Dear ones,
I started writing you an essay this week about work and precarity and loopholes and pleasure, but wouldn’t you know that work got in the way of finishing it. In the spirit of consistency though I wanted to write you a short note today anyway – just a quick update and little lists of goodies below. Reflective musings coming back next week. <3
As everyone in my life (or follows me on social media) knows, I just got through a hellish month of working a total of six jobs. May has brought that count down to about 3.5, and I’m slowly easing into my new schedule which I will insist includes time to do new writing. I have two book projects that I’m really excited about and would love to keep making progress on those, in addition to regular newsletters and some freelance essays. I spent years and years not feeling legitimate enough to call myself “a writer” and finally when I mustered up the confidence to lean into that title, I started working a full-time job that didn’t involve writing. And then when I left that job, I went through a breakup that hurled me into months of grief and required me to pay double in bills, both which pressured me to pick up every gig that came my way (none of which included writing)....So, I want to shift that. I need to.
I’m currently in Pittsburgh visiting my friend and writing client, Jessie Sage, whose beautiful memoir I have the privilege of helping steward into the world. This is also the first time I got to meet (in person) her partner, PJ Patella-Rey, who is a really brilliant researcher and is the reason Jessie and I met in the first place. It’s been a lovely visit and I’m enjoying being in Pittsburgh, which I hadn’t visited since I was a teenager. It is all at once a beautiful, ugly, chaotic and energetically-distinct city, which feels perfectly Rust Belt.
Otherwise, I am still in Cleveland, still tending to the ups and downs of my little heart, working with some local anarchists on opening a social center, going on my little walks, pulling my little tarot cards, taking my little selfies, listening to my little songs, and trying to be a better friend, comrade, and daughter while still doing right by my little boundaries.
So that’s all. Just wanted to send this hello and say that I’m thinking of you and that I’m thinking of writing and that I’m thinking, always, of liberation and how we can better nurture it.
I love you.
love & solidarity,
raechel
News & Updates
My only plug this week is for Clevelanders - I’ll be reading at the next Grieveland event on May 22nd. I’ve gushed about the Grieveland crew before, and I’m genuinely honored to have been invited to be part of the event. If yr local, come hang! <3
Reading
The transcript of this episode of The Final Straw on post-uprising anarchist politics and “The Great Refusal” - the ep was so good and interesting, and I love the zines they make of the conversation for easy revisiting. This Leslie Jamison piece on daydreaming. My coworker at Belt Magazine did this great photo essay on Akron corner stores and their role in Black life in the city. Re-reading lots of Jane Collective history, of course. And currently working through several books: The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below; On Freedom; and The Handbook of Contemporary Animism.
Watching
I started The Staircase which I find compelling, devastating, and uneven, but I’m going to keep watching probably. I’m on about an hour of TV a day lately, what else is worth filling that time? The last movie I saw was Everything Everywhere All At Once which was a DELIGHT!
Listening
When I found out Swearin’ was playing a show, I put their albums back on regular rotation; this song is one of the best songs…ever? Also I have to admit I don’t think I’ve ever heard Phish, but I learned that this Sylvan Esso song is a cover of one of theirs, and I love it. I heard this The Beths song in a coffee shop and Shazamed it. Why don’t I listen to The Beths more?
Joy & Attention.
My sweet kitties. Iced americanos. Learning all the birds in the neighborhood; (feeling particularly fond of our furry and fat-bellied Robins). Dandelions in all their phases. Travel planning. Friendship that can endure long pauses in communication. Friendship in general. Love, even when it’s hard. That I am making it work. That everything is temporary. How the internet is often bad but how so many people on it just want to make people laugh, and how I do laugh!, and how nice it is to laugh, especially after months of feeling so very sad. Bursting flowers everywhere. The magnolia trees that always hum Jason Molina when I walk by. & You, for being here.
(What is bringing you joy lately? To what are you paying attention?)