give us a poem

i posted this piece in the marfa public library newsletter, and i keep thinking about it. first read about it in kimberly drew’s new book, this is what i know about art. from the studio museum:

Initially created as a site-specific installation for The Studio Museum in Harlem’s lobby, Give Us a Poem demonstrates Glenn Ligon’s ability to infuse language with alternate meaning by translating it in bright neon. Ligon sourced the text from a speech Muhammad Ali made at Harvard University in 1975. When asked by a student to give the audience a poem, Ali replied “me, we,” in a simple but profound pairing that connects individual and collective experience. 

oh yes

• nytimes editors lists are back!!!!!!!!
• should i be concerned that the best part of my day is getting into bed
• we made this last night and it was great — in the same family as the bon appetit ribollita. basically i only make tomatoey stews with a lot of carbs, especially in summer. let’s get as hot and stuffed as possible.
• next on my cooking list: trying marcella hazan’s tomato sauce trilogy. hazan was a scientist? loved marlboro lights? tried to find a pic of her smoking but this cutie one will have to do.

wow some weeks are just not breezy

this week has been incredibly stupid, ALREADY. headaches, terrible sleep, fights with ross, missed work deadlines (tho no one totally paying attention to these deadlines) (i both dread and desire the day when people ARE paying attention to my deadlines). lessons:

• always work on sundays (bummer one but if it avoids THIS kind of week — maybe worth it?)
• stay in bed all saturday
• frontload all storybook selections weeks in advance
• make extra iced coffee to avoid running out
• watch more stand-up specials
• work late monday and tuesday nights
• give up

glad/sad/desolate

• just realizing that *all* librarians are nerds???? can i rewrite this story? is there any way to be a COOL librarian? ross says hard no.
• i made this last night and i wouldn’t NOT recommend it
• way behind on my videos that are due tomorrow but feeling a little emo so taking a minute
• still against headaches
• pro tiger balm applied liberally to headache zones
• pro iced coffee made at home
• pro nuggs
• pro adam liptak
• pro bindles
• pro retail therapy (it’s a pandemic, life is sadness)

my new favorite thing

old people who look like old people

a moment to be

Dario Calmese, the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair:

“I did know that this was a moment to say something,” he said in an interview the week before the cover’s release. “I knew this was a moment to be, like, extra Black.”

A+++++++++++

old stormy marfa sky

from not too long ago

a v. solid list

from emma ramadan’s creative independent interview:

the dream of collective well-being

from my sister, “ask a sane person: jia tolentino on practicing the discipline of hope”:

I think the American obsession with symbolic freedom has to be traded for a desire for actual freedom: the freedom to get sick without knowing it could bankrupt you, the freedom for your peers to live life without fearing they’ll be killed by police. The dream of collective well-being has to outweigh, day-to-day, the dream of individual success.

good neon

courtesy of thecolfaxmuseum.org, a history museum dedicated to Schuyler Colfax and Colfax Avenue (“the Longest, Wickedest Main Street in America”)