Dear Co-conspirators,
It's been a brief couple of weeks since I last sent out a newsletter -- how did the first half of June fly by so fast?! We are about to head into our first true heat wave of the summer here in Boston, about par for the course. Six years ago this weekend we adopted Teazle and brought her home to our tiny five-hundred-square-foot apartment in Allson into a similar heat wave. Here she is, sleeping the sleeps of a tiny kitten next to Hanna on our living room floor.
Image: A tiny tortoiseshell cat with white paws and a shaved tummy lies stretched out on a wood floor between the hand of a white woman and a green bag of crisps.
Last Saturday was the 48th annual Boston Pride march and associated festivities. For the second year in a row -- not coincidental to the current political climate -- it felt important to me to show up and be counted. While I have a rough time with massive crowds and unstructured events, it felt manageable to attend the pre-parade Pride service at Arlington St. Church -- they have been holding pride events for forty-seven of the forty-eight years Boston Pride has been a thing, and at least one member of the congregation has been present at every single one. Queen Cheryl and George Whitehouse (afore-mentioned Pride veteran) really outdid themselves with the decorations.
Image: A view of the front steps of Arlington St. Church festooned with pride flags, tinsel, bubbles, and a Black Lives Matter sign.
Image: A slightly blurry selfie over my shoulder as a passing MBTA Orange Line train goes by the train car I am sitting in, my left ear with earrings, and my hair decorated with mardi gras beads and a rainbow flag, is just visible at the left side of the frame.
I came home mid-afternoon and Hanna and I celebrated on the #PrideCouch with a few episodes of Tales of the City and then I re-watched season one of Sense8 after Twitter assured me that if Iliked loved season one I should watch season two (I am one episode in, thus far, and the verdict is still out I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO DIE OKAY).
Image: A close-up of cross stitching on black Aida cloth, the edge of an invory antler and a two-tone rose in pink.
Binge-watching was a good excuse to work on Persistent Stitches projects, and I completed a couple of improv designs as well as getting started on a commission piece inspired by Hannibal iconography (for, as you might guess, a fan of said show). She'll be donating $50.00 when it's completed to the U.K. charity The Albert Kennedy Trust to support LGBTQ homeless youth. All told, generous crafters and donors have helped this grassroots effort raise $1,360.00 so far this year for resistance efforts. It's been a gift for me to have this physical work to turn to as a way to do my part in combatting Trump and the GOP. (If you'd like to keep abreast of these efforts, I'll be sending out quarterly updates starting in July! Sign up here.)
Image: A table decorated with red and white table cloths and a centerpiece of red and white flowers, surrounded by strawberry-themed candy and potluck dishes.
Friday was the (12th?) annual Strawberry Festival hosted by my department, Library - Reader Services, at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Every year in June we close the reading room a couple of hours early and serve researchers and the Society's staff strawberry-themed food. From strawberry daiquairies to strawberry caprese, strawberry moscato torte to strawberry pizza, this is a feast for strawberry lovers!
On a more serious work-related note, I spent Wednesday the 6th of June at Tufts University participating in their staff professional development day as a panelist for their Engaging Critical Librarianship panel. Here are my prepared remarks. It was an honor to be invited alongside Stacy Collins -- creator of the anti-oppression libguide -- and Liz Phipps Soeiro, whose decision to refuse a donation of books by Melania Trump made national headlines.
The political news continues to be an endless crashing wave of uck, but a few "long read" pieces that came across my dashboard in the first half of June that have helped me make sense of our context are:
It's been a brief couple of weeks since I last sent out a newsletter -- how did the first half of June fly by so fast?! We are about to head into our first true heat wave of the summer here in Boston, about par for the course. Six years ago this weekend we adopted Teazle and brought her home to our tiny five-hundred-square-foot apartment in Allson into a similar heat wave. Here she is, sleeping the sleeps of a tiny kitten next to Hanna on our living room floor.
Image: A tiny tortoiseshell cat with white paws and a shaved tummy lies stretched out on a wood floor between the hand of a white woman and a green bag of crisps.Last Saturday was the 48th annual Boston Pride march and associated festivities. For the second year in a row -- not coincidental to the current political climate -- it felt important to me to show up and be counted. While I have a rough time with massive crowds and unstructured events, it felt manageable to attend the pre-parade Pride service at Arlington St. Church -- they have been holding pride events for forty-seven of the forty-eight years Boston Pride has been a thing, and at least one member of the congregation has been present at every single one. Queen Cheryl and George Whitehouse (afore-mentioned Pride veteran) really outdid themselves with the decorations.
Image: A view of the front steps of Arlington St. Church festooned with pride flags, tinsel, bubbles, and a Black Lives Matter sign.Image: A slightly blurry selfie over my shoulder as a passing MBTA Orange Line train goes by the train car I am sitting in, my left ear with earrings, and my hair decorated with mardi gras beads and a rainbow flag, is just visible at the left side of the frame.I came home mid-afternoon and Hanna and I celebrated on the #PrideCouch with a few episodes of Tales of the City and then I re-watched season one of Sense8 after Twitter assured me that if I
Image: A close-up of cross stitching on black Aida cloth, the edge of an invory antler and a two-tone rose in pink.Binge-watching was a good excuse to work on Persistent Stitches projects, and I completed a couple of improv designs as well as getting started on a commission piece inspired by Hannibal iconography (for, as you might guess, a fan of said show). She'll be donating $50.00 when it's completed to the U.K. charity The Albert Kennedy Trust to support LGBTQ homeless youth. All told, generous crafters and donors have helped this grassroots effort raise $1,360.00 so far this year for resistance efforts. It's been a gift for me to have this physical work to turn to as a way to do my part in combatting Trump and the GOP. (If you'd like to keep abreast of these efforts, I'll be sending out quarterly updates starting in July! Sign up here.)
Image: A table decorated with red and white table cloths and a centerpiece of red and white flowers, surrounded by strawberry-themed candy and potluck dishes.Friday was the (12th?) annual Strawberry Festival hosted by my department, Library - Reader Services, at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Every year in June we close the reading room a couple of hours early and serve researchers and the Society's staff strawberry-themed food. From strawberry daiquairies to strawberry caprese, strawberry moscato torte to strawberry pizza, this is a feast for strawberry lovers!
On a more serious work-related note, I spent Wednesday the 6th of June at Tufts University participating in their staff professional development day as a panelist for their Engaging Critical Librarianship panel. Here are my prepared remarks. It was an honor to be invited alongside Stacy Collins -- creator of the anti-oppression libguide -- and Liz Phipps Soeiro, whose decision to refuse a donation of books by Melania Trump made national headlines.
The political news continues to be an endless crashing wave of uck, but a few "long read" pieces that came across my dashboard in the first half of June that have helped me make sense of our context are:
- Rebecca Traister on why Samantha Bee's take-down of Ivanka Trump is not equivalent to Roseanne Barr's racism (The Cut).
- Sady Doyle's essay excavating the "cheesy" pop culture roots of the violent "incel" movement (Medium).
- Sean Illing's discussion with feminist philosopher Kate Manne about Jordan Peterson (Vox).
- And an oldie, but (sadly still) relevant piece by Jacqui Shine about how "the construction of false equivalencies is a major strategy of aggrieved white dudes" (BuzzFeed).
Image: A wild rose above a weathered wood fence against a backdrop of green foliage.We continue on, in both rage and romance,
~Anna