Ritual for Release 2020

by Courtney E. Morgan

The following is a ritual which uses the powerful practice of tonglen meditation from Tibetan Buddhism to help us say goodbye to 2020. Tonglen means ‘giving and receiving’ or exchanging self with other. In this ritual, we take in the pain of 2020, transform it within our ourselves, and give or send out relief, compassion, love.Continue Reading

Podcast: Interview with Sydney Fowler–Author, Activist + Sensitivity Reader

Sydney Fowler Sensitivity Reader Podcast

Please enjoy our interview with Sydney Fowler, author, queer + trans activist, and sensitivity reader + consultant. We talk about sensitivity reading and the publishing industry, call-out culture, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and more.Continue Reading

Moving Water

Alicia Cohn Moving Water

by Alicia Cohn

TW: sexual assault

When your head pops out of the water, he is there, two lanes over and looking your direction.

You wheel around. Shoving away from the wall is pressurized with adrenaline. You shoot forward like a rocket.

Whoosh air out your nose. Turn your head. Grab some air. Raise arm behind you from the elbow. Slice through the water with your hand. Repeat.

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Bitch Niggas: In Support of Softness

Steven Dunn author

by Steven Dunn

When men write about sexism they get praised to high heavens for it, although women have been talking about it, writing about it, making art about it, and living it for so fucking long. Initially I struggled to write about sexism because I felt that maybe it’s not mine to write. I want to contribute to the conversation in a way that isn’t colonizing. As men, we can take responsibility for what is ours: the many ways we participate in and continue to perpetuate sexism. Everything I say from here out, I’ve learned from listening to women and reading women’s works.Continue Reading

The Search for Non-Capitalist Pleasure

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The Search for Non-Capitalist Pleasure

by Ansley Clark

One of my most pleasurable memories occurred in my friend’s tiny room, sitting in her plastic and unremarkable desk chair. We were English teachers living in Beauvais, France; my hair was full of split ends, and my friend offered a trim. Since none of us owned any glassware, she handed me red wine in a mug. Her fingers combed through my hair, occasionally skimming my scalp, while her scissors quietly and steadily snipped away, like small gentle insects.Continue Reading

Queering a Path through the Universe: Sex & Love in Sci-Fi

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Queering a Path through the Universe: Sex & Love in Sci-Fi

by Courtney E. Morgan

There have been more and more representations of queer characters and relationships in mainstream media lately—more depictions of fully fleshed out, round protagonists, given fullness and complexity in their relationships and their narratives. Queer characters can be the leads in important movies, can win awards: Moonlight, Call Me By Your Name, Battle of the Sexes come to mind.[1] It’s a beautiful thing.Continue Reading

Feminized Rastafar-I, Adaptive Diaspora, and Embodied Resistance in Marcia Douglas’ The Marvelous Equations of the Dread

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Book Review: Feminized Rastafar-I, Adaptive Diaspora, and Embodied Resistance in Marcia Douglas’ The Marvelous Equations of the Dread

by Stephanie Couey

Marcia Douglas’ 2016 novel, The Marvelous Equations of the Dread centers around a young Jamaican woman named Leenah. Leenah’s multimodal and fully-embodied engagements with sound grant her privileged access into the temporal and spiritual experience of Rastafar-I. Following pan-African traditions of resistance centered around adaptation, Leenah radically adapts to her surroundings as a deaf woman in a persistently-masculinist and sound-driven movement.Continue Reading