May 8, 2016
by Brett
today is Mother’s Day, a day to celebrate (or mourn) the maternal figures in your life—maybe you are a powerful maternal figure, in which case I hope you get a chance to celebrate yourself! This week I’ve been thinking a lot about my own mother, and how I can get her to watch Lemonade with me. She would love it.
- It is a great day to revisit the MOMS issue!
- Call your ma, or send her one of these great e-cards.
- Liz Andrade illustrates Morgan Roe’s story of practicing consent with her child, as a survivor mom.
- Vivek Shraya has created this beautiful photo essay, prompting me to consider motherhood, femininity, inheritance, and diaspora.
- Esmé Weijun Wang thinks about her mother’s immigration to the U.S from Taiwan through clothing, in My Mother’s “American Wardrobe.”
- Willa Paskin on how parenting can birth great writing.
- Geneva Reed-Veal, Sandra Bland’s mother, wants people to know the other six women who died in police custody last July. Reed-Veal promises to “continue to speak for every mother paralyzed because of the loss of their child.“
- In An Open Letter to Everyone About Evacuees, Kandis Riese describes how to support and care for people going through the trauma of evacuation. Riese writes, “Evacuees may be agitated and pacing back and forth and exhibit subtle signs of self-soothing. Let them. Evacuees may be very sad and cry a lot. Let them. Evacuees may want to talk excessively and repeatedly about their traumatic experiences related to the fires and the evacuation. Let them. Evacuees may be very withdrawn and not want to be asked questions about their traumatic experience. Don’t ask them (but be there to listen when they do talk about it).”
- Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has declared a state of emergency since some of their members have been displaced because of the fires.
- This crisis has also been a site of solidarity, as Syrian refugees support fire evacuees, and as Fort McKay First Nation houses 5,000 evacuees in their territory.
- Money constrains access to home for some evacuees.
- Jen Gerson reminds us reminds us that this crisis isn’t karmic retribution, “We are all responsible for climate change. Fort McMurray simply produces some of the product we all consume. That does not make the town uniquely morally culpable for the consequences of climate change.”
- It is census time; what you should know about navigating the gender binary in the census.
- Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Braids frontperson, discusses the politics of writing sexual abuse into song.
- Here’s a list of 10 things trans men want you to know.
- A group of artists, writers, and musicians from Nova Scotia are rewriting pop songs with an anti-capitalist twist.
- A hilarious guide to talking, for women.
- Meet these badass Muslim women in comics!
- Sometimes consensual sex can be a bummer, and sometimes these bummers can be useful.
- An essay on Francesca Woodman, self-portraiture, and psychosis.
- In “A Predator I Can Understand,” Devon Murphy draws connections between predatory relationships.
- “The preference for ‘survivor’ over ‘victim’ is a shift in language that is as much ideological as linguistic,” Parul Sehgal on “The Forced Heroism of the ‘Survivor.’”
- Chief Erwin Redsky on Justin Trudeau’s visit to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
- What will Canada’s commitment to the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) look like? Kris Statnyk answers.
- Thanks to the work and protest of Black Lives Matter Toronto, part of the Special Investigations Unit report on the shooting of Andrew Loku has been released. According to the report, officers tried to download the video footage of the shooting. Desmond Cole writes, “in the interest of justice for Loku, and accountability in policing, the officers who tried to download the video should be fired.”
- She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry is now available on Netflix.
- Lincoln Samuel’s letter to Toronto city counselors, urging them to reject proposed vehicle-for-hire bylaws.
- Canada’s only trans clinic was targeted by arson this week. In the words of Sophia Banks, “We need more clinics. More surgeons.”
- This is a great piece on abortion in Brazil, as it intersects with Zika, healthcare, and waste management.
- Learning from histories of Black resistance and the 1992 Yonge Street Uprising in Toronto.
- Julia Serano’s important piece on hiring trans actors to play cis characters. She writes, “if the *only* time you ever consider hiring a trans person or including trans voices in you project is when you’ve created a transgender character, or decided to do a special transgender-themed episode or issue, then you are *not* promoting trans-inclusion. You are merely pigeonholing us.”
- You can find a great interview with Anohni, the first trans performer to be nominated for an Academy Award, on her new album Hopelessness, here.
- The province of Ontario recovered nearly $140,000 in wages owed to interns at workplaces across the province. The question remains, however, who are the bosses?
- Do Black revolutionaries belong on currency?
- This week in Beyoncé: Lemonade is still changing the world, and theories have surfaces that she has been cloned. Okay, in all seriousness though, Daughter of the Dust, a film that might have influenced the visuals in Lemonade, is set to be re-released. It will premier at the Cannes Film Festival later this month.
- This week celebs walked the red carpet at the Met Gala, dressed to the theme of “future in the age of technology.” Lupita Nyong’o refused to let Vogue whitewash her hair, and here is a great interview with her hairstylist. My pick for best dressed and coolest sibling pair goes to Willow and Jaden Smith.
- If you’re like me, and you have been listening to Drake’s new album, Views, you might be interested in “More Views From The 6.” You also might be wondering, is it true that Erika sued Drake and started a business? Yes, it is. I have yet to confirm his story about kotex and the bugatti, but I believe it.
- Here are some women from Toronto that Drake doesn’t mention—they rule.
- Maybe today is the start to your own “Personal Weekend.” Start it off right with A NEW MUSIC VIDEO FROM PARTNER, one of GUTS’s fave bands.
- Are you on instagram? We are too! Follow us for all of the artwork to grace GUTS’s pages, past and FUTURE(S).
And with that, I leave you. I hope your day is filled with kind words and nice things!!
