Winter 2023

Table of Contents

Bodies

From the Editors

The “Bodies” Issue

In her first issue as YES! Magazine’s Executive Editor, Evette Dionne invites us to consider what we must shift within ourselves to make space for true equity.

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Transforming Ourselves to Transform the World

Five activists share how shifting their relationships with their own bodies helped them build community.
Nicole Froio
Korean women divers, known as haenyeo, gear up with chest weights (to aid diving), an L-shaped weeding hoe, and a net attached to a flotation device. A wetsuit, goggles, and gloves allow haenyeo divers to stay in the water for between five and six hours, even during the wintertime. Two haenyeo are in central focus in the frame, with a black-haired woman helping a white-haired woman put on gloves.

The Haenyeo and the Sea: Diving As Community-Led Resistance

This matriarchal Korean society overcomes crises united as a single body.
Kyubin Kim

The Black Mothering Body, Fortified

In creating new life, Black mothers must overcome medical malpractice and social unsafety together.
Gloria Alamrew

La Lucha Sigue: Lessons From Latin America’s Abortion Victories

Abortion advocates reeling from the end of Roe v. Wade can look to Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina for perspective, strategy, and hope.
Tina Vasquez

La Lucha Sigue: Lecciones de Las Victorias de Las Mujeres Latinoamericanas Por el Derecho al Aborto

Defensoras del aborto, desanimadas por la anulación de la sentencia en el caso “Roe vs. Wade”, que establecía el derecho constitucional al aborto, pueden dirigir sus miradas hacia México, Colombia y Argentina para obtener perspectiva, redefinir estrategias y recobrar esperanzas.
Tina Vasquez

Ramping Up Fashion’s Accessible Future

The fashion industry is designing adaptable clothing for disabled people, but is that enough to undo the industry’s ableism?
Christopher Reardon

Queering the Good Death

When it comes to protecting chosen family, LGBTQ couples face unique struggles.
Sara Harrison

Solutions We Love

Explore Section
A photo illustration in the shape of a human head shows red theatre curtains, parted to show three folding chairs and two microphones on a stage.
Commentary

Healing Trauma Through Drama

Therapeutic drama therapy opens the door to healing through performance.
Blair Glaser
Just the Facts

The “Obesity Crisis” Is a Fatphobic Myth

Fatness is treated as a moral failure, but the facts show it is all systemic.
Evette Dionne
People We Love

Ink Outside the Lines

Although tattoo art has origins in communities of color, today it is largely a white-dominated field in the U.S. Three tattoo artists of color share their views of the changing field.
Sonali Kolhatkar

Culture Shift

Explore Section
An illustration shows an older same-sex couple, both of whom are people of color, seated on a park bench. One partner wears a blue shirt and denim jacket, and has an arm draped over the shoulder of their partner, who wears a white patterned sweater.
Books+Film+Music

Forever Queer

Jamal Jordan embraces the unique and profound beauty of aging LGBTQ couples.
Jonathan P. Higgins
An illustration shows four Indian faces wearing headscarves of red, orange, pink, and yellow. The faces are set against a green pyramid that goes from light to dark, mirroring the caste pyramid infographic displayed in the article.
Books+Film+Music

Confronting Caste

A Dalit American leader offers a profound meditation on the violence of caste apartheid, pathways to abolition, and collective healing.
Sonali Kolhatkar
Hollywood Desonier, left, played by Omar J. Dorsey, sits on a porch next to on-screen squeeze Violet Bordelon (“Aunt Vi”), played by Tina Lifford, in Queen Sugar. Aunt Vi's is smiling as her hand cradles Hollywood's face.
Books+Film+Music

All the Sexy Older Ladies

From “Hacks” to “Queen Sugar,” pop culture begins spotlighting the sexuality of women over 50.
Sari Botton
Books+Film+Music

Shortchanging Harriet

From Doodle to a future $20 bill, Harriet Tubman is a cultural icon. But comforting images don’t show the disabled Black woman who was not only a guide, but a freedom fighter.
Treva B. Lindsey