> can I try again, try again, try again
You're tuning into Cheers, a newsletter made by Tiffany Xie. This week: apple that being is, Be the Cowboy, big batch pancakes, and Lucille Clifton.
Hello friend,
> Reading: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which is mostly about reconciliation between indigenous and scientific understandings of nature, about our relationship to the land. It means so much to me to read this because I felt pretty disillusioned with my biology degree toward the end of college. It felt like the magic of science had been lost in glazed lectures and lab reports. I know that not every scientist thinks like Kimmerer, but it reminded me of the wonder that comes from our kinship with living things. I’m also thinking about how Braiding Sweetgrass decenters Western thought. Phoebe already pulled this quote in her newsletter, but it’s worth sharing again:
Of an inanimate being, like a table, we say “What is it?” And we answer Dopwen yewe. Table it is. But of apple, we must say, “Who is that being?” And reply Mshimin yawe. Apple that being is.
> Newsletter rec: Fariha Róisín’s How to Cure a Ghost. I can’t remember which friend shared this with me, but whoever it is, thank you. Her latest issue is on sex & Islam, which you can read here.
> Looking forward to listening to Korsha Wilson’s podcast, A Hungry Society, after hearing her interview on Black foodways.
> Haunted by: Mitski’s “Pink in the Night” from Be the Cowboy:
And I know I’ve kissed you before, but
I didn’t do it right
Can I try again, try again, try again
Try again, and again, and again
And again, and again, and again
> Making: large batches of pancakes with oats, ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom.
> “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton:
won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
> Tenderness brought to you by Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
Cheers,
Tiffany