#37: 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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Greetings, loved ones! January has been a big month for Feels Like Home 🥹

This newsletter recently hit 600 subscribers, and 83 people have already signed up since the year began. Also, the two essays I’ve published so far in January are now among my top-5 most popular newsletter posts of all time.

One of those pieces, my latest essay, is about demanding change in a country that doesn’t want to change. Here’s the link to read or listen:

This year, I’ve been thankful to get back into doing voiceovers of my essays. I listen to an essay from my friend and fellow writer Dia Becker, and that inspired me to start recording mine. It felt like a fun way to make this space more personable, but I’ve since learned it can help make my writing more accessible too. I loved this comment from 15thCenturyFeminist on my latest piece regarding this topic:

All this to say, thank you for supporting me and my work. It’s a gift to be able to write and an honor that you read this newsletter and sign up to receive it!

If you haven’t joined yet, tap below to sign up for a Free or Paid subscription to Feels Like Home:

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Something from YouTube

There has been a lot of chatter in hip-hop circles about Yasiin Bey’s recent appearance on The Cutting Room Floor podcast—particularly, his response when asked about Drake’s music. But from what I’ve seen, this is the most compelling clip to me. Bey talks about Palestine, colonialism and humanity.

“I know it’s heartbreaking” he says, “You should be heartbroken. That means your heart is working. If you’re heartbroken, and it’s distressing, that means that you are sane. You are a functioning individual. If you are uncomfortable, and you’re maladjusted to a sick society, it means that you are healthy.”

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A song I played

The past few weeks, I’ve been trying to listen through the audiobook for Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, so I haven’t listened to a lot of new music. But I did listen to this song the other day. I didn’t realize it was on repeat and probably listened to it no short of ten times in a row. New pregame hype music for my budding youth coaching career just dropped 😤

I'm back in championship condition

I can't resist all this winnin'

It's like me and success built a bond

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A podcast I listened to

This is a great supplementary listen with my latest essay. In a conversation with Dr. Anthea Butler, religious scholar and chair of the department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, host Brittany Luse explores the roots of political activism within the Black church and the complicated relationship between Democrats and the Black church. They also discuss what is the right time or place to protest. If you’ve read my piece, you know there is no proper place for truth in a country that refuses to reckon with the atrocities it has committed and continues to commit.

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Something I read

Your Heart, Remember

Today, I’m highlighting two newsletters I’ve recently loved. First, I have to shout out these words from daisy cashin about artificial intelligence and the real A.I., Allen Iverson. Reminds me of my favorite Action Bronson line: “Now they got AI that could turn me into A.I.” But seriously, I immediately sent this essay to my homies because the writing is so good and the topic itself is very me-coded.

I’m stilling think about this line:

“Of course, I fear the computers. I fear them like I fear everything. But what I fear most is that my friends and I are becoming tiresome. We are forgetting our hearts.”

sunday energy #47

Next up: Zeba Blay shares these weekly “sunday energy” dispatches with incredible resources and thoughts from her heart that she’d like to offer. I love being able to tap in with them when I can and felt especially connected to this one as she writes about fighting for a world beyond this one:

“We talk so much, in this ongoing struggle for liberation, about imagining a new world. But I wonder how many of us actually explore that imaginative space? Live in it? Externalize what we imagine?”

I also appreciated this anecdote on reform and comfortable change:

“I think a lot of people say they want revolution, but what they really want is a slightly tweaked copy of the old world. And a lot of people say they want to transform, but they’re only willing to transform in ways that are comfortable, familiar, easy. I’ve seen this in myself, and I now understand how this is not an approach that’s conducive to true liberation, both personal and collective. An old house with a new coat of paint is still just an old house, with the same weak foundations and slowly creeping dry rot.”

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A TikTok video I watched

@yungbloresIn case you needed some more... #happybirthday #birthday #birthdaywishes #masculinity #waystosayhappybirthday #fyp

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As I wrote about in my essay from earlier this month, “As a man, why are you free?,” masculinity is this fickle thing—and the restrictions we place on it can be dangerous and also unequivocally hilarious. Dudes can’t even say “happy birthday” anymore.

Back in December, I saw this tweet with a screenshot of a man commenting on another man’s Instagram post, “Cake and Candles My brother.” Someone quote tweeted it and said, “New masculine way to say ‘happy birthday’ just dropped,” to which another person replied, “This is more sassy than saying happy birthday tbh lmao.”

I’ve been jokingly telling all the homies that have had birthdays lately, “Cake and candles.” That is the funniest thing to me. It says nothing and everything at all. This video has some other good greetings. A personal favorite of mine: “Cheers to your annual elevation.” 🍻🥳💯

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Something I keep thinking about

Abolish police and prisons, but there has to be some kind of justice served for Subway now selling footlong churros, pretzels, AND cookies. I probably could’ve taken this with me to the grave, but I’ve been known to be a Subway apologist from time to time. Earlier in the day before I proposed to Elizabeth, we went to Subway. I didn’t eat any of it because I was too nervous, but you can’t tell me a steak and cheese with the Chipotle Southwest sauce doesn’t hit. However, under no circumstances can I condone the distribution of chocolate chip shaboing boings in my community. Contary to anarchist belief, I have to draw a line somewhere—and that line is the fookie. Truly nefarious, nasty work.