Week 31: Shake the foundations

Hey, all. This was Day 9 of my latest full-time parenting streak (Crush’s amazing nanny is out of town) so tonight’s installment is link-heavy. Hope you’re taking good care this week.

Calendar by Nikki McClure, pic first shared on Instagram, and yes, I finally remembered to flip from March to April.

What comes next?

Thirty-one weeks! Thirty-one weeks is almost 2/3 of a year. It’s almost a pregnancy. For those who are wondering what’s been, er, gestating and if I plan to retire the newsletter after I reach my initial 35 week goal, I think the answers are:

• I’ll take a break from writing these lengthy Wednesday night emails.

• I’ll still write to you via this list from time to time to share news about what I’m up to, snippets of writing, and links I think are worth sitting with or acting upon.

• I’ll finally finish my long-simmering, under-construction “professional” website, which I’ll link here once I at least make all of the font sizes consistent across each page.

• I’ll keep posting to Instagram (@juliaseesmith).

• I’m cooking up a fun new project with my fab writer friend Joanna Eng. More to come on that soon.

In the meantime, we’ve got four weeks after this one. How much spring do you think will have sprung in the meantime? Can you spot the first two tiny crocuses below? (And I don’t want to hear one gloating word, DC-based readers. Your cherry blossom porn is clogging my feed and making me jealous.)

Chicago links

I’m still processing the Chicago’s runoff election results from Tuesday night.

• Here’s a feel-good story for you (if you can feel good about the fact that O’Connor was in office for 32 years): Andre Vasquez Defeats Veteran Ald. Pat O’Connor, Rahm’s Longtime Floor Leader In Huge Upset. That photo with his parents! The quotes from his dad! All the activists who worked so hard to make this possible! 😭

• And here’s a testament to the importance of voting: Rossana Rodriguez Takes Narrow Lead Over Ald. Deb Mell In Too-Close-To-Call 33rd Ward Race (Block Club)

• I know that some people in my life are genuinely really excited to call Lori Lightfoot Mayor. I also know many folks who are worried and enraged (though not surprised). I’m trying to listen deeply, understand what might be possible now, and prepare to show up for the people who’ve been harmed most by our outgoing administration and the soil in which it grew. One perspective to be mindful of: Chicago’s First Black Lesbian Mayor Isn’t a Victory for All Queers (Benji Hart for The Advocate)

Wider World Links

• “It’s enough to shake the foundations of our country.” If you haven’t been paying attention to the Lucy Flores/Joe Biden story, take a quick listen to this < 6 minute All Things Considered interview (npr.org) and then read this piece by Nelini Stamp What Lucy Flores Can Teach Us About How We Value Women’s Feelings (Glamour, spotted via Charlene Carruthers):

  Make no mistake. We understand this is an enormous task. We are asking men to consciously change how they move through the world, how they hold their bodies, how they interact with others.

  But understand too that women already spend our entire lives fully conscious of our bodies, how we move through space and how we interact with others. We are constantly questioning our movements, recalibrating our posture, shifting our size and our presence based on who we are around and how they might feel. We are hyperaware of our physicality and the space around us.

  Men, now it’s your turn.

• Are you hosting a Passover seder? Check out this seder supplement from Integrity First for America (creators of my current favorite catchy-yet-substantial hashtag, #sueanazi). Full disclosure: I played a tiny role glancing over this resource as part of my work with Greater Good Strategy.

• The next tab open on my browser to read: Nipsey Hussle’s Dreams Were Bigger Than Hip-Hop (LA Times), thanks to this tweet:

  Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones

  I know I already shared this once, but it’s such a profound example of why it’s so critical to hire journalists who are of the cultures they are writing about. The depth of knowledge, the intuitive gravitas, is so apparent. He did Nipsey justice. Salute.

  

  latimes.comNipsey Hussle’s dreams were bigger than hip-hopNipsey Hussle wasn’t just a rapper. He was a man with ambitions to reinvest in his community and shift a culture of black capitalism in South L.A. His death at 33 is a cruel reminder that the streets are always watching.

• And because I am just the most fun*, the next one open is: We Fled the Gangs in Honduras. Then the U.S. Government Took My Baby. (NYT, via Neel Master) *I joke because I know I’m about to bawl. If you feel moved and equipped to donate somewhere after reading, some orgs to look into: Families Belong Together, Undocublack, and the Young Center.

• This is scary: “Protest is protected … but disruption is not.” University of Arizona will charge 2 students over protest of Border Patrol event on campus (AZCentral.com, via @dylanrocket on Twitter)

• This and the thread that follows (from Brittany Packnett on Twitter):

  Brittany Packnett @MsPackyetti

  A reminder: white supremacy *culture* is a smog that we all breathe in. Therefore: 1) every kind of person can perpetuate it. People of color have learned to do so for survival, and... 2) everyone, of all colors, has to interrorogate, unlearn, dismantle *and replace* it.

• …and for those looking to clear the air of that smog, there’s a three-week “kids + race” series underway at @theconsciouskid (Instagram, via multiple friends).

‘Night! / ‘Morning, to those of you reading this tomorrow!

Respectfully, I decline your notes*,

Julia

*Buzzfeed News via Ericka Hines on FB, and no, I haven’t watched Grey’s Anatomy in years, and yes, the clip in this piece did make me bawl.

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