Our guide to what to read, watch and listen to this week
Read: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. She establishes herself in the intro of Undrowned as a “queer Black feminist love evangelist and a marine mammal apprentice.” Combining genres and topics of Feminist Theory, Ethnic Studies, Social Justice, and Marine life, this book connects human experiences to the habits of aquatic animals through metaphors and natural models. Based on Black feminist/marine mammal principle of flow, this book is broken into eighty short meditations, each grouped into “movements” such as “Listen,” “Breath,” “Stay Black,” and “Go Deep.”
Undrowned is a beautifully poetic writing of biology and the interrelatedness between humans and marine animals. There is a lot we can learn from these sea mammals, so open your mind and take a deep dive into the ocean!
From the Publisher
Undrowned is a book-length meditation for the entire human species, based on the subversive and transformative lessons of marine mammals. Alexis Pauline Gumbs has spent hundreds of hours watching our aquatic cousins. She has found them to be queer, fierce, protective of each other, complex, shaped by conflict, and struggling to survive the extractive and militarized conditions humans have imposed on the ocean. Employing a brilliant mix of poetic sensibility, naturalist observation, and Black feminist insights, she translates their submerged wisdom to reveal what they might teach us. Gumbs’s narrative moves seamlessly between dolphins born in captivity and Black political prisoners giving birth behind bars, between the migratory patterns of dolphins and the Atlantic slave trade. The result is a powerful work of creative nonfiction that produces not a specific agenda but an unfolding space for wonder and questioning.
Watch: The Minimalists: Less Is Now on Netflix
People love stuff. And usually have way too much of it. Books you’ve never finished overflowing on the bookshelf, clothes from years ago collecting dust in the closet, and of course the inevitable junk drawers. We’ll admit, we are just as guilty. And it is a hard process to declutter. Maybe you’ve Marie Kondo-ed already, but it didn’t stick. It’s time to refresh your mind.
This 53 minute documentary can act as the reminder we all need: life’s most important things aren’t things. Get inspired by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, best friends since elementary school who have created their own movement out of minimalism. They share their stories of growing up poor, their experiences with ‘stuff’ and how it didn’t equate to happiness, and their journey to becoming The Minimalists: authors, podcasters, filmmakers, and public speakers.
The Minimalists and other interviewees throughout will remind you all about the addictive nature of online shopping and how social media reminds us constantly how we “need” just about everything. Minimalism doesn’t have to be the aesthetic choice of neutral colors, it’s about having things that bring value to your life and only that. It is freeing your home of clutter and ditching the unhealthy attachments to consumerism.
Listen to: Kississippi
Zoë Allaire Reynolds is a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia, better known by the solo indie artist name Kississippi. With a discography mixing indie pop, folk, and rock Kississippi is known for her soft emo songs, the most popular one being Cut Yr Teeth.
Her newest single ‘Around Your Room’ is the first new music she has released in two years. With this fresh single came news that Kississippi has signed to Triple Crown Records, who will release the band’s new album in 2021, so there is already something to look forward to this year.
‘Around Your Room’ is much more of a synth-pop song than any of Kississippi’s prior music. The song is about yearning and infatuation, taking her back to her youthful perception of love, Reynolds told NewNoise Magazine. This new era of music is draped in pinks, purples, and orange, while decorated with lots of shine, radiating euphoric and glowing aesthetics. We hope we will get more of this 80s dreamy glam vibe from Kississippi this year!
Until we get more new music enjoy some of our personal favorites we are enjoying RN:
Around Your Room Acoustic Performance with Triple Crown Records
