Warm greetings, my friend.

I am glad that you are here, on this webpage and upon the Earth. Allow me to introduce myself.

Margin, a young East Asian person with green and purple hair, holds their beloved plushie Steppenwolf, who appears to be a gray wolf but is actually a transfeline creature who likes to meow.  They and Steppenwolf are nose-booping.
Me and my beloved plush transfeline creature, Steppenwolf.

My {first, English} name is Margin, like the margin of a page, or of what’s possible.  My {middle, Mandarin} name is Tianya | 天涯, which translates as “the margins of the heavens.” My {last, family} name is 郑 | Zheng, which is the name of a regional state that existed during the Zhou (周) dynasty of China.

My pronouns are they/them/theirs. I do not like honorifics, but if you insist on using one for me, I permit Mx. or Mz. I reside in the vicinity of Philadelphia, PA, United States.

I am a composer and performer of music, a mathematics tutor, a writer, an interdisciplinary artist, a wounded healer. I am a proudly Mad and neuroqueer soul and am learning to navigate the world in my transgressive bodymindspirit. But most importantly, I am philosopher, artist, awakener. (Read this essay to learn what I mean.)

Marginal Notes is split into two sections that each serve a different purpose:

  • The Updates section consists of posts that each provide an update on my life and artistic projects, a feature of a cool creative person whose work I want to boost, and a contemplative offering, or questions for personal reflection. I post an Update at the end of each month.

  • The Essays section is more like a blog, containing posts that pertain to whatever topics are on my mind, often relating to my personal experiences. Most often, I write about mental health, neurodivergence, spirituality, and social justice. I publish an Essay each week that I don’t publish an Update.

Substack allows you to subscribe to one of these sections and not the other. To change your subscription, go to https://substack.com/settings and go down to “Subscriptions.”

I invite you to join me in this journey. To take intellectual risks, challenging every threat of orthodoxy, including the orthodoxy of the margins. To open ourselves up to our M/madness, our bubbling strangeness, and thus to our growth.


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Reflections upon life as philosopher, artist, awakener. Journaling on mental health, neurodivergence, social justice, and spirituality.

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郑天涯, they/them/TA (彳也). Philosopher, artist, awakener. A person of yin and yang. Musicking, mathing, writing, dreaming boldly.