A clear-eyed mantra from
that carried me through last week and beyond: “we can’t afford to collapse in relief after a Harris victory any more than we can collapse in defeat after a Trump win.” I promised myself in 2016 I would never let my nervous system get hijacked by politics again. That Election night, I was on a film shoot at the Javits Center with Cailin, Jared and Kishori as we watched staffers from the Hillary campaign dismantle confetti machines rigged to the glass ceiling.I would be lying if I said I hadn’t felt some big feelings this past week. I cried once, after the 10th text message from a kid asking me when he’ll be deported. Twice, if you count the onions I chopped at Cafewal. But overwhelmingly, being in community has been a balm. Building new systems for ourselves takes time, energy and creativity but community power is the only way we survive. As Dean Spade writes: “Now is the moment to turn toward the most solid thing we actually have — each other.”
Specifically if you want to help newcomers in New York, there are so! many! ways! to get involved: do you like cooking food? Teaching English? Helping pregnant people? Giving out free clothes? Playing soccer? Mentoring teens? Fixing bikes? Reply to this email and I would be thrilled to welcome you and anyone you know into the fold. Or just show up and help out, no sign up required, to any of these great groups.
Some other things that have helped this week:
Landon’s upcoming Seed Garden that she’ll be planting with students at Stetson University outside of Orlando, Florida. “Exclusively with abortifacient, emmenagogic, and contraceptive herbs, each plant included has historically been used for contraception, birth control, and/or abortion.”
Twin brothers Pablo and Efrain Del Hierro and their performance collective Poncili Creación.
The salmon swimming freely in the Klamath River for first time in a century after the dams were removed.
Reading about how
’s father used to vote in 1950s Hungary: “where election results were preordained: They’d make an “X” on one thumb with an inky, black marker. Then they’d bring their own pen to the voting place, filled with disappearing ink. You had no booth to hide in, and election officials would watch you. Vote for the wrong candidate, and your name could wind up on a list. So, they’d mark the “correct” box with disappearing ink, lick their thumbs, and—as they folded the ballot in half and put it in the ballot box—transfer that inky “X” to the spot they actually wanted.”Rediscovering a screen grab from 2010 with the recipe for Saltie’s potato tortilla and then making it immediately.
Reading more about the classic Terminator 2 line that is the title of this post.
The poster Capitalism Is the Dance of Death with its caption:
From Greece to the Amazon, environmentalists and volunteer firefighters are risking their lives to protect ecosystems threatened by urban expansion, agribusiness, and industrially produced climate change. Yet the causes of these disasters are only accelerating, driven by a system that rewards profit at any price. We are swept up in a rhythm we cannot control, moving faster and faster towards our doom. Capitalism is the danse macabre, the dance of death. The upper image is a scene from the conclusion of Ingmar Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal, in which death, bearing a scythe, comes to drag the protagonists away to their deaths. The lower image shows the Alter Brigade, a volunteer firefighting group in the state of Pará, Brazil. They work especially along the Tapajós River in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. They are among hundreds of groups who have risked their lives to contain forest fires in Brazil during the historic drought of 2024, when the Tapajós River reached its lowest level on record. Not only the Amazon, but other Brazilian and Latin American biomes, such as the Pantanal, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forests are under threat.
Squeezing the last bit of hot pink Euthymol toothpaste out of its aluminium tube.
Reading the words of Willow Defebaugh, editor-in-chief of Atmos: “The etymology of the word ‘radical’ comes from ‘radix’ meaning ‘root’. As Angela Davis once said, ‘radical simply means grasping things at the root.’ For me, at this moment, that means regrounding ourselves in our purpose. Rather than turning on each other, let’s refocus on what needs to be done. Just as Yyggdrasil’s roots reach into the nether realms, we can draw strength from and allow ourselves to be radicalized by the pain we feel now, and let it motivate us to act.”
- & on building a culture of listening over mastering the right language: “A group culture that helps participants build their listening skills is an important component of successful organizing. Political education can create opportunities for people to practice listening to one another, without interruption, and interacting meaningfully with what others have contributed. For example, during the Great Depression, communist union organizers in Bessemer, Alabama, developed a practice of devoting thirty minutes of each meeting to political education. For thirty minutes, material would be read aloud—creating space to collectively listen while also allowing members who could not read the opportunity to hear the information. Members would then spend fifteen minutes discussing the material, listening to each other’s thoughts in response to the work.”
A haunting from James Baldwin:
A logical solution: feed people! For free! Or in the words of
: “Do not allow the rage to overcome the other part of you - the shining, glittering light that can connect with other humans who need you so badly right now. Please, feed somebody, feed yourself, fill your cup. Get rest. And when you’ve done that, look across the table at the people in your corner and get to work on whatever facet of relief you can provide to the planet we’re all hurting on right now. Do it in person, do the work in real life, understand your power and ask the people in your life if they’re okay, if they need you, if they’ve eaten today.”
Till next time,
ASK
Love you Ani ❤️