This month whipped right the fuck on by, and now I’m staring numbly at the idea that we’re nearly halfway through 2021. Post-vaccination hesitation. Malaise and on-my-ways. Languishing and anguishing and never really getting started. So what do we read?
I loved “My Mother’s Hand” by Dante Luiz in Constelación magazine. It has the rough, wrestling quality of my favorite kinds of queer art. It is vigorous and rudely vital, brimming with the resentment of having to come out and hold the line.
This article on library furniture and prison labor does a wonderful job of explaining how complex systems overlap to make carceral participants out of even the best parts of our community. Also: bonus round on accessibility!
Did you know that a living woman scientist pioneered the work that makes mRNA vaccines possible? Gina Kolata is here for you with a story that might seem particularly relevant right now because of reasons.
In books: I devoured Leslie Brody’s new biography called “Sometimes You Have to Lie: the Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy.” Looking back, it seems ridiculous to me that I didn’t know Fitzhugh was gay. I remember thinking that Harriet, like me, was “different.” In a life of only 46 years, Fitzhugh managed to change children’s lit and fuck a lot of actresses. It’s a very revealing book.
