Seattle Liberation Calendar
If you’re in the Seattle area and support the freedom and self-determination of the Palestinian people, you’ll find this resource really helpful. Affectionately known as the Watermelon Calendar, this is a website that features a frequently updated listing of events related to Palestinian liberation. It’s managed by an autonomous group of volunteers (who you’re welcomed to join, alongside the events in the calendar).
Does Speaking Truth to Power Work?
I’ve re-read Scot Nakagawa’s statement a dozen times: speaking truth to authoritarian’s won’t change their behavior, because they thrive on controlling narratives, not facts . Each time, I feel punched in the gut. It’s been weeks. I still feel deflated. I know Scot’s statement has always been the case, so why am I so wracked?
Daily ReDistribution, Part 2
Many of you did the Wealth Reality Check I circulated a couple of weeks ago. I created it as an awareness-raising tool, as I’ve found that questions like Are your bills on autopay?, Do you own property?, and Do you expect inheritance? shake me out of the distorted perceptions I have of my own wealth. Culturally, we’re conditioned to feel that we don’t have enough. Some of us actually don’t. You’re action…
Daily ReDistribution, Part 1
This is an immediate action in two parts: the first focuses on a wealth reality check, and the second (which I’ll share next newsletter) features creative and appropriate daily acts of redistribution - no matter where the reality check lands you. We’re meant to remain pretty oblivious about what wealth is and how it works. Your action…
Yes, Buy Here!
I’ve posted a lot about where and what *not* to buy: not at Chevron, not at Amazon, not from AirBnb, Starbucks, or Target. In response to one recent newsletter, my fabulous friend & colleague Maggie Karshner sent this comment: “I've always thought of boycotting like a diet where you have to cut out all _______. But that doesn't work for diets, so how could it work for anything?” So here’s my YES list to complement all the NOs that come with boycott, sanction, and divestment efforts. Your action…
Come Touch My Heart, Again
I have a very selective group of influencers I follow in Instagram and Substack - I prefer to call them scholars because of the depth of their focus, the acuity of their research, and their ability to communicate. One for whom I feel a thrill of anticipation every time I see he posts is Jupiter Baal. His posts take on a commitment to humanity, an access of language and storytelling, and an ability to frame current events in historical contexts in a manner I find rare, informative, and poignant.
Revolutionary, Subversive, or Performative?
I’ve been thinking a lot about a comment Bruce Ware made on Bad Faith podcast last month, about Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl half-time performance: the performance itself was subversive, while the dancer who broke ranks to run around the field with a Sudanese & Palestinian flag was revolutionary…These terms began organizing themselves in my mind, each as actions taken toward a collective cause.
How to Resist Authoritarianism & Preserve the Possibility of Democracy
Scot Nakagawa’s Anti-Authoritarian Playbook comes to my inbox a couple of times a week, and I read each post. Some posts I’ve especially appreciated:
Streamline Those Calls
It’s a hassle, and it feels like a drop in the ocean, but calling your representatives is an important action that can have a concrete impact—especially when we all do it. The 5Calls app streamlines what I want to focus on with topics to choose from, scripts to use (or modify), and contact info for my congresspeople. Your action…
Martha & Leticia Play Around
A video chat between Martha and Dr. Leticia Nieto about that it means to play for liberation, in anticipation of their upcoming workshop on Saturday, March 22, 9:30am-12:30pm Pacific.
Playing For Liberation: Some Ways I Manage Overwhelm
I want to pay attention to what is happening in our world—particularly in this moment of Trump-driven events, executive orders, and entitlements—but they come too quickly, there's too many of them, they blur and overlap and overwhelm. Big feelings are healthy. They’re also unwieldy space hogs, and they’re not going away anytime soon. So here are two things I've found to help me sustain myself through this moment that's longer than a moment:
Conflict is One of Your Most Valuable resources
My esteemed colleague, friend, accountability partner, and co-facilitator James Boutin is offering the world an amazing resource: a substantial, multifaceted Generative Conflict Starter Kit. It’s available to all of us for free.
The Cyber Cleanse: Take Back Your Digital Footprint
We all know data about our personal lives is plucked, gleaned, and pocketed every day from our technological lives. The Opt Out Project has created a day-by-day cleanse to help us “live a modern, digitally connected, twenty-first century life online without Big Tech.” Your action…
Until All of us are Free
Ijeoma Iluo has undertaken a year-long project bridging several of my interests: particularly understanding how anti-Blackness serves as the foundation for so many other marginalizations, and how liberating any one type of oppression helps free all of us.
Keep Those Cards & Letters (& EMAILS & Phone CallS) coming
Like sorting your recycling, yard waste and garbage, emailing your representative, emailing your congressperson, signing yet another petition may feel tedious, time-consuming, and ultimately not that effective. Don't let it stop you! Many organizers have come up with ways to make it super easy to prompt you with links, scripts, and reminders. It's a little action against a big system—but there are a lot of us. Your action…
My Devotion to Democracy, Questioned
I've been eagerly waiting for 2042—have you? That's the year we were told, back in 2008, that the U.S. would become a "majority minority" country—meaning people racialized as white would be less than 50% of the American population for the first time since the country's founding. Which means more democrats, right? It’s called democratic destiny and I totally bought into it.
A Story of Two Commitments, and a Conclusion About Tenderness
What happened to my environmental commitment? Do I really actually have one? It feels...lost. Insubstantial. Fraudulent. Not really a commitment. A promise I didn't keep. Do you see what's happening here? I'm beginning to feel bad about myself. I believe I know why; it's something I learned from my anti-racism work—it's easier to feel bad about myself, to infuse my nervous system with the familiarity of guilt, fear, shame, and doubt, than it is to feel grief.
Drop Prime Now
Yes the holidays are coming. Likely you have some scrambling for gifts going on. You also have a commitment to collective liberation, to equity, and to our planet. For all those reasons and others that impact people next door and around the world, boycott Amazon. The temptation of convenience is strong, deliberately. Lean into your commitment; you're stronger. Your action…
Everything About Haymarket Books
Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago. Since the pandemic, they're also my go-to for webinars, panel discussions, and teach-ins that feature the voices that most inform my understanding of collective liberation: Mohammed El-Kurd, Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Eve Ewing, Aja Monet, Mariame Kaba, Rebecca Solnit, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Marc Lamont Hill, Astra Taylor, Angela Y. Davis and so many more.
Preparing for the Long Haul, Again
It's going to be a long four years...and they haven't even started yet. Despondency, despair, grief, fear: experiencing and metabolizing these and whatever else comes up is critical to staying healthy, and staying engaged. Many events this month are designed to support, embolden, fortify, or prepare us as we work to keep our world humane.