At My Urban Farm, I’m Growing My Family and Growing Our Sanctuary
By farming, I connect back to my own culture. To, pun intended, my roots. To what it means to be a child of immigrants and help things grow.
Author of Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember (Ecco/Harper Collins). Her short fiction and essays have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Guernica, The Rumpus, The New York Times, and BuzzFeed, among other publications. Her novel is forthcoming from Ecco / Harper Collins. Beekeeper. She/her.
twitter: @xtinehlee
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More by this author
How to Be a Husband
I was husbanding—providing for my household by physically taking care of my land and livestock. And they were providing for me.
Unlearning What the Patriarchy Taught Me About the Pecking Order of Women
In my flocks, I’ve borne witness to what I fear.
How Do We Overcome Trauma?
I categorized the sexual assault under things that were my fault. “It was not that bad,” I told myself. “Others have been through worse.”
More in this series
Giving Myself to My Garden and Keeping Enough for Me
The thing my mom told me to do—“Save twenty percent for yourself. Never give one hundred percent to anyone.”—was not selfish after all. Not when thinking about my own survival.
Finding a Way Forward After Failure and Heartbreak, in Life and on the Farm
I was single for the first time in eighteen years. I felt unmoored. For the first time in eighteen years, everything was new, including me.
Sheltering in Place in My Backyard Garden
This period of social isolation is, I’ve told my child, an act of love for others. We are, whether we want to admit it or not, part of a herd.