Birthdays galore this week as my favorite Cancers (Kancers?), Kishori and Kira, did another trip around the sun. First, an epic dinner party where a picture of Kishori as a kid led to Jacob making custom mugs for everyone with said photo, while Kristine created a zine featuring all 20 guests as little ones. Birds of a feather but our flock is getting slightly obsessive about last-minute yet elaborate crafting projects.
Technically Kira’s birthday was last week but she was upstate with our mom so last night I took her out for a belated celebration that involved kayaking around Red Hook then eating crab rolls at sunset. Every Thursday from 6-8P and Saturday from 1-4P Red Hook Boaters sets up free kayaks that are open to the public at Louis Valentino Jr. Pier Park and it is hands down the best to cool off (with a view of Lady Liberty).
Our planet just had its hottest week in recorded history, following the hottest June on record. Here in Brooklyn it has felt particularly relentless. This interview with Jeff Goodell about his new book ‘The Heat Will Kill You First’ is clear-eyed in articulating how much of an existential threat it is to us all, “the engine of planetary chaos in our world.” Extreme heat is what led to the first-ever Amazon delivery driver strike in California, while it called off the scheduled New York writers’ picket lines. See you on the picket line next week now that SAG has entered the chat and all productions have officially ground to a halt.
A version of our world where collective movement actually happens swiftly to redirect labor while addressing the climate crisis? Allegra Hyde’s new short story Labor Pains, where the whole world gets new job assignments overnight. “All across the world, the new workdays began. People rehabilitated rain forests and un-kudzued meadows and collected plastic bottles from beaches and decontaminated oil-spill sites in estuarine deltas via bioremediation. They nursed starving polar bears back to health. They speared invasive lionfish and restored coral reefs. Sometimes they grumbled—they were tired and dirty and bored by the tedious labor—but grumbling was part of working. Everyone knew that. Grumbling was to be expected. So they continued. They let the workdays tick by.” It’s weird and wonderful.
In the midst of all of this, the summer downpours have been most welcome. I learned a new word via NYC Microseasons, “petrichor”. It’s the smell of rain in the air, from the Greek for stone (“petra”) and the blood of the gods (“ichor”). The term was coined by Australian scientists Richard Thomas and Isabel “Joy” Bear in 1964. The unique odor is actually an essence trapped in the rocks, released by rain making contact, giving us the blood of the stone.
RIP Milan Kundera who opened up so many new ways of thinking. This rare interview with him from 1983 is filled with gems. “My lifetime ambition has been to unite the utmost seriousness of question with the utmost lightness of form. Nor is this purely an artistic ambition. The combination of a frivolous form and a serious subject immediately unmasks the truth about our dramas (those that occur in our beds as well as those that we play out on the great stage of History) and their awful insignificance. We experience the unbearable lightness of being.”
Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill to be sold in stores, has been approved by the FDA. Starting in 2024, anyone can walk into a pharmacy and buy it, the same way you can currently buy condoms. The price is still unknown but Senators Patty Murray is thinking ahead and introducing a bill that would make insurance companies cover over-the-counter pills the way they currently cover prescription ones.
Tabatha Trammell gave birth twice when she was incarcerated and is now a prison doula in Georgia, providing emotional and physical support to birthing people who need it the most. Most only have two days to bond with the baby after delivering. Her organization Woman With A Plan empowers women emerging from incarceration to achieve safe, healthy, and fulfilling lives within the community. It reminded me of Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter’s documentary “Ain’t I a Woman”, currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum. She recreates her experience of giving birth while in prison, shackled and in labor for 43 hours.
Around 500 migrants have been moved to a building near the Navy Yard, which will eventually house 2,000 people - the largest dorm-style shelter in the history of New York City. Clinton Hill Fort Greene Mutual Aid is looking for summer clothing donations (new T-shirts, new undergarments, shorts, new socks, light sweatpants, jeans, and flip flops) and new blankets & pillows. They are also looking for translators who can speak Spanish, French, Farsi, Russian, Ukrainian, and Creole, I’ll be helping Sunday if you are fluent and around!
Paul Fasana was a librarian who shaped the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, and Library in Florida, volunteering as chief archivist from 1995 until the week he died in April 2021. He earned a master’s of library science at UC-Berkeley where he later established a scholarship for queer students. He then worked at the New York Public Library before starting the monumental work of organizing three warehouses of holdings into a cohesive archive. The Fasana/Graham Archive, named in honor of him and his partner, safeguards queer history with collections that, if stacked vertically, would be twice the height of the Empire State Building.
Thoroughly enjoyed this deep dive into the world of gummies (my favorite candy) which really turns into a meditation on textures and chewiness.
For this week’s field trip, see you at…
What: An outdoor dance party hosted by Friends & Lovers
Where: Rockaway Beach Surf Club
When: Saturday, July 15 from 3PM till late
Till next time,
ASK
Really good content. Well written