Books
Cecilia Gentili’s Faltas
Tina Horn’s Why are People Into That?
Jordan Ifueko’s The Maid and the Crocodile
Jenn Lyons’ The Sky on Fire
Music
Juliana & LAGOS’ Manhattan
Meshell Ndegeocello’s Thus Sayeth The Lorde & Love
Rijah’s House in Tattoos
Misc.
Live: Ballet Hispánico
TV: Game Changer S3’s Ham it Up, Jeopardy!
TV: Dimension 20’s Never Stop Blowing Up
(+ its corresponding Adventure Party)
Podcast: Worlds Beyond Number’s The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One S3
(+ its corresponding Fireside Chats)
Articles
Sesali Bowen’s What You Look Like Stanning Chris Brown
“Using CB as an example, I explained that my intentional decision to not support him isn’t about punishing or holding him accountable. It’s about holding myself accountable”
“Whenever possible, my choices reflect my values and I stand on the business I claim. It’s about integrity for me.”
Alexander Chee’s The Novel That Tells You How To Survive America
“I have often said cynicism gets you nothing you want. It doesn’t protect you, it doesn’t win you allies, it doesn’t create communities, and it is a gift to your enemies.”
Lizz Dawson’s Vulnerability is the Hardest Place to Go, a conversation with Melissa Febos
“…students, where they are bringing the imagined criticisms of a bad faith reader to the desk with them when they’re doing the first draft. Basically, they’re already thinking, “What is that person on Twitter going to say about this when I publish it?” It is a preoccupation with others’ perceptions…. do not write for the bad faith reader. You have to write for the reader of best faith, the reader who most needs your work, and you need to do your absolute best work for that reader. Exile the thoughts of the person who is looking to invalidate the art that you’re making; you can’t make art that way. Or it will be a brittle, sad version of what you would’ve done if you had imagined the loving reader who is grateful and interested in what it is that you actually are trying to communicate.”
Danielle Friedman’s The Constant Work to Keep a Family Connected Has a Name
“It wasn’t until she was an adult that she realized her experience was the result of “hours and hours and hours of work” by her mother — all part of an elaborate effort to make Christmas special.
Eventually, Ms. Fawcett became a women and gender studies teacher at North Dakota State University, where she taught her students that this form of invisible labor, dedicated to family bonding and magic-making, has a name: kinkeeping.”
Yoon Ha Lee’s Dance the Exotic Dance for Me!
“The happy ending is a cage. A white-ass writer can write retellings of classical mythology and it is unremarkable. How many people hassle Madeline Miller about Greek heritage? When I write a retelling of the “Judgment of Paris,” I get pushback because it’s not a Korean story; how dare I step outside “my” lane? At the same time, people assume personal background levels of authenticity from that Korean-religion-factoid I put in a story after reading it six months ago on Wikipedia. Certain readers want me to provide exciting cultural voyeurism, and educate them in a fun, exotic bingo-square experience for their Goodreads challenge, and make them feel good about how performatively progressive they are; how dare I step outside the cage and refuse to perform the way they require me to?”
“At the same time, I’m troubled by “authenticity” when it’s weaponized selectively as a cage, used to gatekeep “acceptable” stories and topics for some authors and not others. There’s a reason Jedao is space Asian, but he’s a space Asian with a Texas drawl, as opposed to whatever the hell people think men of Asian heritage “must” look like or sound like according to some K-drama. I’m troubled when certain experiences or stories aren’t considered “real,” or more relevantly from a career standpoint, marketable, because they don’t fit into the confused preconceptions of some fucking cultural voyeur or some demographic calculation.”
Sara Petersen’s interview with Tia Levings, An Ex-Trad Wife On What the Insta Photos Don’t Show
“[Sara:] It’s also telling that feminists would protect a woman’s right to choose a traditional lifestyle, while the reverse is rarely true: the trad wife movement supports changes to our laws and government that restricts a woman’s choice to live any other way.”
Podcasts
There’s been a number of podcasts I’ve started listening to over the past year but haven’t noted them, so shouting them out now!
Midnight Burger
Midst
Myisha Battle’s How’s Your Sex Life?
Code Switch
(this B.A. Parker era is nice!)
Esther O. Lee 