Pyper

Michiyo Fukaya

Nat Pyper 2025

1 online resource

"In the epigraph to her self-published book of poetry Lesbian Lyrics (1981), MICHIYO FUKAYA wrote, "The dialectic of Japanese and American history produced me: a Lesbian Poet, victim and survivor of America's most vicious sickness which is racism." Born in Japan in 1953 to a Japanese mother and white American soldier, Fukaya was still a child when her family moved to the suburbs of Vermont. Her poetry and writing would fiercely confront a lifetime of loss, abuse, poverty, and depression, all compounded by her experiences of racism and sexism. After her daughter Mayumi was born, she survived by writing. She was a contributor and occasional editor of Commonwoman, a socialist-leaning lesbian-aligned newspaper. Isolated by Burlington's largely white feminist community, she sought solidarity with other queer women of color and contributed to publications like Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians and the Asian Lesbians of the East Coast newsletter. In 1973, she co-organized Vermont's first Gay Pride Day, and in 1979, she gave a speech entitled "Living in Asian America" at the First National Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference. After years of struggling with mental health and isolation, Fukaya committed suicide in 1987 at the age of 34. The lowercase letterforms in this font are based on those on the cover of her 1981 self-published book of poetry Lesbian Lyrics. The uppercase letterforms are based on illustrations that were used across many issues of Commonwoman and accompanied an article titled "Michiyo's Future Vision" where she wrote, "Now is the weaving time... I have a vision of hands, women's hands, weaving the tapestry of our future." This was completed in 2025 and is the tenth font in A Queer Year of Love Letters."-- provided by distributor.

Feminist theory.
Graphic design (Typography)
Théorie féministe.
Arts graphiques.

Software.
font.