The political is personal: week 6 of the COVID-19 social isolation, 2020, random day’s log
Yesterday between other political, domestic, family, and minimal self-care tasks* I was on two really good zoom calls. One was essentially about the importance of data-driven political organizing and education and the critical youth vote and one was about pretty much the same thing, and how to help good candidates get their message out and […]
The “wine mom centrist” speaks (the 2020 primary election sucks)
Since people are sharing their stories of supporting Elizabeth Warren while not being “elite,” here’s mine. I think I’m inspired because some rando “socialist” bro just referred to me as a “wine mom centrist” on Twitter, and I have lost IQ points just writing those words. I have supported a couple of different candidates in […]
Day of the Dead, 2019
Last weekend, when we went to see the Dia de Los Muertos altars and display downtown, I really was blown away by their beauty and intricacy and all of the care that had gone into each one, and how the entire display in Grand Park was so dazzling. I spent a long time looking at […]
Where is love’s home, exactly?
Here is a funny juxtaposition I saw on my recent visit to Philadelphia. On the left is a sign that I see elsewhere in America, including in my area of California. It says “hate has no home here” and is translated into several languages, with the American flag design in the shape of a heart. […]
Difficult conversations
Yesterday at a conference of grassroots progressive activists, I was listening to a panel of data experts discuss the preliminary analysis of who voted in the 2018 midterm elections. One of the guys presented an interesting data slice. He reported that (in a traditionally conservative area of California) among “independents” (meaning mostly conservatives who reject […]
Where They From?
Here is something I wrote much earlier this year but still applies to our daily reality of living in this era of sudden forgetfulness of the American Dream. Where They From? (with apologies to Missy Elliott) January 17, 2018 In the week before Martin Luther King Day, the sitting president* of the United States made […]
Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding
Here is a review I wrote of Luke Harding’s new book Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, on the role Russia played in the United States presidential election of 2016 as well as the financial ties between Russia’s wealthiest citizens and our current president. It appeared earlier this month […]
The OpEd Project
In September I took part in a daylong seminar by the OpEd Project at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. It was a great experience and I recommend it. The organization conducts seminars in the cities listed in the link above. For people who are trying to get their ideas for change into […]
Away to VCCA
Five years ago I was lucky enough to be a fellow for a monthlong residency at the beautiful Virginia Center for Creative Arts in Amherst, Virginia. I am returning there soon for a shorter residency this fall, and so thankful. This political climate has been awful in so many ways, but among the ways life […]
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
If you read this blog (hello, my five or ten friends and other people who occasionally google me!), you will see that the spaces between posts have grown and grown over the last few years. This coincides with the birth of my third child and my attempt to finish a masters degree in writing. Oh, […]
