This took a turn that I did not expect and became about something entirely other than what I needed to write about. Which I do need to write about. But not there. Not right now.
So, here it is. This is what Under the Courtyard looks like most of the time, only with fewer links and more randomly lyrical musings about the places where reading happens.
On the way in
Marissa Jenae Johnson and Leslie Mac are launching the Safety Pin Box, a monthly subscription service for white people working to be allies to actively support change and Black women. The conversations about safety pins are ongoing and complicated. This is another effective way for white people (particularly white women) to put their money where their morals are. (Or, words and links where my morals are).
The setting
Today the world is much in my imagination, and too heavy to carry far into the world. The floor holds my weight as I hold Ethel's, though she offers me warmth, and I do little for the ground but walk upon it.
After the amounts and richnesses of last week, today there is slightly sweetened tea and a handful of barely flavored cookies. A large glass of water also, because it is so easy to forget to hydrate when the world is wet and falling.
To read
Newsletters are a favorite source of new writing and information. They are also challenging. Here is a person, one person, who has chosen to make a list of words in a unique order for a small group of readers who have decided on purpose to read them. Which means that whenever one appears in my inbox, it wants to be read, to be thought about and considered. I do not always send thanks to the writers, but I am getting better at it. Because they don't know, you know? Who reads, who doesn't, what it matters.
Here are some of the things I learned about from newsletters today that made room in my head:
A Man of the People by Helon Habila a short story published in Guernica magazine.
Trump: The Choice We Face by Masha Gessen a piece in The New York Review about the struggle between compromise and conscience.
Zadie Smith talking about friendships, conspiracies and musicals at LitHub.
I am not ready to digest Rebecca Solnit's Guardian essay as yet, but you might be.
Tibeb Girls - an Ethiopian animated superhero television series looks to change narratives and lives.
Developing relationships around a recognized need to do better within and for our communities expresses itself in many ways. Sometimes that way is a reading group:
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is the first book for the newly formed Activist Book Group in St. Louis.
James Baldwin's Another Country is the pick for CAM's group (also in St. Louis)
The Feminists in Love read Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed and have a plan to take time to reinvigorate and refocus in light of recent everythings.
The PoC Travel Book Club will convene in December to chat about Belonging: a Culture of Place by bell hooks.
The bookslut is starting a "radical reading reading group / potluck / anarchic sewing circle in Brooklyn" - their first reading is Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters (available for free online in its entirety).
Let's Read About Feminism is now voting for their December pick - the theme is Children's Classics.
I am reading bell hooks now and hope to attend the CAM group, and a meeting of the Activist group that is not at my old place of work. I am there far too much as it is, but that is where many of my heart are, and there is beauty in being close to the source of your love.
On the way out
Always remembering the power of honoring friendships and supporting people who support you. The pod squad at Another Round encourage each other and honor the work involved in getting the show to us. We should all hold each other up so well.
Thank you for taking the time to make room for my words every so often. It is appreciated.
Newsletters in my inbox: Reading the Tarot, Three Weeks, ...the fuck is this?, #awesomewomen, Another Round, LitHub, Here Be Monsters and others.
What are you reading, anyway?
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