#36: Take It or Leave It

A weekly drop of things I love

Take It or Leave It is a weekly highlight series. Pretty much every Friday, I share a quick hit of things I’m loving. Most of my writing is long-form and requires time for research between essays. Hopefully, this helps fill in the gaps for you with new finds (or things you want to revisit). If not, all good. Take it or leave it ✌️

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Something from YouTube

I’m relatively new to June Jordan’s work. If you’re like me and had heard her name but didn’t know much about her, Jordan is a Jamaican American, bisexual poet, essayist, teacher, and activist.

On their website, the Poetry Foundation refers to her as “one of the most widely-published and highly-acclaimed” writers of her generation.

The last book I finished in 2023 was a short fiction novel by Jordan titled His Own Where. Her control of the English language is clearly on display throughout the story, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1971.

Hanif Abdurraqib recently shared the above interview from 1981 on his Instagram and emphasized the importance of June Jordan’s voice to political education—especially now. He highlighted one of her responses from the interview in which she talked about the power of the public library system in the United States: “Ignorance is unforgivable in this country.”

At a time, like many times before it, where the world’s most violent forces attempt to keep us from the truth, I want to continue lifting up the voices of the truth tellers who have made their words and work available so we can’t say we didn’t know.

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A song I played

The weather in Ohio is beginning to resemble the biting winters I’ve grown used to wincing through.

While the sleet hit my face—hardly rain, hardly snow—as I left the office the other day, I pressed play on this song and let Sampha’s verse flow through my headphones. At a certain point, I couldn’t distinguish which were tears.

Sampha’s voice sweeps you up and hugs you close. Cloud-like. You almost want to float on it. If I’m going to walk alone, please let it always be to this song even if I can’t hear the music.

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A podcast I listened to

I regret to inform you I love Martin Luther King Jr. Day for all the wrong reasons. One of those reasons is because this is the time of the year when all the Atlanta club promoters upgrade their Photoshop subscriptions and make MLK Day weekend event flyers so detailed they belong in the Louvre. Let me show you a few of my favorites from the past couple of years:

While you won’t hear anything about MLK Casamigos Fest in this podcast, it does discuss how different groups look to make King in their own image and co-opt his message—sometimes for nefarious causes working to dismantle his legacy.

Even recently, we saw this with Jonathan Majors when he told ABC News that his current girlfriend, Meagan Good, held him down like a “Coretta [Scott King]” during a domestic violence trial where Majors was found guilt of assaulting and harrassing his former girlfriend.

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Something I read

I love writers who make me wonder how they thought of that. How did Kiese Laymon think of “heart meat”? What led Alexander Chee to write, “Novels do not wait. They are poor chauffers”? Authors who subvert language and make connections where there were once none.

I started this year with a new read and a reread. My friend Emme recommended Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel to me, and I’m now realizing I try to read Laymon’s Heavy at least once every year. Both books are a study in honesty. Honesty with themselves, honesty with others, honesty with honesty.

They are authors well aware of the fact that they are writing a book and considering how the words in front of them might function in the world and, most importantly, in their worlds. What its pages might mean to the people they hold close. What it will mean for them as they look to love themselves and their people.

“Your gifts of reading, rereading, writing, and revision are why I started this book thirty years ago on Grandmama’s porch,” wrote Laymon to his mother. “In spite of those gifts, or maybe because of those gifts, it’s important for me to accept, that like all American children, I’ve been brutally dishonest with you. And like all American parents, you’ve been brutally dishonest with me.”

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A TikTok video I watched

@kashvfxHaven’t done a tutorial in a while 🥴😵‍💫 #fyp #tutorial #vfx #videoediting #edit

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My homie Kash is a visual effects magician and recently did a video tutorial sharing how he edited motion graphics on Columbus’ Nationwide building. After watching this the other night, Elizabeth and I went down a rabbit hole watching everything on Kash’s TikTok—and I would absolutely recommend you do the same. Every few seconds, we couldn’t help but utter, “He’s so cool.”

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Something I keep thinking about

Okay, there are actually two things I’m currently obsessed with I’ll mention here:

Stardew Valley

Since Elizabeth got me a Nintendo Switch four years ago, my gaming has mostly consisted of overpowering computer teams on NBA 2K & FIFA. Every now and then, I’ll break off and see if I have what it takes on Animal Crossing. But I feel so stagnant. I’ve been trying to get K.K. Slider to my island for years now and still have nothing in my house but a shower that splashes water on the floor.

I was ready to swear off cozy games forever—that is, until Elizabeth introduced me to Stardew Valley. “It’s kind of like FarmVille,” she said. It immediately reminded me of Animal Crossing, but it didn’t require me to be Joanna Gaines.

I could just plant my crops, do my little quests, and make sure I put my farmer to bed each night. This has become Elizabeth and I’s nightly activity. Play until our eyes hurt, then put ourselves to bed. Life imitates art.

Real Houswives of Salt Lake City Finale/Reunion

I’ve written about my love for reality TV before—and while I thought the “Scandoval” storyline on last year’s Vanderpump Rules season was going to be the peak of reality TV as we knew it, Bravo found a way to outdo itself with this year’s Real Housewives of Salt Lake City finale.

There were plot twists, punchlines, full-circle moments, long-awaited reveals. As I’m writing this, I realize that’s the same cadence Heather Gay used to deliver that “Receipts. Proof. Timeline. Screenshots” line.

However, the drama extended beyond the show to Tenesha’s Instagram Stories and set up what is bound to be a firework show of a reunion. We’ve already gotten Monica calling Angie K a “benchwarming b*tch.” Honestly, I don’t know what more I could ask for at this point. And it’s not even over yet.