another monday & more good news

we made it through another week y'all. i don't know about you, but there was a lot going on celestially and interpersonally for me. i'm watching so many people i love wrestle with some really heavy things while still showing up for themselves and others in beautiful ways. this offering from Joél Leon is landing nicely with me today:

we do not have to be perfect. no one who came before us was perfect, but they got us here. we will get our descendents (biological, spiritual, or otherwise) further than we are despite our imperfections.

let's get into some (mostly) good news.

beautiful blackness in mexico

this photo stopped me in my tracks this morning. i am forever in awe of the glory of black people.

look at these fucking clowns

sometimes it is helpful to remember how downright goofy and performative many of these far right movements are.

the CROWN Act passed on friday

and it's about damn time.

The House passed legislation on Friday that would prohibit discrimination against people with hair styles associated with a particular race or national origin.

Lawmakers passed the bill, titled the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, or CROWN, Act.

abolition continues to gather people power across the globe

check out this gathering of some brilliant abolitionists TODAY!

we have the ability to listen directly to folks in ukraine and russia

while there certainly isn't good news coming out of the region, i feel grateful to anarchists who are distributing knowledge about this crisis from people living through it, as anarchists have been doing for centuries. i highly recommend checking these two zines out to get a source of information that isn't trying to persuade you that anyone is right or justified. there is no justified war.

Ukraine has been at war with Russia and its proxies for eight years now. The death toll has already exceeded 14,000. Yet as Russian troops gather along our northern and eastern borders, it’s the first time in the history of this war—or even in the entire history of Ukraine as I recall it—that I am regularly receiving messages from my foreign friends, some of whom I haven’t heard from in years, all eager to learn whether I am safe and if the threat is as significant as they have been told. These friends vary in their political views, ages, occupations, life experiences, and backgrounds. The one thing they all have in common is that they’re all from the United States.

The rest of my comrades around the world seem to have less anxiety about this. Last week, I hosted one friend from Greece and another from Germany, both of whom seemed surprised to learn that they had landed in a country that is supposed to become the epicenter of the Third World War any minute now (which is probably why their plane tickets only cost eight euros). I would have been surprised, too, if it weren’t for the fact that I also happen to watch US television myself. Over the past few weeks, I noticed a surge of references to Ukraine’s situation on all sorts of talk shows I see online. It almost feels as if there’s more talk about Ukraine in the United States now than there was during Joe Biden’s son’s corruption scandal.

St. Joseph's Night & Super Sunday happened this weekend in New Orleans

there were several tribes who didn't participate the last few years because of the pandemic who were back on the streets this year. my class got to spend time with several culture bearers and leaders of masking groups this week and i'm overwhelmed with gratitude for being able to experience these transcendent traditions. for more info on the indians and masking in general check out the link below. to revel in the glory of this year's suits, check out the video.

one more offering

Orion Sun dropped a new EP last week and it's been soothing to me. i hope it's useful to you as well.

as always, i hope this was useful.

if it was and you've got five bucks a month to spare, click here.

with hope,

katie wills evans