March I Issue

Joon (they/them) is a cultural strategist at sparks & honey, where they consult tech, beauty, and F&B clients on how to future-proof their business.

Detester Magazine is a diverse youth-led platform that shares BIPOC stories that join together to create a picture that “expresses distilled human emotions'' that can accompany the varying detestful experiences BIPOC youth can feel and encounter.

Laura Gao is a comic artist and writer based anywhere with good wifi, espresso, and bread! Born in Wuhan, China, Laura immigrated to the U.S. and grew up in Texas. Her work has been featured on NPR, PBS, and her parents’ fridge. Laura’s debut graphic memoir, MESSY ROOTS, about her identity search as a queer Chinese-American in conservative small-town Texas, is coming out in January 2022 with HarperCollins.

Patruni Chidananda Sastry is a Classical Dancer, Intrapreneur, and Customer Service Expert. Patruni started dancing at the age of 7. Patruni Sastry's unique style called "Expressionism" is a new way to tell stories of awareness to society.

Patruni has also been performing Tranimal Drag under the drag name of Suffocated Art Specimen (S.A.S). His style for drag brings unique footprints of the anti-art queen. Tranimal Drag Art has been given a new Indianian approach with his style. With S.A.S, he presented multiple performances in spaces like Hyderabad Lit Festival, Kitty Su, and Kitty Ko. he has also been listed as a top performer in Pink News and co-founded DragVanti, an online website for the drag community in India.

Jade is a social entrepreneur and current CEO at X8 media, an influencer marketing agency that works with tech platforms and civic movements. She also founded an incubator program CRE8, an organization that recruits and mentors early staged creators to generate jobs and stimulate entrepreneurship. With over 500k+ fans and followers, her personal brand focuses on social media growth and motivation. Her content exceeds 15 Million views via YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. She started the millennial entrepreneurship podcast The Raisn Brand in December 2017. Then received the "Creator on The Rise" feature on YouTube Trending Worldwide. Her beliefs include, human centered influence and wealth distribution in the creator economy (the 20% solution).

Growing up in North America I was deprived of artists in media that looked like me. I struggled to relate to the people who I saw being successful in music and entertainment. I think I tried my best to feel like I belonged in a place where I knew I didn’t fully fit into. It somewhat forced me to be a bit of a shapeshifter and made my dreams feel very far away and almost unattainable.

Genesis Magpayo is a 17 year old girl living in the Chicagoland area and is one of the podcast co-hosts of Dear Asian Girl. Besides being a podcast co-hosts she loves reading, hosts her own on-air radio show, and loves thrifting. You can find her on @dearasiangirl or her personal account @genmagpayo with her linktree to see her work and things that she does!