☀️Delights ☀️
A truly good book changes the way you see the world. A book has this power, whether it’s to reimagine my city park as Lothlorien, with its manicured oaks surely full of lurking magic, or to rethink my American history class, the cracks of history suddenly showing through the smooth and foggy glass. This month I’ve been trying to read Ross Gay’s “The Book of Delights.” But progress is slow because his essays on the mundane delights of life make me sit up and look around and become absorbed with what we have. In 2016 and 2017, Ross Gay (a poet) wrote a very short essay every day, detailing one delightful thing. In the essay on January 13th, he’s walking through an airport ruminating on Trump’s impending inauguration when he sees several workers talking to each other while on a break. In a tender gesture, one of the women reaches over to fix another woman’s collar, freeing it from her uniform’s cardigan. Ross Gay watches, “My head twisting toward them like a sunflower as I finished the stairs and walked by, so in love with this common flourish of love, this everyday human light.”
I read this line while eating lunch in the sunshine on the square wooden platform of my apartment’s fire escape, surrounded by the small flowers of tomato plants, and it made me tear up. I think of myself as even keel, but these days especially, an ocean of tears wash back-and-forth one millimeter under my skin. The slightest scratch of feeling lets them out. I dabbed my eye with my napkin. Unfortunately, my napkin was covered in peanut sauce and so my eye, in addition to dripping with tears, was now smeared with the brown sauce. The absurdity of this made me laugh/cry even more and I had to abandon my book and lurch inside into the bathroom, where I splashed water on my face to wash out the salt and spice. When I lifted my head up to the mirror, I was a vision of the truly crazed: my long, wet quarantine hair sticking to my cheeks, my eyes red and leaking, my mouth cracked in a grin of silent laughter. I felt something I haven’t felt in months: radiant. Like I have a lot to give and a lot to love.
Later, I was reading the same book at a park, alone in my own scrap of sunshine far away from clusters of couples. I read the delight from March 16th, which is about how adults engaging in baby talk, “laughing out loud and babbling” reveals to Ross Gay “something deeply good in us.” I looked up from the book and thought about whether that’s true. It’s definitely hard to believe (or hard to remember?) as the death toll grows each day, as police beat on protesters, as politicians make basic protections of human life an “issue,” as we spiral more and more toward—what? No one knows. In the dusky light, my gaze landed on two friends practicing soccer, a woman as goalie and a man dribbling the ball toward her. “It’s the World Cup!” he cried out. “Watch out, I’m Christian Renaldo!” He fake-screamed the cheers of the crowd as he approached her, putting the ball back and forth. She laughed and crouched deep in front of the net, throwing her hands wide. Then he kicked the ball and—friends—it was not even close to the goal. It went so wide, it almost hit me and my book. It was laughably, wildly far from the goal. “That was nice!” the goalie said, jogging after the feral kick. “You have a lot of power!” I think she proved the poet’s point. What’s more deeply good about humans than our ability to believe in each other, our ability to encourage our friends? We all need someone who loves us to tell us, simply, “You have a lot of power.”
Stuff I Made
American Rehab - Reveal’s first serial podcast! I pitched in art directing the episode art for this show and got to hire the very enthusiastic and talented New Orleans-based illustrator Eren K. Wilson. This podcast series reports on the absolutely wild history of work-based rehabs in the United States.
“This is Not Our First Pandemic” - For the Portland Mercury, I interviewed queer Portlanders about the parallels and differences between COVID-19 and the early days of the HIV epidemic. You can read this online for free and I’m selling print copies for $5 -- I’m donating all the proceeds to Basic Rights Oregon.
Protest comics - In June, I documented three Black Lives Matter protests in Portland with comics. I also printed these up as full-color, 30-page comics and am selling them for $5. I’m donating all proceeds to the Oregon Justice Resource Center.
In/Vulnerable comics series - I’m still writing comics about inequality during the pandemic, based on interviews by Reveal reporters and illustrated by Thi Bui. Check out the series here.
Stuff I Love
Asian Enough - The two hosts of this podcast from the LA Times are such good interviewers! I’ve listened to the entire backlog now and am hungry for more. I’m conflicted about my favorite episode, so maybe just start with episode one featuring John Cho.
Black Resilience Fund - This Portland-based group raised an astounding $1 million in one month. They’re giving out cash grants of about $300 to any Black Portland-area person who could use a little money. Very cool. Give them some dollars if you have any to spare.
Butch is Not a Dirty Word - I have not been into attending readings and workshops on Zoom because I’m tired of looking at a screen after being online for work all day (meaning: doom-scrolling through Twitter), but I made an exception to see two friends read stories they’d written about friendship for this magazine, Butch is Not a Dirty Word. Then I ordered a print copy of issue seven, because why not?!
This Land podcast - Artist, activist, and journalist Rebecca Nagle hosts this extremely informative and well-done podcast about Native land rights. I devoured all the episodes last year, but it’s back in the news again because of a major Supreme Court decision and Rebecca did a little update episode.
Hiking - You know what never disappoints? Trees. I’ve been going out to the Mount Hood National Forest on the weekends to hang out with some trees. The less-popular trails are pandemic-friendly and still beautiful. My friend Katelyn showed me this super solid website for finding hikes in Oregon.
Humans of Capitalism - This Instagram account is truly the most accurate document of our times.
Tiny tattoos - I just love Argentinian artist Paula Silva’s tiny homes and cute animal stick-and-pokes.
What I’m Reading
Juliet Takes a Breath - In this engaging young adult book, Puerto Rican girl from The Bronx who's a self-proclaimed baby dyke spends the summer interning with a rather insufferable white feminist writer in Portland and reckons with who she is and what she wants in life. Really nice work.
Killing and Dying - These quiet short stories by comics master Adrian Tomine pack such a punch. Every single page of this could be its own textbook on how to write comics.
Something to Do
Support independent journalism - Reporters are out covering protests and the pandemic while many media outlets are being financially gutted by the pandemic. If you follow a reporter on Twitter or any other platform, pitch in to keep them out there by either subscribing to the media outlet they work for or donating to them personally. Portlanders, for example, can donate to keep The Portland Mercury afloat so people like Alex and Blair can keep reporting.
In closing, please appreciate this photo of my friend Tara at our hometown Pride parade. There is no delight quite like a multi-purpose parrot costume.
I'll send out another update soon. In the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support my work on Patreon and receive wonderful things in the mail. The archive of past newsletters is right here.