Justice in June | June, 2020
Welcome to the June, 2020 recap. The month felt different, more somber perhaps, than the earlier Bon Appetit youtube videos/ gourmet food projects/ Tiger King portion of quarantine. My attention turned to the struggle for social justice, while protests against racism and police violence spread across the country and the world. For the month of June I followed the made by two USC alums and joined two study groups on antiracism. I examined my own anti-blackness and also thought about how Asian American advocacy must be deployed in service of Black Lives Matter. This work isn’t necessarily the most visible or picturesque, but it persists, whether seen or not. So, with that frame, we dive in to the everyday of June.
Weekly grocery shopping, this time at a boarded up Safeway.
Happy anniversary to Alex and me! Leftovers from our gourmet takeaway meal from SingleThread. And a caramel budino made by me.
Weekly chat with Whitney.
We had, up until June, been cooking almost every meal. We decided to add takeout to our weekly repertoire, starting with a Black-owned restaurant in our neighborhood, Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen. Plus, homemade Hainan chicken and rice.
Weekly lunch.
Monthly accountability meeting… with a gender-swapping Courtney filter, ha. I can’t unsee it.
Obama hosts a town hall on racism. Hasan Minhaj calls in Asian Americans to the fight for Black Lives Matter.
Weekly chat with Talya in Berlin. And me wrapping up my Nike Fitness Club program from May.
New plant babies for the garden! We started a second plot so now we have two neighboring containers.
Happy Hour with Accountability…
… and Lean In.
Walks around the neighborhood at sunset.
An outing to the newly reopened San Francisco Botanical Gardens. Reservations required, but it’s free for SF residents. There were plenty of people but there was also plenty of space for everyone to spread out. Plus, meeting up with Kristin for a socially distanced picnic in the park.
Whitney!
A peek at #BlackLivesMatter on the streets of Oakland. And on the scoreboard in San Francisco.
Weekly lunch date.
New antiracism study group, with a mini guest appearance.
Working on our submissions for the #isolayered double exposure project.
Courtney and me making use of Do-Hee’s Stay Home Stickers on our tiny hard drives (mine says Back Up Back Up Back Up). And Cassie showing off her Saalt menstrual cup. We’ve all joined in on getting menstrual cups this month, either Saalt or Nixit. Would recommend!
Lemon poppy seed cake. And takeout from Rintaro.
Lean In Happy Hour.
Hiking in Tilden.
Takeout from Soba Ichi.
Takeout from Pintoh and from Shandong, both in Oakland.
Lake Merritt.
Virtual wine tasting event with Ungrafted in Dogpatch. This was the wines of Northeastern Italy.
Garden time with so much lavender in season! My mask is from Goodfight. Word of warning, don’t wash them– it shrank quite a bit and no longer really fits.
A chat with Kait about defunding the police for our antiracism study group.
Watching Nicole Morrison (upper right) talk on a panel for American Photographic Artists with Bay Area Black photographers. So great to hear this conversation and to hear that opportunities have increased since this panel. Hopefully it’s a real, lasting change for good.
Porchetta neatly prepared by Olivier’s Butchery and home-rotisseried by us.
Monthly paint club, online edition #2. Thanks Lizzie for the sunflower bouquet inspiration!
Continuing our support of Black owned businesses. This is the smallest, easiest form of support. But we are also continuing with regular donations to orgs we believe in and more sustainable, lasting ways of working towards equity.
Accountability happy hour and Lean In happy hour.
Portuguese egg tarts, and a pickup of Bakers against Racism from Che Fico Alimentari with a mini picnic in Alamo Square.
Second picnic of the day, a socially distanced pizza party with Courtney, Do-Hee, and Cassie!
And that same night, ET at the drive-in movies for Meg’s birthday!
Back in Oakland.
The product of an entire quarantine’s worth of growth: three very tiny carrots, grown from seed. Well, better than nothing! Lovingly prepared, tops and all, in a crab fried rice.
Yellow themed, apparently.
Antiracism study group.
And an abolitionist study group with Stephanie and John.
Monthly #annatifftime with Tiffany in Sydney.
Katsu sando from Cafe Okawari! And a very bountiful harvest from Alex’s parents’ back yard with cucumbers, tomatoes, peaches, and apricots.
I finally got to use the hammock I bought all the way back in December. As illustrated on my iPad.
Little Gems lettuce harvest! And subsequent salad with all the goodies from Alex’s parents.
Accountability happy hour and Lean In happy hour.
Talya and Lauren.
Bike ride to pick up more yeast from Prairie SF.
Lots of bread projects: pizza from scratch, English muffins, flatbread.
And one more chat with Whitney…
… and one more lunch with Do-Hee and Cassie!
Bye, June. On to July!
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures, even in quarantine. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
