Mia Nakano

LGBTQ Editor + Founder
Mia Nakano

Mia Nakano is a freelance photographer, videographer, and web designer based out of Oakland, CA. She is the founding photo-editor of Hyphen. Her work has been seen in dozens of media outlets including Colorlines, the Kathmandu Post, and Democracy Now!. Nakano has contributed to organizations such as the Smithsonian, Salon.com, and the de Young Museum. She is a seasoned self-taught artist, educator, and lecturer advocating strategic and mindful use of visual arts to create social change. Nakano the director of the Visibility Project: a national photo and video archive dedicated to the Queer Asian American Women and Trans* community. She is a board member of Banteay Srei and the Queer Cultural Center. Mia is a proud 4th generation japanese american, queer woman of color, daughter of a single mother, and sister of a deaf adult.

Support Hyphen's 30th Issue and #AAIntersections

Mia Nakano - December 9, 2015

OUR 2016 GOALS

For over a decade, Hyphen has been the go-to-voice and thought-leader for broad Asian American experiences. We report from a culturally specific perspective maintaining that the space of Asian America is a political position where a range of social and political issues intersect. 

Lit Crawl San Francisco - Let me hear your body talk - Oct. 17th (8:30-9:30)

Mia Nakano - October 16, 2015
Lit Crawl San Francisco 2015

SF Lit Crawl is back, and Asian American culture and politics magazine Hyphen has gathered some of the Bay's finest poets and writers to perform their work in anticipation of our upcoming Health edition. We're getting physical with poetry and literature that explores the sweaty, sticky, sexy, soft, solid and supreme structures we call our bodies.

Find out more about Litquake, SF's premiere literary event, here: http://www.litquake.org/

Submissions Deadline: October 15th for Issue 30: Intersections

Mia Nakano - September 30, 2015

Submissions are now open for the 30th issue of Hyphen and the theme is Intersections. The theme is open to many interpretations and we're seeking great pitches that encompass the multitude of Intersections that exist in Asian America. For details on pitching a story click here. 

Being Trans is Not Criminal:

Mia Nakano - September 29, 2015
but the US Immigration System Thinks It Is

After months of campaigning by immigrant and LGBTQ rights groups, Nicoll Hernández-Polanco was freed from her detention by ICE. Her story, written by Kris Hayashi of the Transgender Law Center, is a story of a young woman who escaped the broken immigration system, and how she was criminalized and psychologically tortured simply for being young and transgender.  

Now You See Me

A photographer makes it her mission to bring trans and queer Asian women into visibility

Mia Nakano - June 19, 2013

Growing up in the ’80s, queer Asian Pacific Islanders were invisible to the general population. As the founding photo editor of Hyphen in 2001, I wanted to ensure broad Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) representation in the magazine. But most of the queer API groups I found were geared toward men. I felt alone and frustrated. Feeling invisible as a queer API woman in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wondered how other queer API folks found solid ground in cities without prominent API communities.