š Failure is Always an Option
Hello from the Northeast Regional Acela Express. Forty minutes ago, I locked up my bike, sprinted across the Philadelphia train station, andāto the conductorās calls of āAll Aboard!āāslipped onto the train bound for New York City. The conductor closed the metal door behind me and the train started immediately, rolling down the track while I still stood, clutching a stitch in my side and feeling immensely victorious.
āTickets out!ā the conductor called. She scanned the code on my phone screen. Then she made a confused face. āHoney,ā she said. āYouāre on the wrong train. This train is going to Delaware.ā
Sometimes lifeās mistakes wind up landing you in a more surprising and wonderful misadventure than you could ever have planned. Sometimes, they just land you in Delaware.
This is a nice reminder that failure is always an option. I didnāt used to think that way, I was a classic, straight-As, overacheiver. When I was in college, I was afraid of failure. I was also afraid of sadness, uncertainty, and admitting I had fears. Ā In March, I was invited to give a talk and a zine workshop at Reed College. It was nice being back on a nerdy college campusāeven in the springtime cherry-blossom weather, the students were all so serious. For them, itās not spring, itās thesis season. Their only calendar revolves around how many days until their final papers are due, a countdown clock ticking off how many hours they can cram in at the library. Iāve run zine workshops in all kinds of places (bookstores, prisons, tech companies) but the group of participants at Reed was unusually quiet. Usually, thereās a lot of laughing and smiling in the roomāthe zines I bring are fun and cute and intriguing, about sexuality, cats, and the X-Files. but at this workshop there was mostly just silent focusāthey listened very intently, seeming to consider each word. When we switched to the hands-on project where they read a big stack of zines I brought, one of the students raised their hand.
āI have a question about individualism,ā they said. āWhy is it that most people who make zines are leftist? Is it, like Hannah Arendt says, totalitarian ideologies rest on mobilizing populations to be more uniform so any attempt to make individual expression is inherently anti-fascist?ā
I paused. The question was a good one. But hell if I knew any answers. Ten years ago, when I was in school, I would have struggled to come up with a bullshit but acceptable answer. I would have thought back to my brief Wikipedia-reading on Hannah Arendt and pulled some tenuous threads together and dropping in buzzwords like āpublic sphere.ā Ā I was afraid to be seen as ignorant, to be seen as wrong. But now, after thinking through my lack of knowledge, I just shrugged my shoulders.
āI donāt know, man. What do you think?ā
THIS WEEK'S COMIC
STUFF I MADE
Animated Videos - The reason Iām trying-and-failing to get to New York is to celebrate the end of work on the second season of The Nib animation series. I write some of the videos in the series, like this one that explains how trickle down economics is a scam in just 90 seconds. It feel really honored to be part of a team of people who are all so talented, hard-working, and goddamn funny. Watch a whole episode here.
Comic - Leading up to the March for Our Lives, I interviewed student gun control protest organizers around the country. They really believe they can change the country for the better, which fills me with so much hope that I straight-up cried while talking to them.
Comic - I wrote a brief history of Lara Croftās character design. Thereās a lot of interesting gender dynamics behind the design of those giant pixelated boobs.
STUFF I LOVE
Dazzle Camouflage - By the end of April, I need to finish the first draft of the young adult novel Iām working on. Itās set in a near-future America where there is lots of drone surveillance. I love thinking about how teenagers will subvert the surveillance technologies of tomorrow. One of my favorite options? Makeup that disguises your face from facial-recognition cameras. (Also, teens will make their own DIY Faraday bags for sure.)
The Broken Earth Triology - Not gonna lie, in the last month Iāve spent many hours where Iām supposed to be writing my novel instead reading the three books of N.K. Jemisinās sci-fi series. The books about a world where a race of people who can control the earthās crust are enslaved by a fearful majority is so powerful, so well-written, and so addictive.
Free Audiobooks - Holy crap, why was I paying for Audible when it turns out you can get audiobooks for free from the library?! I listen to audiobooks the way many people listen to podcastsāany time Iām commuting, walking to the grocery store, or making dinner, my headphones are in and Iām actually consuming a book. If you have a library card pretty much anywhere in the U.S., you can download the free app Overdrive and get audiobooks on your phone.
Popaganda with Soleil Ho - The Bitch Media feminism and pop culture podcast is BACK with a new host, Soleil Ho. Soleil and I are both Grinnell College history major grads, except she is definitely cooler than me because sheās also a chef and writes devestating articles about the intersections of race, culture, and food.
This Chart - Byeeee.
SOMEONE TO KNOW
Eva Recinos - Itās great to follow Eva Recinosā Instagram because sheās constantly posting photos of art and artists who I know nothing about! Eva is the social media manager at LACMA (the LA County Museum of Art) and so sheās always in-the-know about interesting new art. She also writes for a bunch of different outlets, primarily focusing on telling stories about women of color in the arts.
SOMETHING TO DO
Volunteer as an English teacher
Do you speak English? Great! There are lots of people in the U.S. and abroad who need to learn English in order to get work and improve their lives. This winter, I googled āteach English immigrants Philadelphiaā and found an online course through the city government that walked me through how to teach English and then hooked me up with a volunteer position. Now, I volunteer as an English teacher two nights a week for a group of eight awesome people from around the world (then also one morning a week for Spanish-speaking people in prison, as seen above). Itās, by far, my favorite part of the week. My brain is expanding, language skills I take for granted are being put to use, and people who want to learn English are learning about very important concepts like which American bagel flavor is the best. Wherever you are, do some research and see if thereās an opportunity to volunteer, too.
Ā
Iāll write to you in two weeks! In the meantime, keep in touch on Instagram and Twitter, okay? If this is your first time seeing this newsletter, you can subscribe here.