#77: Take It or Leave It
A monthly drop of things I love
Welcome to Take It or Leave It. Every month, sometimes a few times a month, Paid subscribers will receive 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 ✌️
I’m turning 31 next week!
As I’ve done since starting Feels Like Home, I’m celebrating my birthday month with a gift for y’all! During the month of May only, I’m offering Paid annual subscriptions to my newsletter for just $35 (originally $50).
When you sign up for an annual subscription, you get access to every installment of Take It or Leave It.
Allergies almost took me out, but I survived April. The month started in San Antonio where I attended the Men’s Final Four for work. I had Houston winning my bracket, which made for quite the “It’s so over” / “We’re so back” scenario. I got to see the insane ending to the Houston-Duke game in person and then stuck around and watched Houston lose to Florida in the National Championship.
Despite the painful conclusion to the tournament, it was a dope experience — and I gotta give a big shoutout to Royal Blue Grocery in Downtown San Antonio. Their coffee and snack selection was wonderful, and they even hooked me up with a banana cream matcha latte. Chef’s kiss.
Coming back to Columbus, I hit the ground running and probably shouldn’t have. However, I did get to read my Kacey Musgraves essay at Scatter Joy Project’s special-edition Studio Stories event. You can watch my live performance here.
Soon after the event, some kind of nasal congestion bug took me out for a few days. I took full advantage of this opportunity to be the drama in my household much to Elizabeth’s chagrin. But she did do a wonderful job of taking care of me. Her and my nasal spray kept me alive.
As for the rest of the month, I dropped a few writing projects I’m really proud of:
An essay on “glazing” — the popular Internet slang used mostly by young men — and the revolutionary act of Black men loving other Black men
My Chron debut on the wisdom NBA veteran Jeff Green has brought to the Houston Rockets
A two-part conversation with my dear friend
on the craft & care of writing
I hope y’all enjoy these offerings and are doing your best to maintain care amid the growing cruelty. So much love to you and yours.
Something I watched
Peer pressure isn’t always bad. Without it, and the nagging fear that I was going to see a spoiler, I wouldn’t have made my way to the nearest IMAX theater to see Sinners.
Outside of seeing some of the images of Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s press run, I knew nothing about the movie going into it. And what I ended up seeing was truly phenomenal.