I'm Trying
Leftovers from the week of Jan. 24
Hi Dear Readers,
What a month it has been! Can’t believe it’s nearly February. I will try to keep this lil letter short today, since we have a lot of leftovers to eat up!
Life has felt a bit like the movie Groundhog Day for me this past month—more so than previous months. I get up, either go into the office or work remote, I exercise, I color, I read, then I go to bed. I’m a person who loves routines, but even this feels stifling and claustrophobic. The pandemic + winter + general anxiety makes for a hard go of it. Even though I love winter, I don’t love when it’s -9 degrees fahrenheit like it was yesterday.
I’m trying to do more things that excite and inspire me: working on my book (exciting, terrifying, and frustrating), creating a toolkit for libraries with colleagues as part of the National Forum for the Prevention of Cyber Sexual Abuse, making art, talking to friends, reading books, etc. I hope you’re also taking time for things and people that matter most to you.
I want to take a second to thank all of you who read this and have subscribed. It really means a lot to me. Thank you for supporting me and my work.
Enjoy this week’s Leftovers,
xL<3
Reading List 🔖
Black Hair in Video Games Is Terrible. These 3D Artists Are Changing That - Trone Dowd
By recruiting all Black artists and making the database free, Darke plans to create an anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and feminist approach to the portrayal of Black hair as well as a sense of unified ownership and investment in how the hairstyles are used.
Have We Forgotten How To Read Critically? - Kate Harding
There is no apparent awareness that, in writing a piece and publishing it, the author has said what they meant to say and turned the project of thinking about it over to the reader.
The Punk Marie Antoinette of the 1970s New York Art Scene - Ksenia M. Soboleva
Before moving to Berlin in 1984, Colette was a prolific artistic persona immersed in the 1970s New York art scene, a punky Marie Antoinette with a childlike voice and fashion confections. Working across a variety of media, yet always emphasizing the performance of identity, her creations ranged from frilly dresses and punk T-shirts to sculptural installations, light boxes and short films.
New Funding Will Help Highlight Five Black History Sites in the American South - Livia Gershon
A memorial to the victims of a 1973 munitions plant explosion and a monument honoring enslaved women who were the subject of medical experiments are among five Black history sites set to receive grants from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). As the Associated Press (AP) reports, the Montgomery, Alabama–based advocacy group is offering each recipient $50,000 to support current and future programming.
You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths: COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence - Mia Mingus
We will not trade disabled deaths for abled life. We will not allow disabled people to be disposable or the necessary collateral for the status quo. We will not look away from the mass illness and death that surrounds us or from a state machine that is more committed to churning out profit and privileged comfort with eugenic abandonment.
You Are Not Owed a Reason for Somebody's Abortion - Caitlin Cruz
So, it’s time for clarity: No one owes us their reasons for having an abortion, and it is not our job to convey relief, give praise, or recoil at certain reasons for abortion if we do learn them. Abortions that are safe and necessary are good. When a person is able to take control of their own life, that is good.
Our Animals, Ourselves - Astra & Sunaura Taylor
Socialist feminism, we argue, offers a valuable—and thus far underutilized—framework for understanding the cruel and destructive nature of animal industries.
Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh - bell hooks & Thich Nhat Hanh
Revisiting this beautiful 2017 interview between two amazing people. Anything you do for yourself you do for the society at the same time. And anything you do for society you do for yourself also. That insight is very powerfully made in the practice of no-self.
Librarianship 🪴
The Trauma of Library Work - Carrie Smith
The Streisand Effect Won’t Save Us From Censorship - Danika Ellis
School Board Bans Pulitzer-Winning Graphic Novel About the Holocaust - Blake Montgomery and Harry Siegel
Books of Note 📚
The Right To Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century - Amia Srinivasan (nonfiction)
Joan Is Okay - Weike Wang (fiction)
All My Rage - Sabaa Tahir (young adult)
The Year We Learned To Fly - Jacqueline Woodson (children’s book)
The Renunciations: Poems - Donika Kelly (poetry)
The Comfort Book - Matt Haig (self-help)
[If you order any of the books above or any listed on my Bookshop site, a percentage goes to local bookstores and I get a small commission. Thank you for not ordering from Amazon!]
Be Witchy 🔮
WitchTok: How Modern Witches Are Enchanting TikTok - Chris Miller
Playlist 🎵
“Love Without Possession” - Scout LaRue Willis
”Red Lights” - SAULT
”Medicine” - Momma
”Chitty Bang” - Leikeli47
”I Like What I Like” - Maliibu Miitch
Mood Board 💓
Self-Care + Good Things ☕
Snowy walks. K&A brought me food and then we had a virtual dinner party. Spicy pumpkin seeds. Pictures of my nephew Kino. Snuggling with T and watching “The Righteous Gemstones.” Virtual personal training sessions with Stella. Girlscout cookies! What about you?! Tell me in the comments!
Reading this was such a happy part of my day. And I tested + today, so thank you for the pick-me-up! So many of the things that you want to do more of are the same things I want to do... including sharing your sentiments about writing a book! Memoir here.