes.  As I look through the outfits I’ve worn in March and April so far, it’s the common denominator. My most common combo is a mini skirt paired with comfortable long boots. On the actual day of my birthday, I wore my Gap × Sandy Liang Vegan Fur Crop Denim Jacket , paired with an Old Navy denim cargo mini skirt and brown moto boots. The moto boots have a chunky heel and effortlessly go with every mini skirt I own. They truly are the most comfortable and versatile pair of boots I own. I wore them to Portola last year and danced all night with them on, and they’ve been my go-to ever since.  I also wore them when I worked at Club Rambutan’s ICE BREAKERZ event at The Fold in San Francisco later that month. I wore a slouchy off the shoulder “I <3 NY” tee and a black plaid mini skort, paired with the boots. Gap x Sandy Liang Jean Jacket + moto boots What I wear to work My “what I wear to work” outfits have changed drastically over the years. When I used to work in corporate, I didn’t have much time (or energy) to put much thought into what I wore. I’d often wear gray trousers with a buttoned top or jeans and a nice top with a simple ballet flat.  But I am now a #selfemployedbaddie,  and what I wear really depends on what I have planned for the day. I sell vintage clothing full time ( @grlcurated ) and am the Website Manager for Soul Real Market  My work week is split into days where I’m either physically sourcing for inventory, popping up at markets, or working from home.  On the days I source and sell at markets, I am almost always in my black Nike Air Rifts . I originally bought my own pair for a CDMX trip last year because I wanted to buy comfortable walking shoes that were not sneakers. I loved how they looked like an athletic Mary Jane and at the time, the split toe design was popularized by Maison Margiela’s tabis. The design actually originated in Japan, as the jika-tabi was created for functionality. The separation of the big toe allows for more mobility, better balance, and overall support for your feet when walking.  Nike Air Rift Tabis On my WFH days, I gravitate towards soft, breathable pieces that still feel styled enough to feel like me. I still want to look presentable but comfortable. I love wearing cotton baby tees and comfortable, loose pants like my black plisse pleated pants or flared yoga pants. For shoes, I’ll switch between my Nike Air Rifts , classic UGG’s Ultra Mini Booties , or  Azalea Wang Kismet Mules . Azalea Wang Kismet Mule Azalea Wang Kismet Mule Aside from the shoes, breathable materials like cotton and silk are my best friends during a heat wave. I recently bought a green Alice + Olivia silk halter top, the perfect elevated basic. The top has an oval open back, which is a subtle but unique detail that makes the piece stand out.      I’ve also rediscovered an old American Eagle cotton striped mini skirt I haven’t worn since college. The way I style it now, at 26, is so different from how I wore it then at 22. It’s a sweet reminder of how my style has changed over the years, but also the beauty of owning timeless, quality pieces in your closet. Alice + Olivia silk green top A&E white & brown striped cotton mini Bags, bags, bags  If you know me, you know that I used to have  a mountain of bags hanging from my door, and most of which I no longer reached for. So, I sold a big chunk of my purses because I want to diversify my bag collection.  I kept my most-used  ones which includes a handful ofGuess bags, the Baby Phat baguette, and Betsy Johnson hobo bag. The bulk of my collection are smaller purses, which are perfect for a girl’s night out or date night (no need for the wallet when my boyfriend is there!) but not very practical for an errands run.  I’ve only gotten one new bag so far.  I was given a beautiful Coach Hamptons signature satchel shoulder bag in embossed red leather from my sweet boyfriend, Abner. It’s the perfect shade of red and has gold hardware. Based on the creed on the inside of the bag, it’s from May 2007 (almost vintage).  I love the functionality - it's durable, structured, medium-sized, and has multiple compartments that are  perfect for everyday use. I wore it to my birthday dinner the same night and it’s been in my rotation ever since.  Betsy Johnson Hobo Bag, 2007 Coach Bag, Baby Phat Baguette, Guess Colorful Monogram Baguette My perfect spring wardrobe is still in progress, but I’m slowly but surely getting there <3 ( Emphasis on slowly) .

