What is All-Purpose? Who is Rad Joy?
All-Purpose is a community hub/newsletter/blog/info source written and led by me, Vivi Nguyen, or V, for short.
I’m a queer, Vietnamese pastry artist, writer, and community worker and have spent most of my life writing and trying to understand the systems we live under, relishing (and interrogating) the foods we eat, and engaging in discussions with interested minds.
I established Radical Joy Bakery, a tiny pastry studio, out of my tiny home in New Orleans in 2020, and have since relocated to Chicago. Rad Joy specializes in botanical cakes, small-batch artisan pastries, and serves a wide array of diets.
Within a few months of opening, the studio’s Instagram gained a strong community following around its offerings, as well as the discussions I facilitated when ruminating on relevant topics. Many people asked me to put my work into a place they could reference. Thus, this newsletter was born.
Why subscribe?
I tend to write from an exploratory, experiential, and intersectional perspective, and aim for my work to accessible, rather than needlessly complicated. Some might describe my lens as queer, post-colonial, feminist, and class-conscious.
Paywalls suck, but as a freelance creative, the time and energy I currently output is not free for me, so I asked that you exchange your energy for mine.
Paid subscriptions ($7/month):
A newsletter exploring thoughtful topics around food, people, power, and pleasure delivered straight to your inbox
Information on upcoming events, collaborations, and other business updates
A space to join community* discussions around newsletter topic
A monthly recipe I developed/adapted (and maybe some fun photos)
Access to the full Substack archive
Free subscriptions:
All of the above, except for the recipes and archive
This community and some guidelines
Rad Joy’s community has historically been comprised of individuals that are loving, transparent, open, and eager to discuss and explore anti-capitalist, anti-racist thought and social strategies. Those with similar values, questions, or ideas are welcome to join our community through this newsletter or other avenues.
Challenging my views is fine, but please be thoughtful and do your own research and self-reflection before doing so. I also invite you to Google/do your own exploration before asking for information that may already be out there in the ether. Lastly, I do not tolerate hate speech of any kind and will not hesitate to delete/report/block you.
If you quote me or find my work to be useful, please cite me.
