Alana Dao is a writer and observer interested in cultural criticism related to food and whiteness. She received a MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Latin American Studies and Spanish at Smith College, thereby rendering her completely and utterly unable to “get a real job.” Born and raised in Texas and Hong Kong, she currently lives in Portland, Maine with her hairdresser/art educator boyfriend and their infant daughter, who is named after a cocktail. She is the Executive Director of CSArt Maine, a community art share program she co-founded upon realizing, as mentioned above, that she was wholly unemployable. When not bossing people around under the guise of organizations she’s made up herself, she enjoys reading The New Yorker restaurant reviews aloud to her baby, evening walks to peek into other people’s homes, and plotting a return to her native Texas.