Decolonize your minds, always.
Friends, People, Folks, Anyone Reading This Substack,
Please join me in wishing my friend and partner in this biz, Sherin a HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY TODAY. Big Gemini Energy bbs. And all she wants for her birthday is y'all to decolonize your minds and read about what’s happening in Ethiopia and read Carceral Capitalism.
What was on my mind last week? For one thing- In the Heights with the one and only Anthony Ramos has definitely been in there. Listen to the soundtrack for In the Heights here. Side note: If you haven’t watched the revived edition of She’s Gotta Have It, you’re missing out.(AR is also in this!)
AOC’s IG story (here’s a link to the tweet also) was pretty great and made me smile.
Again, I need to find more comedy shows that don’t have 90% of their line up to be straight cis gender white men complaining about their dating life more specifically how they can’t get laid or their “woe is me story”. *insert upside down smiley face*Another interesting stat: 62% of all stand up comedians are white. sigh sigh sigh This is why I love shows like Brown Privilege and Firestarters A women’s and LGBTQ+ mic.
I’ve also been thinking about how you build trust with new people in all kinds of relationships if you haven’t known someone for 7+ years. Is it literally just quality time and I have to be patient?
I’ve also been pondering deeply about the spaces we intentionally put ourselves in and that goes to the people we surround ourselves with because the world is opening up again--yes, we need to still be careful and not stupid but also we have a choice of who we hang out with--choose it wisely. Your time is the best gift you can give someone, am I being too preachy? Oh wellll. I miss going to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. I think that’s all I have to say for now, unless something comes up before 10am on Monday xoxo gossip squirrel.
Books I wish Read in High School
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi: Obligation is a strong word. Emotions are v hard bbs and in this book we’re talking about a super relevant topic right now which is….. caregiving but not for children but for aging parents. It’s a painful reality, especially if your family isn’t a freaking Rockefller painting on the outside or inside. Set in Pune, India, this is really a book about a complicated and messy mother-daughter relationship. Trigger Warning: for folks with Alzheimer's in the family or people close to you, this book has a lot of info about the science of Alzheimer's and is a main theme throughout.
Read if: You’re captivated and intrigued by the first sentence, “I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure.”
Books where you save yourself
Medical Apartheid Book by Harriet A. Washington, I’m 26 and this works still doesn’t know how to decolonize the female body or our medical system so y’all need to read this book.
Read if: you are legit anyone in this world bc decolonization of the medical system involves us all
On Trend
Drink: the intimate relationship between women and alcohol Book by Ann Dowsett Johnston, Thinking about drinking substance abuse and women and how many women can’t drink safely without potential assault so exploring that here.
Read if: you do or don’t get down with alc and wonder what the space is
Not your typical eat, pray, love
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure By: Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, and Mireille Miller-Young, last week I promoted Pleasure Activism and Pussy Power, are you seeing a trend here? Sex positive and female empowerment through pleasure huntees. Porn is a taboo topic to talk about particilary in American society except if you’re straight cis-gender and frankly white men. Let’s talk about porn from an intersectional feminist perspective because it’s not all about Porn Hub OK!
Read if: you’re into the history of women’s bodies, body positive porn, ethical porn, and you fucking believe in women identifying folks’s pleasure :)
Decolonize your mind
Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang: Drawing upon her own experience the author looks at the experience of as an Asian American woman, Chinese American woman, woman of color in an interracial relationship with a white man in the US. Chang herself moved to Ithaca with her now husband where 13% of the population identifies as Asian and a whopping 73% identify as White. As you can imagine there is some racism from folks in the community and from her Asian community for dating a white man (aka Reddit and the internet judging her life choices).
Read if: Think “coming of adult tale” as one article put it and a story about relationships, love, identity, and family.
Independent Bookstore Map:
Red Emma’s is at the interaction of a bookstore, restaurant, and community gathering place in MD, Maryland. At first their roots they started in 2004 as a, “4 volunteer-run anarchist collective bookstore” and their goal is “ first, to demonstrate, concretely, that it’s possible to build institutions that directly put values like sustainability and democracy to work, and second, in doing so, to build a resource for movements for social justice here in Baltimore.” Say it with me: Anti Capitalism isn’t a bad word ya’ll. :)