june round up
Happy Summer Solstice. The world still seems like its on fire in many ways, not all of them are bad. Perhaps this year is the year it breaks apart and something newer and better emerges. Below are 3 links which I think every single person should sign. Please take the time.
Life has been half getting back to normal in Brighton. We have started to see a few friends and Luna has been back in school for 4 days. Work has picked up and we have booked to go camping soon and to Devon in August. There is still a feeling that A. We don’t want to forget all that we did which improved our lives throughout lockdown. B. That to go back to our new normal isn’t really possible yet, with shops only serving at the door (I picked up my beloved Lush shampoo at the door despite wanting to go in and smell the conditioners!) and cafes, restaurants, gyms and pools are also not open yet. We have booked a table at our local pub for dinner on Friday 10th and I am so excited for it. We have missed it a lot.
What I read this month:
1. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
2. Wintering by Katherine May
3. Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth
Girl, Woman, Other was just as brilliant as everyone had told me. I feel honoured to be allowed into the lives of these characters, they teach so much about feminism, intersectionality, black struggle through the generations and also about love and identity.
After all the gorgeous weather this Spring I can’t shake a deep dread of winter this year. Will there be a second wave? Will the schools all be OK? How could we do lockdown in Winter? Then I read a book about how to come alive when the world freezes up; SAD lamps, sea swimming, celebrating the winter solstice and hibernating are really what I took from it. Thank you Katherine May.
MONTHLY FAVOURITES
Betty. Oh Betty, if I was a teenager I would screen grab every frame of this series and stick it all over my bedroom wall! Skateboards and girls, fashion and kissing. If you watch it give it a chance, ep 1 isn’t it’s high point but it is so worth it to see this primary black, gender questioning cast do something really new and honest.
Little Fires Everywhere, a book I felt luke warm about that a lot of people loved, from last year by Celeste Ng has been made into a really good series!
I May Destroy You, on the BBC is a very raw account of a black female author who wrote a book named Chronicles of a Fed Up Millenial. It is what happens to her after the book has been a success. The first few are quite dark but it picks up, it isn’t finished yet but I really recommend this and I bow down to the BBC, who has given this a platform when I thought that they were stuck in the previous century.
Turned Up Online for... The Womenhood Reframing Resilience Event. I put the soundtrack together. You can find it here.
In the mean time I've been designing and watching, walking and reading. And loving my family. And this planet keeps on turning, making its laps around the sun.
Stay safe. x
