Take Care

"I want the no to petrify all movement.
For my human body to be seen as the centre
of a poem, it must be buoyant."

Take Care explores what it means to survive within systems not designed for tenderness. Bound in personal testimony, the poems situate the act of rape within the machinery of imperialism, where human and non-human bodies, lands, and waters are violated to uphold colonial powers. Andrada explores the magnitude of rape culture in the everyday: from justice systems that dehumanise survivors, to exploitative care industries that deny Filipina workers their agency, to nationalist monuments that erase the sexual violence of war. Piercing the heart of our cultural crisis, these poems are salves, offerings, and warnings.