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Or, Getting Up Again
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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,
We’re not even two (2) weeks into the year and already yours truly has broken one of their three (3) resolutions. When I tell you I paid the price for it over the weekend, I mean it on every level. It’s one thing to see the consequences of one's actions weeks, months, even years after the fact; quite another to experience them in under 24 hours. Listening to the podcast episode released by Therapy for Black Girls at the beginning of 2025 as I walked to a work site earlier today was a balm I didn't know I needed. Hearing a person with Kenyan heritage (squeal! And yes, I know the nation state is a construct we need to rid ourselves of) remind me to give myself grace and stay on course with my intentions was a gift. Listen to it here.
Lest you think last week was just the strange end, there was also the joy of going to the National Museum with my friend on Thursday afternoon. We struck up a conversation with a tourist at the desk and walked and talked through the museum and aquarium with him. Afterwards, we walked into the city together in an afternoon like nothing I've had since my teens and early twenties. One of the things I often worry about is that I've lost my ability to speak to strangers, to establish connections, so it felt good in a very particular way to walk and talk with an old friend and a new person. As always, down with eCitizen, even though it played more than a minor role in building our rapport at the front desk.
For the first time in all my years of visiting the Museum, I walked with a guide. It was…an experience. The young man who walked us about seemed peeved by the feedback my (Kenyan) friend and I were giving him and by the questions our acquaintance had. Sorry to sound like a millenial but there's an animosity I can sometimes sense as an AFAB person dealing with younger men that was in the air and your honour I don't like it!!! As soon as he could be rid of us, he was gone, and the “good riddance” in the air was from more than one party, that's for sure.
Last week, I wrote about keeping a public media diary and watching at least one short film a day. The diary has fallen by the wayside as my body reminded me last week that I'm a Spoonie and sometimes only have so many spoons. I'm still watching short films (there's a passive nature to it that means even the worst day can be a film day) and updating my Letterboxd (see my 2024 year in review here) so not all is lost.
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
Abi in conversation with Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ at Cheche
Sign up for the Reading Group discussing Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis by Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis here.
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!
Poets from Kenya and Scotland: Apply for a chance to spend a week in Turkana
2025 Public Domain Day Remix Contest: The Internet Archive is Looking For Creative Short Films Made By You! (Deadline: 17th January)
Links to Reading Lists, Free Books, Book Recs, Book-related Items in this document
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!
The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya
I have finished five books since I last wrote to you (reviews up on Fable, still on Goodreads): a hybrid read of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (hardback & audiobook; narrated by Jennifer Kim & Julian Cihi), a hybrid read of All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work by Hayley Campbell (e-book & audiobook; narrated by the author), a hybrid read of Sex Object (e-book & audiobook; narrated by the author), a hybrid read of The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America by Stephanie Gorton (e-book & audiobook; narrated by Janina Edwards), and a hybrid read of Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America by Stephanie Kiser (e-book & audiobook; narrated by the author).
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 🙂
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Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!