Hanging Out Here: Editors’ Round-Up
byHere are some of our favorite things on the internet and hard copy this week. Timely new stories, a dig through our archive, and some classics.
Kristina Kay Robinson is…
watching
Criterion Channel lifts paywall on Black films
“Titles streaming for free on Criterion Channel include Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust,” Maya Angelou’s “Down in the Delta,” Shirley Clarke’s “Portrait of Jason,” Agnès Varda’s “Black Panthers,” Kathleen Collins’ “Losing Ground,” and many more. The titles are currently curated on the Criterion Channel’s homepage.”
reading
from BOMB magazine
The End of White Supremacy, An American Romance by Saidiya Hartman
“The paradox is that human extinction provides the answer and the corrective to the modern project of whiteness, which Du Bois defines as the ownership of the earth forever and ever, the possessive claim of the universe itself. The stranglehold of white supremacy appears so unconquerable, so eternal that its only certain defeat is the end of the world, the death of Man. Neither war nor rights have succeeded in remaking the slave into the human or in eradicating racism. In the wake of the disaster, the messenger, the last black man on earth, will be permitted to live as a human for the first time. “I am alive, I am alive,” he could shout in the streets of Manhattan, without fear of punishment or reprisal. He is alive because the world is dead.”
manifesting
Foundations of an Anarchist Archaeology: A Community Manifesto
“An anarchist archaeology attempts to reimagine, redistribute, and decolonize processes and positions of authority within communities, the academy and discipline, and its many publics, while doing research, facilitating student learning, and engaging in heritage management.”
from the archive
that time I appeared in a mini documentary for the Guardian with Sudanese cartoonist, Khalid Albaih about the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and the Arab Spring.
Alex Jennings is …
watching
The Good Place. I watched the series as
it aired, and now my roommate has finally begun watching, as well.
She’s blazing through the episodes, and every now and then I watch
with her. The Good Place is solid contemporary fantasy that actually
has something to say, philosophically. That’s pretty rare for a
network sitcom.
loving
the @beeplecrap account on Instagram. His SF
paintings and animations are truly otherworldly and grotesque. I love
the way he takes SFnal tropes and pop-culture images and throws them
into a blender to create these perfect works of SF horror. I don’t
understand how he’s not up for Hugo and Nebula awards every year.
reading
new story by Nisi Shawl:
https://tinyurl.com/y89f69vz It’s short and sweet, and punches above
its weight. During this quarantine, it can be hard to find art that
actually lifts one’s mood instead of merely helping one ignore the
anxiety and grief for a moment. This one definitely did that for me.
a collection by Meg Elison, Big Girl.
https://tinyurl.com/ycm4brum Elison’s work is still pretty new to me,
but she’s been making waves in SF for a while now. This slim volume of
fiction and essays is part of PM Press’s Outspoken Authors series,
which includes volumes by Nick Mamatas and Nisi Shawl among several
others. It’s a worthy entry. “The Pill,” in particular got under my
skin. It’s a Science Fiction tale in which the latest diet craze is
both more effective and more brutal than any we’ve seen in the real
world.
