i am sassa

Helen Zia has got to be one of the most authentic Badass women ever.

She has been both a construction laborer and executive editor of Ms. Magazine, a combination that makes me really just want to hang out with her. She’s also been all of these things: an auto worker in Detroit, a Fulbright scholar, founding board co-chair of the Women’s Media Center, a member of Princeton’s first graduating class of women, a torchbearer for the Beijing Olympics, a witness in the federal marriage equality case, a community organizer, and a recipient of multiple honorary Doctorate titles. She even completed two years of medical school before deciding it was for the birds. AND ALL OF THIS is in addition to her main gig as an author. Seriously, I want to hang out with her. This sounds like the life path of a passionate and wildly authentic person. And she just looks cool as hell. I’m only 17 paintings in to this project, but I have already painted such epic hair.

I listened to multiple interviews today while I painted Helen. My favorite was her 2019 Google Talk, Solidarity in Sharing Our Stories, which I linked below. She shares her story as a Jersey-born Chinese-American, growing up in a time where she and her family felt like “aliens”. She talks about being in Detroit during the brutal murder of Vincent Chin, who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat by a Chrysler plant supervisor and his step-son, a laid off auto worker. The success of Japan’s auto industry and the resulting lay-offs invited open scorn for Asian-Americans, apparently regardless of heritage (Chin was Chinese-American). The killers were initially sentenced to probation, despite the murder having many witnesses, including at least one off-duty cop. wtf. This was a turning point of the Asian-American civil rights movement, of which Zia is a prominent figure. She has also fought like hell for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and marriage equality. She says in the interview below that she has been married three times to her partner of 27 years due to changing marriage laws.

Her most recent book, Last Boat out of Shanghai, took her twelve years to complete, which makes me feel like 100 days of painting is no sweat. It tells real-life stories of those who left Shanghai during China’s Communist Revolution. One of the stories is that of her mother, which Zia said didn’t even learn about herself until she was in her fifties. Zia is an awesome story teller and you really should watch her Google Talk instead of scrolling on your phone before bed. It’ll be worth it.

Thank you, Helen Zia