💦 We Need One Another's Sweat 💦
Trudging down the wooded trail with a kink in my neck and sleep still in my eyes, I was wondering who the hell schedules a poetry reading at 9:15am. Aren’t poetry readings meant to take place late at night, in smoky bars full of dim lighting and beautiful people? Instead, while camping at Pickathon music festival, my friend and I had roused ourselves from our tent, disheveled and unshowered, and headed down to a stage so we could sit on piles of woodchips and hear a few poets read in the searingly bright morning light.
While I was cranky about getting up early, the day was lush with possibility. The trail to the stage from our woodsy camping site was a tunnel of verdant green, every plant bursting with summer fullness. It was warm and perfect. We had all day to enjoy music and art and old friends and new friends. I didn’t know that this would be the day that a white supremacist man walked into a WalMart in El Paso with the goal of murdering immigrants. I didn’t know that I’d end the day by laying alone in the dark, reading the news on my phone and crying. I didn't know that I would feel bad for spending all day dancing. I'd feel bad for taking time to be with my friends in the woods. I feel bad and helpless and powerless and I'd think back to that morning, at the poetry reading.
One of the poets who shared her work was Jennifer Perrine. I’d never seen her before and she coincidentally chose to read a poem about a mass shooting. The poem is “We Call This An Anniversary” and Perrine wrote it on the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando… another time when a man with a gun decided to kill as many people of a group he hated as possible. The middle of the poem goes like this:
“spaces where we fled to be safe, brave-faced
in the dark that kept time, that pressed us close
as if we needed one another’s sweat
to survive. We do.”
I thought about that, while I was laying down in the dark, all alone. Fear drives us to be alone. To stay inside, to keep to ourselves, to never get on the dance floor, or out protesting in the streets. Anything could happen out there, even the "safe" places aren’t actually safe. That fear, in turn, creates isolation, alienation, it keeps us from one another. Instead, we need each other’s sweat to survive. We need the sweat that it takes to do something scary, the collective blood, sweat, and tears of hard work. We not only need to pitch in, we need to connect. And that means getting sweaty, together.
Thinking about all that, I got out of my tent, again, and wandered toward the sound of a band playing late at night. Onstage, where the poets had been many hours before, a Congolese dance band was playing at full volume. The woods were packed full of people dancing together, a crowd cheering and throbbing and sweating together to the insatiable music. It’s not lazy to join a crowd of people who are dancing joyfully amid a time of horror and violence. It’s necessary.
(Jupiter and the Okwess - the band that makes everyone dance - at Pickathon. Photo by Todd Cooper.)
Stuff I Made
Stickers! Designing stickers is a valid form of emotional self-expression, right? I made these four stickers that I’ll be sending to Patreon backers, but if you want some of your own, you can buy them here.
Comics - I edited this comic by Elise Scheunke about how anti-vaccine rhetoric shames autistic kids.
Zines - I finished making zine number 196 for the year. Only 169 more to go!
Stuff I’m Doing
Do you know anyone in Boise? I’ll be a special guest at the Boise Comics Arts Festival on August 24th and 25th. It’s a free comics festival put on by the public library and I’m very excited to meet nerdy Idaho teens.
Stuff I Love
Top-Notch Comics - I was on a panel at San Diego ComiCon a couple weeks ago and packed my luggage with way too many comics. Two of my top picks are Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal, which is a collection of really sharp strips about a society without men, and BTTM FDRS, Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore’s surreal and weirdly funny horror story set in a gentrifying neighborhood.
See Something, Say Something - I have a new favorite interviewer and his name is Ahmed Ali Akbar, host of the podcast "See Something Say Something." The show (which draws its name from the ominous Homeland Security directive) covers issues in the lives of American Muslims, from over-policing to fanatical love of mangoes. Part of why I listen is Ahmed asks pointed, thoughtful questions. Listen to the recent episode on “Ramy” to see what I mean.
Tuition-Free College - It’s not a pipedream, people! Funding tuition-free public universities for the entire United States would cost less annually than the tax break Trump passed last year.
The Farewell - Okay, I have not *yet* seen this film based on director Lulu Wang’s real-life experiences with her family, but that’s only because it just came out. Check out this interview with Wang: “I wasn’t setting out to make an “Asian movie” any more than a white male director sets out to make a “white movie.” They’re just telling their own family story, their own perspective.”
Jane The Virgin - I realize I’m about five years late to catching onto the genius of CW show Jane the Virgin, but the premise of a Catholic girl being accidentally artificially inseminated turned me off. My friend Ashley Gallagher convinced me to watch by explaining that it’s campy, quick, modern take on a telenovela. She was totally right! Why didn’t I know this show was so funny??
Endless Summer Squash - Is it so wrong to feel an outsize sense of pride in my garden? Those squashes wanted to grow, but, dammit, I watered them myself! I’ve been eating a lot of summer squash pasta salad that resembles this recipe but is made with whatever happens to be excessively growing at the time.
Someone to Know
Sarah Marshall is the other six-foot-tall Sarah M. writer who lives in Portland, but she’s a much more meticulous researcher and murder obsessive than me. She is the co-host of “You’re Wrong About,” a podcast I evangelize for in an increasingly screechy voice of excitement, and an essayist hellbent on making Americans reconsider sacrosanct narratives. Her most recent essay is about the dark sides of Disney World, where she drops philosophical bombs like, “Capitalism, like all abusive relationships, creates a sense of learned helplessness in its victims.” I try to restrain myself from favoriting every single thing she tweets. (Photo above from the Portland Mercury)
Something to Do
Read this article by reporter Tina Vasquez about how anti-immigrant rhetoric leads to murder: “Trump has engaged in near-constant racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric, signaling to his white supremacist voter base that it’s open season on Latinx communities.” (Cake design and photo by @TheSweetFeminist)
I’ll write again next month! In the meantime, you can keep in touch on Instagram or Twitter. Is this your first time receiving this newsletter? You can see the archive here.