There’s a number of things that I learned from Leean Pan that Club Chazu and Club Rambutan have in common (other than the fact we both have the word “club” in our title, lol). But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that she and I were somewhat similar on an individual level, too. I saw Leean for the first time at the Neo Lunar New Year market in Downtown Oakland earlier this month, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her - she was busy with customers who were crowding around at her booth, eager to look at all her merchandise. With four years of expertise under her belt, Leean is a full-time jewelry designer born and raised in the Bay Area, and (in her words) is a “first and a half” generation Chinese-Japanese-American. In this interview, we explored her methods of honoring her heritage through her craft. MARIA: What is the Club Chazu logo? How did you (or the designer) come up with it? LEEAN: The logo was designed by one of my friends. Since I do a lot of beading and wire work in my designs, it is literally supposed to look like one of the first designs I ever made, which is the flower motif with the two lines in the middle being like strings or wire threaded through.  Conceptually, it's also supposed to look like a bowl of rice with chopsticks on top. I definitely have a soft spot for the logo - it symbolizes the beginning of my journey in doing this, so it's very heartwarming for me to just see it in different places. MARIA: Long story short, what's the story behind how you got into jewelry making? LEEAN: I started at the end of 2020, so pretty early in the pandemic. I had a very reflective period in a time of such sadness and chaos, I not only wanted to do something for myself, but I was also thinking a lot about how I could create something that was also community-oriented. My love for fashion, my love for community, and also wanting to be a voice in the Asian community manifested Club Chazu. A lot of my whole purpose in doing this is to share stories and to connect different generations and cultures across the diaspora together through commonalities. MARIA: On the website, there’s a quote from you that states, ” For me, fashion has always been about what makes me feel the most comfortable in my body and what I feel represents my inner being ”. How would you describe your “inner being”, and how do you try to communicate that through your craft? LEEAN: Fashion is all about expression, right? I mean…for what else, I suppose? not even just fashion - art is a form of whatever is existing within somebody - emotionally, their experiences in life, their perspective. It echoes your character.  We were talking about doing what we do to serve the AAPI diaspora*** , and I think that if I were to zoom out, it really is just my way of encouraging others to not be afraid to show who they are in this very moment. We’re ever-changing and evolving and are going to go through things that will change us. When I’m making choices everyday, like when I’m dressing myself or deciding what to eat, it’s about who I want to be that day, today. are moldable and that’s okay, so I find beauty in that. So with my jewelry, I want people to feel a sense of flexibility when they’re wearing a piece of mine, to express something, whatever that means to them.  ***I used to be involved with Asian American/Pacific Islander advocacy and event planning at Arizona State University through student leadership, and had initially planned for Club Rambutan to serve primarily AAPI artists before expanding to a more intersectional scope. MARIA: I completely agree. I love how you touched on the topic of “change” and that change, regardless if it’s anticipated or not in our lives, usually ends up somewhat influencing a piece of our own identity and how we navigate the world. The concept of identity happens to be the focal theme for Issue 3 of Club Rambutan’s magazine , and I talk about this in my letter from the editor What would you say is the greatest milestone/accomplishment you’ve achieved so far in establishing your business? LEEAN: There's so many different things I feel I could talk about, which is great to say, you know? A goal of mine for the last five years has always been to connect with people. Like I mentioned, community is very important to me and I'm really proud that I found a way to create things that people resonate with that they also get to take home. The product and business part is still really important, but doing all that behind the scenes and being able to present it in a package or on a table and have someone read the story behind it has really been a heartwarming experience for me. I try to tell a lot of stories through my jewelry. Some that are my own experiences growing up through my heritage, but also to use my jewelry as a vessel for others’ stories as well, like those who I meet along the way. So by building this open line of communication with my customers, in the way that I post on social media and especially in the way that I try to show up in person, it’s really important to me to hold space for people coming in.  Whether they’re seeing my things for the first time or have been long-time customers, I always try to create a safe space for them to feel comfortable talking to me.  Fashion can be a little intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be that way, you know? I chose “Club” Chazu because it’s not so much as being an exclusive experience, but actually an inclusive one. (Admittedly, Club Rambutan used to be just “Rambutan”, and I made it a placeholder name because I was craving it while coming up with the idea for the collective. I tacked on “Club” a month later because I thought it just sounded cooler ;P) MARIA: I also read that your jewelry intends to represent Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) cultures by “paying homage to past generations” . Scrolling through the shop page, I’m picking up on a very common theme in your merchandise: jade and pearl material, which are mostly assembled into a flower design that is made up of either five or six beads.  Why these materials, and why the flower design? And knowing this, how do you feel that these details accurately contribute to Club Chazu’s mission to honor such communities “across the diaspora”? LEEAN: I have to start by acknowledging that quote about “paying homage” because I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my grandparents or parents. I have a lot of appreciation for my grandparents who raised me and all the struggles they went through to give me a good life. I started Club Chazu to encourage the younger generation to wear their culture with pride. My materials also call to that because I use jade due to its integral values and properties across Asian cultures and families. The six-petal flower is actually just my modern take on the traditional jade donut. I wanted to do something more on the cutesy side, and a lot of my other designs are a little bit childish which is done on purpose.  Overall, Club Chazu pays homage to our ancestors who may have felt like they had to hide when assimilating into this country. We all have different stories about that. So I see it as me wearing jade proudly, or wearing different motifs, textures, color combinations that are viewed as “more Asian” as a way of standing up for them, doing it for them. Like, now we can do this and be proud of who we are. It’s really important to me to do that, and have my business be part of that legacy.  You can follow along Club Chazu’s jewelry journey on their Instagram and website .

