GM! ☕️
Hi all. Big love to New Orleans this week, and to everyone who has ever appreciated that city’s magic and heat. Your stories are on my heart.
Here at helping friendly publications, I’ve decided to continue my every-other-Friday cadence beyond Labor Day. Off weeks allow me room to breathe, to think, and to proof like a yummy loaf of bread. They give me time to play with projects outside this digital container. And for all our sakes, I’m determined to push back against the more-is-more grind that undermines the strength and sanctuary I hope to summon here.
In other words:
Less CON-tent, more con-TENT.
Paid subs: In June, I asked for your snail mail addresses, and earlier this month I mailed out my first-ever zine. If you didn’t receive yours, please let me know by email or through Substack DM. And if you didn’t partake before but would like to now, you can still send me your address. It’s never too late to join the party.
The Ripple Effect is a small pebble in the pond. I loved creating it and hope you enjoy reading it. Zines have a rad history within niche, underground, and marginalized subcultures, from Riot Grrrl to Star Trek to a rainbow of queer zines and many, many more. I’m psyched to join the stream and found it extremely gratifying to make a tangible thing that exists outside the algorithm.
Thanks as always for reading my stuff, and for your continued presence both here and in the world.
🖤
Jenny
Here are this fortnight’s 5 things to consider:
1.
Daniel Sherrell’s excellent climate memoir Warmth finds emotional resolution in a second line parade at the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2015. The second line, a centuries-old New Orleans ritual and beating heart of the jazz funeral, creates a lively space that, through the power of music and community, holds both grief and celebration honestly. It is a vigorous and deep-feeling call to life, even in the face of death. And we need this, friends, we need this—today and always.
2.
Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk’s account of her detention in an ICE women’s prison is also a story of solidarity and the persistence of care:
“I found myself immersed daily in the love, beauty, resilience, and compassion of these women [who were also detained]. We each found ourselves trapped in our own individual nightmares, but we found comfort and relief in one another, and we shared the burden and pain by listening to each other.” - Rümeysa Öztürk
Related: Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi’s Memoirs from the Women’s Prison is an unflinching and moving book about her political detention under Anwar Sadat and the community of women that was forged there.
3.
Nonprofit sector: Stanford Social Innovation Review outlined a framework for transforming insider boards and opening new pathways to change: “Particularly in a time where resilience is more important than ever, organizations stuck in echo chambers will struggle to remain relevant and effective over time.”
4.
Redux: After sharing them last week, it occurred to me that Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson’s rules for living actually make a solid ethos for resisting fascism: have courage, name the lie, and stay tender. Special shout out to folks who also aren’t afraid to bring Anderson’s “loose,” trickster energy to the function. Cheerful mischief isn’t the only thing we need, but a world without it certainly looks bleak.
“Here's what the ultra-hyper-serious people don't understand: The cure for our collective madness isn't just more and more and more grave, dour opinions. It includes playfulness. Irreverent devotion, holy pranks, and compassionate tricks. Styles of thinking and modes of discernment that transcend, outflank, and nullify fundamentalism.” -
5.
Emily Dickinson sure could write a banger!
💥
I Had No Time to Hate
by Emily Dickinson
I had no time to Hate –
Because
The Grave would hinder me –
And Life was not so
Ample I
Could finish – Enmity –
Nor had I time to Love –
But since
Some Industry must be –
The little Toil of Love –
I thought
Be large enough for Me –
(via
)💥
Related:
penned an encouraging vote of confidence for empathy: “[E]mpathy isn’t weakness. It’s not indulgence. It’s strength. It’s a refusal to be turned to stone in the face of so much unraveling. And it’s the only way forward that doesn’t leave us completely hollow.”
Thank you to everyone who reached out to share their enthusiasm about my new gig at Commerce Street Books. I’m excited too.
Here’s how to sign up for my fall creativity book club. We’re reading:
Suleika Jaoaud’s The Book of Alchemy (Sept 28)
Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing (Oct 28)
Sally Mann’s Art Work (Dec 2)
After only a few shifts, I have already encountered most of these Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops. 😉
And finally, I have 2 nonfiction recs for you:
Careless People. This book by whistleblower and former Facebook Director of Public Policy Sarah Wynn-Williams takes its title from The Great Gatsby:
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” - The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The allusion holds as Wynn-Williams tells her story, calling out Facebook’s famous leaders for greed, recklessness, and dishonesty. Meta has accused Wynn-Williams of exaggerating, of course. But even allowing for that, the litany of failures is disturbing—and the harm is much worse than I had realized. (So naïve, Jenny!) This tell-all is engaging and was a good choice for audio. Best of all, I’ve kicked my Instagram addiction since finishing it. (4 stars)
The Acid Queen. I loved this biography of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, who was married to LSD pioneer Timothy Leary. I hadn’t realized how essential Rosemary was to the story Tim crafted about his own life—including his underground experiments, the Millbrook commune, and then later his jailbreak and life on the run. But, of course she was: Women rarely got credit for their contributions to psychedelic culture, especially in those early years. And Tim Leary was all too willing to betray Rosemary (among others) for the sake of his own redemption. Thankfully, Rosemary’s archives, housed at New York Public Library, were in good hands with Susannah Cahalan. The Acid Queen is a rollicking tale of love, enlightenment, and wild adventure that is also tender and quite dignified. (5 stars)
“I believe everything and, at the same time, almost nothing, but it leaves me in a comfortable place.” - Rosemary Woodruff Leary
ICYMI, two weeks ago I shared these 5 things to consider: rules for living, call and response, Dilbert, rude thoughts on writing, and tomatoes.
Thank you for reading! This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 To support it, you can upgrade to a paid subscription, share this post, or engage my services. You can learn more about my work at jenniferlphillips.com.
I bet you find a gem 💎→
postcards from occupied DC | building bridges and friendships across political lines | a letter to new college students | how to quit your job | a framework for deciding what skills to learn at work | organize your life for productivity 😜 | mistakes will sometimes happen | art history’s most iconic beds | types of libraries and what they buy | reading recs for folks who binged The Gilded Age | the world’s meanest description of penguins | happy labor day👇🏼
Have a great weekend!
I’ll see you in your inbox again soon.
Peace,
