WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR.
Yes, I took a couple of weeks off because it was hectic. It’s a bit of an adjustment being part of family that celebrates Christmas as I’ve never really had to think about it before.
Anyway, I wanted to start off with a review list of books, podcasts & shows. I think they’re a nice way to think about what I learnt, what I am taking with me moving forward & share what I can from it.
However, the most annoying thing about moving countries is that I packed all my books into boxes that now live in parent’s garage. As such, I can’t check what I read during the first half of 2021. I can only rely on what I remember, which means that I can only list that which left an imprint on my psyche.
Otherwise, I carry a lot of my books on my iPad as E-Books. I love real books but I decided I now fucking love the convenience of e-books.
I resent the lists that make you feel like you didn’t read enough because someone else is boasting about how many books they read in a year. That’s not the vibe I want when it comes to books: I want love, sharing & heart. Reading is pleasure, learning & digestion - not competition. Tell me what moved you, not what you achieved.
So, in the spirit of moving (both figuratively & literally) and the fragility of memory, I’m sharing what moved me in 2021, both for the better and the worse.
Poetry
Alison Whittaker - BlakWork
Evelyn Araluen - Dropbear
Reginald Dwayne Watts - Felon
Warsan Shire - Our Men Do Not Belong to Us
Etel Adnan - Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the Voyage
Books
KEY: F - Fiction, NF - Non-Fiction, M - Memoir
Chelsea Watego - Another Day in the Colony (NF) - A MUST READ
Zaina Arafat - You Exist Too Much (F) - raved about this in a previous post
Deborah Levy - Things I Don’t Want to Know (NF)
Shaka Senghor - Writing My Wrongs (M) - brutal prison memoir beautifully written
Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (M) - King is a weirdo and this is a weirdly good book on craft
Jessmyn Ward - The Men We Reaped (M)
Clint Smith - How the Word is Passed (NF)
Bruce D. Perry & Oprah Winfrey - What Happened to You (NF) - I found this to be really accessible book on trauma and neuroscience, it’s written as a conversation between Oprah & Dr. Bruce.
Anodea Judith - Eastern Body, Western Mind (NF) - this is a new bible for me.
Tadashi Suzuki - Culture is the Body (NF)
Sheila Heti - Motherhood (M)
Collisions: Fictions of a Future, a Liminal Anthology (F)
Anne Bogart - A Director Prepares (NF)
Gloria Anzaldua - Light in the Dark: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality and Reality (NF) - profoundly intellectually impacted by this
Leila Khaled - My People Shall Live: The Autobiography of a Revolutionary (M)
Shows
I gave up on television and movies a while ago. I used to be a big fan of movies and shows but then my concentration lapsed and a chunk of years passed in a blur. I’ve received the strange wrath of Breaking Bad fans too many times to want to return to keeping up.
So, here is the limited selection of what I consumed with my eyeballs:
Succession - binged it, loved it. Currently re-watching it.
Lovecraft Country - devastated when it wasn’t renewed. SO GOOD.
I May Destroy You - I worship at the alter of Michaela Coel & her creative genius
Love on the Spectrum - the BEST dating show ever
Superstore - this is like comfort food in a TV Show. Also, did anyone else cry when Matteo got taken by ICE????
Too Hot To Handle - the worst sex of your life in a tv show. AVOID.
Love is Blind - The Americans are bonkers. The Brazilians are lost in translation. Witnessing people weave love fantasies is pop-psychology gold.
Podcasts
A shout-out to the podcasts that entertained me during long drives, long train rides and longer flights.
Theatre of Others
Episodes: The Clown, Conversation with Performance Maker Dr. Elizabeth de Roza, Budi Miller Solo Episode: Holding Space and The Via Negativa
I loved this podcast. It was like being part of conversation with my favourite theatre nerd friends.
Sounds like A Cult
Episodes: The Cult of Astrology and the Cult of Tony Robbins
I’m currently obsessed (by obsessed I mean, disturbed) with the rise of Instagram life coaches, so the Tony Robbins episode was a great bite-sized meal to start unpacking why it’s sinister & the red flags to watch out for.
This Astrology episode had an interview with astrologer, Jessica Lanyadoo, who explains astrology beyond personality-based astro-memes. Fun and insightful.
This Jungian Life
Episode: Confronting Shadow: The Work of Self-Discovery
These three American psychoanalysts have well-practiced therapist voices that are sometimes so slow, I want to speed them up by 2x. That said, I love how they demystify concepts thrown around on the Instagram for sharing efficiency (like Shadow Work) and invite you into the world of psychoanalysis
Anarchist Essays
Episode: Catherine Oliver, More-Than-Human-Precarity
A beautifully moving audio-essay that thinks through the living-ness of other beings and what it would mean if we understood community as more-than-human. If you’re already emotionally struggling with the climate crisis and the losses of the natural world, proceed with caution.
Behind the Bastards
Episode: Let’s Look at the Facebook Papers, King Leopold II: The First Modern Bastard, The Childhood of Joseph Stalin, Cecil Rhodes: The First Proud Boy, How Nice Normal People Made The Holocaust Possible, Elite Panic: Why the Rich & Powerful Can’t be Trusted, The Family that Stole Malaysia, How the Dulles Brothers Created the CIA and Destroyed Everything Else.
I’ve suggested this podcast to a few friends and not everyone loves it. Robert - the host - and his guests can be crass in that sarcastic, nothing is sacred kind of way. It’s one of those podcasts that my friends are surprised I like, but I have a fucked-up side that is made up of all my trauma demons posing a stand-up comics with nothing to lose but their depression if they could just find the humour in all the terror. So if you wanna learn, laugh & feel horror all at once, then this is a podcast for you.
Music
Spirituals, Sault, Kilo Kish, Jesswar, Barkaa, Tkay Mzaida, The Go! Team, Zaid Khaled, ANHONI, Dina Ögon, The Avalanches, Wegz, Poté, Shaybo, Clap! Clap!, Moondog, Zuuko Mayzie, Max Richter, Martyn Bootyspoon, Pongo, SOPHIE and Michael Nyman. Special shout-out to The Lion King & Mulan soundtracks for their everlasting musical relevance to my life.
Got suggestions? Please leave a comment. I’m keen to hear what you loved (and didn’t love) in 2021!
Love + Solidarity,
Lamisse