In April, I wrote an essay for LitHub about trying to write contemporary fiction in a world that changes so rapidly & drastically; it was published today. When I first conceived of the piece it was about climate change, and then it became about coronavirus. If I was writing it now, it would of course include protest and the fight for Black lives. Los Angeles does not look the same as it did in 2016 or 2019 or January or last week, very much both for better and worse. 

You have likely been inundated with advice about what to do and read and where to donate, but I am going to give my small plug for finding a local organization and making an ongoing commitment to volunteer with them. Mutual Aid LA can definitely use people accustomed to navigating spreadsheets and making schedules, or who simply own a car; much of this work is low-risk, virus-wise, and immediately effective for marginalized and at-risk people in acute crises. It's not enough-- what could be! But I find having a regular practice of doing a thing to be the only way to survive, you know, all of this.

Black lives matter. Let's fucking act like it, yeah?