Lent
By the time you read this, Lent will be over (except in the Orthodox traditions) but as I write this, I have about 36 hours before Easter Sunday arrives and...
Poetry for the People
Happy National Poetry Month! I’m a few days late on this week’s newsletter but I am letting go of perfectionism. I want to tell you about this amazing play...
Plants of Los Angeles, part 2
spring flowers
Portals
March 9, 2020 - My birthday is on a Monday. News about coronavirus has been swirling for months now but has started escalating in the past few days. Two days...
To be on the side of life
I wanted to write about poetic influences today. I wanted to write a newsletter about the poets I’ve read over the years, and how each one has shaped my...
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...
