We made it to 2021!! I didn’t read a ton on December, mostly re-read fanfic faves, and marathoned Bridgerton (which despite its flaws was immensely bingeable).
Books
Silver ed. Andrea Purcell
Iron Circus publishes some of the most solid and consistent comic anthologies, and this one centering erotic short comics about older folks is no exception. Tons of queer and trans representation too.
Music
Omoinotake’s One Day (Live for THE FIRST TAKE)
Cheerful but also infused with a sense of deeply missing someone.
Eyelar’s Say It With Your Eyes
IDK what it is about this but it’s catchy.
Rafael Casal’s Rear View (ft. Matthew Santos)
Something about this makes me wanna dance.
Podcasts
KPFA’s Letters & Politics, Contrasting the Foreclosure Crisis From the Obama Era and the Looming Eviction Crisis Facing a New Biden Presidency
Interview with Aaron Glantz. I found his suggestions on how the government could actually be helpful during a crisis
Articles
How a Deadly Police Force Ruled a City by Shane Bauer
Y’all know you fucked up when the New Yorker is covering your corrupt (Vallejo) police force.
The French Cartoon that Led Me to Fandom and Friendship by Priyanka Bose
A wonderful ode to the power of fandom, in this case Miraculous Lady Bug and Chat Noir.
Give Elliot Page—and All of Us—the Rightful “They” by Sarah Cavar
A reminder to use multiple pronouns when people tell you they use multiple pronouns. Happy to see this article since I also wondered why all the press I was seeing only used “he” and not “they” pronouns.
The vegetarians who turned into butchers by Melissa Clark
I’m a Romance Novelist Who Writes About Politics and I Won’t “Stay In My Lane” by Alyssa Cole
“Romance novels are, in a sense, a reflection of who is allowed to be seen as desirable by the media, as well as whose lovability (which is different from existence as a sexual object) is validated by pop culture. There’s a reason romance novels have primarily featured white cis-hetero people, despite marginalized authors fighting for recognition and representation for decades—and it’s certainly not that Black or Asian or queer people love or are loved less than white, straight people. It’s that publishing is steeped in the American political pastime of institutional racism, like everything else”
“In considering just how many people have been prevented from on page HEAs, readers and writers have had to be more introspective about what they are reading and not reading—and why. And this introspection has either strengthened their preexisting political ideals, or been part of the evolution of their view of the world outside the pages.”
My Spirit Burns Through This Body by Akwaeke Emezi
“I’ve spent years dissociating from it, wiping it into something unreal, but there is too much pain now to keep playing that game. I feel like I’ve been floating out of my body for ages and now I have to practice actually being inside it. My somatic therapist walks me through exercises to try and recognize the warning signs that precede a convulsion, signs that I’ve taught myself to ignore until it was too late. I want to learn how to give myself grace all the time, not just when I’ve crashed and can no longer move from the pain.”
The restaurant equity revolution will not be Instagrammed by Soleil Ho
“But for all of their progressive intentions, Instagram callouts lack the structure that can shepherd them from initial bursts of energy to practical resolution and long-term change. One reason is that the platform isn’t built for meaningful conversation: Comments are easily deleted, and it can be challenging to create an intentional space for dialogue if random users with no dog in the fight can pop in and participate.”
“In our conversation, Impact Justice President Alex Busansky suggested something that I’d never thought of before: What if the Bay Area hospitality industry pooled resources to create its own restorative justice center, where people could go to resolve workplace issues at no cost? Even if it’s not immediately practicable, the idea is intriguing: Long-term change can look like a process that others without social media clout, English-language proficiency or material resources could easily replicate.”
NYC Food Delivery Workers Band to Demand Better Treatment. Will New York Listen to Los Deliveristas Unidos? by Claudia Irizarry Aponte and Josefa Velasquez
“These workers, fed up with the grueling hours amid the pandemic and dismal treatment they say they receive at the hands of delivery apps, are acting on their longings for increased protections and better pay.”
““We work for the restaurants,” said Sian, who is 28. “We’re what’s driving their income right now. But they discriminate against us. We can’t use their bathroom.”
Holding Up The Sky by Rod Mason and Charles Massy
On the wild fires in Australia, the way white settlers refuse to listen, and Indigenous wisdom.
On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway by Rebecca Solnit
“A lot of why the right doesn’t “understand” climate change is that climate change tells us everything is connected, everything we do has far-reaching repercussions, and we’re responsible for the whole, a message at odds with their idealization of a version of freedom that smells a lot like disconnection and irresponsibility”
“There are situations in which there is no common ground worth standing on, let alone hiking over to. If Nazis wanted to reach out and find common ground and understand us, they probably would not have had that tiki-torch parade full of white men bellowing “Jews will not replace us” and, also, they would not be Nazis. Being Nazis, white supremacists, misogynists, transphobes is all part of a project of refusing to understand as part of refusing to respect. It is a minority position but by granting it deference we give it, over and over, the power of a majority position”
“This unilateral surrender is how misogyny and racism are baked into a lot of liberal and centrist as well as right-wing positions, this idea that some people need to be flattered and buffered even when they are harming the people who are supposed to do the flattering and buffering, even when they are the minority, even when they’re breaking the law or lost the election”
The Literary Life of Octavia E. Butler by Aida Ylanan and Casey Miller
A lovely interactive piece about the libraries Butler loved, mapped across Pasadena and LA.
Esther O. Lee 