Revista N’oj Issue 4:
H.Y.P.H.Y Heal your People. Heal Yourself
ISSI's Latinx Research Center announces Issue 4 of Revista N’oj: H.Y.P.H.Y Heal your People. Heal Yourself. Issue 4 is a poetry issue and is a collaboration between our guest editor: UC Berkeley Instructor and writer: Dr. Juan Berumen, Oakland community activist and poet Beto Ortiz-Silva, UC Berkeley Chicanx Latinx Studies Program students as they reflect on what it means to heal themselves and our communities. Prof. Berumen invited Beto to facilitate a creative writing workshop with his class in which he posited the acronym HYPHY: Heal Your People. Heal Yourself as a prompt for poetry. Originally, a unique 90’s Bay Area hip-hop, dance, and cultural movement, hyphy– short for hyperactive– referred to the chaotic release of energy from excitement, anger, and frustration. Beto’s reappropriation of the term as a writing prompt rethinks the relationship between culture, creative expression, and healing. The poems from Issue 4 cover a range of themes from family healing, mental health, decolonization, joy, and Indigenous heritage invoking visions of collectivity and critical pathways of resistance.
Access the journal here.