113
Or, Cultivating Hope
Hi! Thanks for reading this newsletter. A click of the ♡ button makes a difference. You can also share excerpts on social media, forward it to someone who might enjoy the vibes, or text it to a friend.
Pinning this for the next few weeks
My birthday wishlist, now an annual tradition, is out! You can find it here and any and all gifts will be appreciated 🙂
(I’m also open to surprises; as long as it’s not a surprise party.)
Reader,
With all the things happening in the world, it can sometimes feel Pollyannaish to walk around feeling hopeful yet hope one must. I was tempted to write about the way the recent Vanity Fair piece on Cormac McCarthy’s “muse” was written and received - the original remit of this newsletter for those who may recall - but I don’t have it in me to rehash Twitter and Bluesky (twice the discourse!) conversations today. Instead, I’ll try do a double feature of that piece and a Harper’s Magazine piece on art as protest next week, inshAllah.
Before then, some things that have given me hope lately and how I’ve been thinking with Mariame Kaba’s oft-repeated advice that “Hope is a Discipline”.
Last week, I posted a request for items and funds to go towards a collection that had been organised by a dear friend. On Friday morning, they texted me to say some of you had donated and it filled my heart with so much joy I had a pep in my step all day. I’m so so grateful for everyone who shared, contributed, even read the requests. Because of your responses, my friend and I were motivated to sit together and consider the possibility of starting a bail fund in Kenya. I first came across the idea and work of bail funds via Mariame Kaba’s writing on her blog and later Twitter (she was one of my first Bluesky follows) and I long thought about it as an American thing. But capitalism and empire are similar across the globe and, even accounting for the difference that comes with being in this part of the world, the core ideas of these organisations still resonate. When my friend told me some of your donations would go towards paying bail and fines, it unlocked something in me. If you’re interested in joining us in these initial stages as we imagine what abolitionist and liberatory work can look like in the context of the Kenyan system, please reach out.
Another hopeful Friday moment: a call I got from a man I had met earlier in the week who sharpens knives. I’d asked him to let me know when he was in the neighbourhood so I could get my (very blunt) knives sharpened and on Friday, as promised, he called me. I sometimes struggle to get out of the house (any spoonie will recognise this feeling) but I was brought up a certain sort of AFAB child. He roused me out of the house and in the process, I was able to get some food shopping done. I don’t think I’d have had it in me to leave the house that day (and it was proven by the fact that the farthest I went the next day was the gate) but moving one’s body is oftentimes both the hardest and best thing and he was instrumental in that day’s movement. If you believe in ROI as a way of measuring one’s life; I’d say it’s pretty good for 60 KES (0.46 USD).
Lastly, a dear friend came over on Saturday and we spent 10-odd hours cooking, watching a film; just hanging out. Knowing she was coming over had prompted me to follow my own advice about the prison visit - send the 1,000 KES (7.73 USD) saving from my shop to my friend who was going to the prison so there was a particular joy to knowing she was coming. I made a very watery chicken stew (it’s the Kikuyu in me lol) but it was flavourful and she helped me in the kitchen so we were able to have two good meals. I love friendship and all the possibilities that it leads us to. Thanks to her (if KPLC stops its nonsense — see: a 12 hour blackout from last night into this morning), I’ll be sorted for food for some time yet. It’s the small and big things that give me hope.
What’s making you hopeful lately? Please write back and let me know— I’d love to have a collection of stories I can reach into on bleak days because we could all do with some brightness.
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
If you’re in the Global North and would be open to engaging in the North-South solidarity that is sharing a library card, please email or message me so we can figure things out. Thank you!
Two events at the Goethe-Institut: A reading in German and English of a book that I added to my TBR list when I got the Institut’s email & a reading of 6 Kenyan plays about Nairobi (sign up for the reading here)
My friend Agnes Waruguru’s show What the water left behind continues at Circle Art Gallery. Please see it if you can!
Free books from Haymarket Books
The fantastic Abigail Arunga has a new book out. It’s open access so have at it!
Mark your calendar for the Zine Club meeting on the 29th. You can find out more about the club in the poster below and start your own via this form.
If you’re an actor or in community with actors, this may interest you:
Since Elon seems to want (some of) us gone, I’m trying to post more often on Bluesky. Follow me there if you’re on it!
Sign the Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions letter
Issue 1 of Will This Be A Problem?, the magazine, is out. Download it here.
Words for Resilience, Community Care, and Survival, a list curated by the Queer Liberation Library
Available for free till 11th December: How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams by Christina M. Greer
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya
I have finished two books since I last wrote to you, both hybrid reads: The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (started as a physical book, finished in e-book format; narrated by Finty Williams) and I Hate Men by Pauline Harmange (translated from French by Natasha Lehrer; narrated by Emily Lucienne). I hope to get back to making videos soon so I can share my thoughts on recent titles. Before then, please go ahead and subscribe to the channel.
As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.
Thank you for reading 🙂
If you have enjoyed this newsletter and want to support my writing, you can:
Share an excerpt of this newsletter on social media, tap that ♡ button, & tell someone to subscribe
Send me job ads (communications & arts positions especially)
Forward this newsletter to a friend you think would enjoy it
PayPal me a one-time donation at @cmutanyi
Read my other writing
Hire me to write for you
Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!