The zine launch of “Noodles and Neurosis” by Dr Xi Liu took place at the Bearded Tit in Redfern and served as a celebration of the complexity of the queer experience. Xi was joined by two other remarkable queer writers of colour, Cherry Zheng and Oliver Vincent Reyes, who shared excerpts from each of their respective published works. The night was filled with readings and conversations facilitated through a Q&A about the zine and Xi’s work.
To begin, the host of the evening, Mai Kanhukamwe, settled any jitters in the room with her humour and nurturing presence. She introduced the first writer, Cherry, who delivered a poignant piece titled “Libations”. In this piece, Zheng, discusses their mother’s migration to Australia and the traumatic events that surrounded it.
After such an emotional reading of “Libations” we were once again comforted with Mai’s jovial tone who introduced the next writer, Oliver, who presented the comic “Latinx Feels Best”. The comics central theme was Reyes’ complicated relationship with the distance they feel to their Latinx heritage while growing up as a queer person in Australia.
Finally, Xi read a poem from the “Noodles and Neurosis” zine called “Love Languages”, the poem examined the diffusion of boundaries for migrant mothers who are enmeshed in the lives of their children.
After the reading of each writers pieces there was a short break before Xi and Annie Huang, Xi’s editor and a talented writer and comic artist, engaged with the audience in a Q&A. The questions ranged from discussion of the queer experience, familial and cultural relationships for people of colour, Schema Therapy and psychology’s current limitations for treating queer clients, as well as naviagting being a queer parent. Xi’s reflection and consideration when answering these questions created an atmosphere of security in the room, here it felt as though anything could be discussed without condemnation.
During this time an audience member asked the question “how have you reclaimed your body?” to which Xi replied that in their personal experience they struggled between the choice between identity and cultural background saying, “for some, the cost of reclaiming our bodies means losing our cultures” and talked about the complex decisions that queer POC often have to make.
The whole evening felt like a warm fluffy blanket being wrapped around the queer community, although we may have to explore difficult topics of conversation that effect our community, we still have protection in spaces such as this zine launch to explore those topics. All 3 writers, Cherry, Oli, and Xi did a brilliant job in displaying the diverse array of queer experiences.