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 that sick in years. (It wasn’t COVID, at least according to four separate tests taken throughout the week.) I’m pretty much recovered but still very tired. The brain fog is real! I have barely been able to keep up with news (“keeping up with the news” is an unsatisfactory way to describe staying aware of all the various ways the fascist powers are building their machines and the myriad community resistance responses to those machines, but here we are). I’ve continued to make fundraising posts for the families in Gaza I’m fundraising for, and to share some resources/headlines on Instagram. I’ve managed to submit my writing to a few places and apply for a summer writing workshop. From my couch, I logged into Beth Pickens’s live workshop on Making Art During Fascism, part of her Homework Club series that I participate in. And I was thankfully mostly recovered for my one-on-one poetry workshop with Shira Erlichman.

Most people reading this are probably thinking I still did too much for a sick week. I promise that, for the most part, this week has felt lost to time. I’ve spent the bulk of it watching the following shows and movies, ranging from thought-provoking to pleasantly mind-numbing: Pluribus, The Beast In Me, Animal Control, Shrinking, Blue Moon, We Were Here, and reading the following books: Year of the Tiger by Alice Wong, Zaftig by Molly Zipora Pershin Feigele Raynor, and What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang.

There’s a common aphorism about January feeling interminable. Memes and tweets abound describing January as having 1,000 days, or as January being the only month of the year. My theory for this truism is that January has the same number of days as December, but is devoid of December’s holiday bustle, so by comparison it feels empty, stretched out.

This January felt both long and rushed, partly because it was so full. I went on a few hikes, saw two improv shows, a theatre performance, a literary reading, an outdoor concert, hosted a baby shower, and had several dinners with friends. Some highlights:

I took a Griffith Park hike in the rain on January 2. I relished the five days of rain at the end of my winter break, and foolishly thought that would mean a green, mild winter awaited us. Alas, we were then struck by weeks of freakishly hot weather that’s fried most of the tender grasses. I’m glad I got to see this while I could.

In late January, LA Street Care organized a “Really Really Free Market” at the Echo Park Lake. We set up tables for clothing, books, hygiene kits, Narcan. We bought out several street vendors so they would be able to hand out tacos, ice cream, frutas and elote for free. Barbers came to give out free haircuts. There was a facepainting table and an art station where people made anti-ICE signs. LA Tenants Union and NOlympicsLA and All Power Books Free Clinic had tables. Hundreds of people showed up. There was a DJ and then live music; a young person played Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” on guitar but updated the verses.

ICE had already been spotted in the neighborhood kidnapping people that morning, so rapid responders drove by with whistles and bullhorns, announcing in Spanish and English that ICE had been here. Responders patrolled the lake and guarded the street vendors. An impromptu anti-ICE protest sprung up on the corner, with the signs that people had made at the art table. Cars honked in solidarity.

Then that evening I somehow had enough energy to drive across town to Santa Monica to see Patrick Page of Hadestown fame perform a one-man show all about Shakespeare’s villains, which was INCREDIBLE. He did villain monologues from nearly every Shakespeare play, intercut with a sort of artsy TED Talk about how The Bard invented our modern concept of the villain.

Probably the oddest thing I did last month was attend a guerrilla synth concert under the Colorado Bridge at Arroyo Seco that my friend Xochitl invited me to. I think I had been expecting a subdued little show on a river bank, attended by a few people with lawn chairs and coolers. Instead, we were among hundreds of people in a crowd that skewed much younger than us - probably Cal Arts students and the like. (The fashion watching alone!) Each song reverberated up into the concrete arches. The gusts of weed aromas were . . . . copious.

And then that night, I promptly fell ill for a week, and here we are. Probably a lesson about not overscheduling myself or masking more (I did wear a mask at the theatre and the lake!).

I don’t think February will be any less scheduled, but I am grateful for so much I have in life: family and friends to spend time with, a community of organizers fighting the good fight, the winter light of California, the lemon tree in my yard, my cat purring on my chest while I lie congested and feverish on the couch. And the spirit of my dad, gone almost two years now, who would have turned 75 today, February 8. My socially gregarious role model.

Sameer Project update

Since January 1, we have sent $170 to The Sameer Project’s Warmth for Gaza campaign, thanks to paid subscribers. Thank you, I love you, you’re amazing.

Birthday gifts for Maryam

If you’re reading this on February 9, today is baby Maryam’s 2nd birthday. She was born in Gaza in the first few months of the genocide. Her parents, Ahmed and Rema, are doing everything they can to take care of her and give her a good life. They have been displaced from their home for the past two years and have been living in a tent in southern Gaza. If you can, show Maryam some love today. If you can’t donate but you do have Instagram, share messages of solidarity with @ahmed.shamali1

Minnesota

Stand With Minnesota is a wonderful site that has aggregated calls to action to support the Minnesota community as they fight the ICE occupation.