“Questions for myself: What can I learn from the destruction that targets me, what can I learn from my own destructive impact, what can I learn as who I thought I was becomes debris? …What systems can we replace with our living, our repeated questioning, and our continual care?” Alexis Pauline Gumbs
‘I must transform myself into resilience,’ he said, knowing it was easier said than done. ‘It’s too bad we can’t just snap our fingers and the transformation occurs.’
“Audre believed in the healing power of the erotic, in her own power as a healer, and in the possibility of being healed by touch.”
“Audre’s love for Essex was something she mentioned to many people, but the two of them never sat and talked…”
Gumbs shares a distinct voice as a wonderful, engaged collaborator and steward, guiding the reader across history and varied landscapes of Lorde’s life.
‘I will never be gone,’ Lorde warned us. ‘I am a scar, a report from the front lines, a talisman, a resurrection.’
Four months ago, I carried this book to the hospital when I underwent triple bypass surgery, I’ve read it steadily, slowly throughout my recovery. An extensive biography filled with Lorde’s writing, life challenges and legacies, woven within the framing vibrant poetic prose of the natural world.
“May this book, which centers Audre Lorde as a wonder of the world, increase your questioning active wonder. Read this book as a survival guide, a point of connection through Audre’s life to the most pressing questions about our own and collective relationship to our shifting ecosystem.”
An especially timely read considering the news of a politician’s husband’s dress-up proclivities and the hypocrisies of conservative masculinities, both objectifying and condemning hidden expressions and practices.
Each of the included pieces left me contemplating the sharp plot twists, betrayals, and the vividly descriptive environments.
The characters in transition, newly discovering or presenting their transgender bodies face hostility, both human and in some of the stories - supernatural forces, while struggling to claim their more embodied selves, clashing against the sexualized gaze of others within their male settings.
Book recommendation: The short stories and central novel in Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, includes a mix of sci fi, gothic fiction, and navigates fetish, fantasy, and gender identity often within different landscapes of masculine socialized spaces and conflicted desires.
Much gratitude for the many many volunteers marshaling, organizing, holding art activism opportunities, and for good people across the country showing up to support a better world
Grateful to be more physically myself and to be joining friends for the No Kings March! NYers really showed up with signs that covered so many of the terribleness that demands protest, as well as the many causes and values that deserve protection and care!
Finished our two signs for tomorrow: mine is “protect trans lives, liberty, happiness” and Joseph’s is “immigrants welcome here” with the Statue of Liberty as protest marcher with signs #nokings #artactivism
Today’s chalking.
Tomorrow we show up
For our community
For democracy
For decency
Why are YOU showing up?
#NoKings
@riseandresist.bsky.social
@50501newyork.bsky.social
“This Tender Spring” by Michael Sylvan Robinson (2026) - in studio, a front view of this doll-sized sculptural garment h: 18” x w: 16” x 6” sculptural garment with textile collage, stenciled text with machine and hand-stitching, sequins and beading, semi-precious stones on fabric 🪡🧵🧿🙏❤️ ~ Sylvan
Such a terrible representative- we’re eager for change here in the Bay Ridge part of the current district
ViewFromHere: Bay Ridge Brooklyn blizzard 2026 so far ❄️🙏🧙♂️
Marking Eight Years 💔
Highly recommend the deeply researched, evocative and epic historical fiction trilogy by Madison Smartt Bell - exquisite writing and haunting exploration of characters across the landscape of Haiti’s revolution
I joined the Art Against Empire podcast sharing my work with Gays Against Guns and the art of remembrance 🙏❤️ ~ Sylvan
Paul 🌈❤️⭐️👏
I'm not one for false optimism. But what I witnessed today in Minneapolis was tremendous, both in scale and exuberance. It was a stunning answer to the federal assault on Minnesota, a show of solidarity that gives us something to hold on to during times that are unforgiving.
We don’t want Greenland.
We want healthcare.
“…that bracing for the worst did not make the inevitable any less painful. In the future, historians will struggle to describe that feeling, particular to this Trump era, of being prepared for the bad, crazy, and disruptive things that he would do, and yet also totally, utterly shocked by them.”
“No matter how low one’s expectations were for 2025, the most striking thing about the year when Donald Trump became President again is how much worse it turned out to be.”
A great (and timely) lengthy exploration of all things emperor (including downfalls) in Emperor of Rome. Discussed not chronological but in chapters grouped by different categories very effectively - with Beard’s trademark wit and abundance of historical narratives it is fascinating read!
How to ADHD by Jessica McCabe, brings her experience, research, and strategies towards living with ADHD strengths and challenges. This book was sooooo helpful; I saw my own struggles, avoidance patterns, and attention behaviors illuminated in her shared anecdotes and easy to read formatting.
Hocking’s A Field Guide to the Subterranean travels great distances as he wrestles with a secretive past, the trauma and panic attacks, and later integration. Hocking is careful and caring in his recounting of sexual abuse and the unfolding healing and recovery of self again.
Schulman’s Let the Record Show is filled with familiar figures and friends, vivid memories of those pivotal, transformative years. So many different experiences are highlighted, honored, and provide such inspiring histories for facing the challenges of this very present.