Last month, I meant to write an article about what to do when you get laid off or find yourself suddenly unemployed. This is because, and I’m sure you’ve guessed, I was laid off in January. Great news though, just one month and some change later, I am about to be employed again! I am SO excited to have health insurance, money, and a reason to post on Linkedin. When I got laid off, there were two other people in the room with me, my roommate and her friend visiting from Indiana. Normally, this would be an awkward situation, but I’m wired to love awkward situations so I immediately texted a group chat.  Getting laid off is odd because they say things like, “budget cuts,” “we’re so sorry to have to do this,” and you’re thinking to yourself, “Okay… let’s keep this moving…” and in my case, you end the call with, “Thanks! Or I guess, maybe not haha.”  Now for the important part - what DO you do after you get laid off? Email the appropriate people with any questions you can possibly think of. What happens to my 401K? When do I get my last paycheck and then my severance check? How long does my health insurance stay active? Who can I use as a reference when applying to new jobs? Do I get PTO + sick time payout? (In AZ, legally they don’t have to) CONFIRM in writing you are being laid off and NOT fired. You can also ask your now-former employer their reason behind you being laid off if you want that in writing, too. Text your work group chat if you have one and complain a little. Maybe Facetime. Apply for unemployment benefits ASAP. You can do that HERE. After you do this, you will need to file weekly claims here .  Apply for Medicaid if needed. Go out with your friends and enjoy the rest of the day. I personally went shopping with my roommates.  Being serious here, it would also be a good idea to sit down and evaluate your savings and your monthly living costs to see how much time you have to find a new job. I lived at home for a year after college, so I had a good chunk in savings, but I know many are not as fortunate to have that safety cushion. Make a spreadsheet, see how long you can make it work and hit up Linkedin.  Speaking of applying to jobs, I can provide some other sites besides Linkedin to check out if you are between jobs.  https://hiring.cafe/ Takes Indeed job postings and removes the potential scams and ghost listings. Says that it scrapes companies' listings that post on their own websites. https://remote.co/remote-jobs Pretty obvious, for remote jobs. https://simplify.jobs/ Only lists jobs directly from the company site. https://jobs.workable.com/ Job board provided by an ATS company, so you are only applying to jobs directly on the company's system. https://www.ordermycareer.com/400-job-boards/ Some guy on reddit put this together and constantly updates it for various industries. The goat fr.  And now for some Linkedin tips (you can trust me on this because I was in a business fraternity).  Look up keywords in search regarding your job field - many times you can find people who are involved in the hiring process posting direct links to the job.  If you see a job posting within 6 hours and you apply, even if it’s Easy Apply, your application will likely be seen. This does not apply to when the job is ‘reposted.’ This is actually how I got my new job… I EASY APPLIED within 2 hours of the job posting. Literally could not believe my eyes when I got a call back. Absurd. Connect with anyone you can find in the field you are aiming to be in. Even other people who are looking at the same jobs as you … because you can see when they comment underneath posts going, “Just applied, would love to connect and chat about this!” My bad if this is a little evil but game is game.  That’s all I got for now, but remember - rejection is redirection. Yes, that saying is overused and sounds stupid, but cliches are always there for a reason. And if you’re employed and reading this, IDGAF!!! THIS ISN’T FOR YOU!!