I'm personally very tired of the social media model. I don't want to follow folks and never see their posts because the algorithm decided it wasn't important. I don't want the things i say and the images i share to be consumed, digested, and regurgitated by some LLM. I don't want to see so many goddamned ads. I would, however, like to share my thoughts, and pix, and bits of my life. If that's something you're interested in, sign up for my newsletter below! I promise no more than once a quarter updates, but I make no promises on the number of cat pictures.
Not quite convinced? Check below for a peek at the first 3 dispatches…
Dispatch #1: For the algo, the macos, and the ego
I can say with confidence that I didn’t miss my Instagram. Mostly.
I can say with confidence that I only missed my Instagram occasionally, mostly when I was lonely, when I took a cool picture, or when I wanted validation. (And if you know of another account that sometimes filled this purpose, mind yuh business. That is a separate animal).
I can say with confidence and no qualifiers that I didn’t miss the icky feeling of being left out that no amount of purging my following list could ease, the compulsive notification checking, the constant scrolling, and the goddamned ads that would follow me from Facebook to Instagram and back again. I certainly did not miss the growing surety that I was being observed, but not seen.
Dispatch #2: Everybody start prioritising creation over perfection now!!!!
I wanted to write about mas and all the work and thought I put into my costumes and speeches and about the joy of collaboration and the importance of trusting the process. But I got into my head, so instead I’ll share the bad art I’ve been making.
I’ve been doodling seriously since 2016 (thank you to Aaron who encouraged me to doodle in earnest. I appreciate you). But self-portraiture (heh) has been special interest. If I can’t make a little cartoon doodle of my own face, who will?
Dispatch #3: Reflections on a Litany For Durga
I had the absolute pleasure of participating in a generative workshop with Amanda Hernández and Nicole Cecilia Delgado of La Impresora, a puertorriquena studio and publisher, at alice yard. The workshop focused on La Impresora’s specialty, risograph printing. What stuck out to me was their concept of poema suelto—loose poem– single page publications of one poem and maybe its translation with pieces from around their workshop.
After the first day of the 2-day workshop, I was overwhelmed. Risograph printing is a darling in the DIY publishing world: basically like if a photocopier and a screenprinter had a baby, producing large volumes of duplicates from a stencil and a vegetable-based ink. But since it’s a stencil, any colours would exist as a separate layer, a separate document to think about. The limitations of a single page and only two colours would not compute. But the concept of a loose poem, brought together by what was available, calmed me. This past year (because it really has been just over a year since that fateful workshop with Kriston Chen at Bocas Lit Fest) has been the embodiment of poema suelto for me. Loose in the sense of not tightly bound, at ease, without tension. I am playing. And occasionally, some serious shit gets crafted.