45 Contemporary Black Poets Whose Books You Should Read
during Black History Month and throughout the year
Mirror Series
A running series of photographs of mirrors seen on walks around Los Angeles (and a few in Philadelphia)
Slowing down / Doing things
There was no newsletter last week because on the last day of January I was felled by a nasty cold or flu that knocked me out for several days. I had not been...
Extra: Dispatches from Minneapolis
The content for February newsletters is all planned out, so I wanted to send an extra one this week with links to articles I’ve read about the community...
The names
Keith Porter Geraldo Lunas Campos Luis Gustavo Nuñez Caceres Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz Renee Nicole Good Parady La Victor Manuel Diaz Heber Sanchaz Dominguez...
White moderates
Today I will be re-reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail and reflecting on this particularly timeless passage: “First, I must...
Abolition is the only way forward
I am sharing other people’s words today because I am too angry to be articulate. The first are from Canadian scholar and author of Border And Rule, Harsha...
Hands off Venezuela
NO MORE FUCKING IMPERIALIST WARS, MOTHERFUCKERS
2025 Book Superlatives
(Most of the) books I read this year: Novels Trust Exercise by Susan Choi How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster by Muriel Leung Open Throat by...
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
I’m taking a break from the newsletter this week. I’m planning to do a post on the 29th about the books I read this year. In the meantime, please enjoy the...
Twenty years of submitting
Plants of Los Angeles
Throughout the city, in private gardens, public patches of grass by the sidewalk, undeveloped hillsides, in parks and on trails, there are plants I’ve...
LA Street Care
A few years ago, I started volunteering with my neighborhood mutual aid organization, LA Street Care. Every Sunday, the group hands out meals, water, harm...
A list of Los Angeles cuisines I wish I could have introduced my dad to
Beef Bulgogi Shakshuka from Levant Bistro Hot stone bibimbap at BCD Tofu Cheese quesadillas at Guisados Stuffed baked potato street tacos The softserve ice...
Rain. Gaza. Alice.
Los Angeles is in the middle of a torrential rainstorm. We are supposedly receiving 25% of our necessary annual rainfall in just one weekend. I’m known for...
Ludo
2021 was a crummy year, personally. The second and third quarters of the year were marred by a gnarly situationship and its attendant mindfuckery that...
Pomegranate Season
Last week, I went to Skylight Books to hear Myriam Gurba read from her new book, Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings. I arrived too...
Spooky Season reads & watches
Poetry At Night by Lisa Ciccarello Salt is for Curing by Sonya Vatomsky Scarecrone by Melissa Broder Monsters I Have Been by Kenji C. Liu Fiction Pretty...
Lynda Barry's Monster Jam
Watching One Battle After Another the week of Assata Shakur's passing
Not a review of the film’s quality but a stream-of-consciousness list of my thoughts while watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s three hour action movie and all...
