why watch tv when there are autostraddle recaps?
when Roxane Gay tweets the most amazing amount of love about your novel, Juliet Takes a Breath, and you’re at work dying of happiness. available now on amazon in print & e-book please support!
Sports have so much to do with gender, race, power, health and society — it’s a rich topic to dissect and people are writing about it beautifully. The literary journal Prairie Schooner recently published an entire issue devoted to sports, edited by the sensational poet Natalie Diaz. The only time I tried to start a race war in graduate school was in response to a conversation we were having about the essay 36 Tattoos by David Shields, which juxtaposes quotes about sports ownership, tattoos and corporate sponsorship in a way that evokes America’s history of slavery. Sort of like the artwork of Hank Willis Thomas. All this to say: if I’m up on the latest controversy, the game becomes a kind of who’s who on the cultural conversations red carpet.
Getting obsessed with RENT was probably the healthiest thing I could’ve had as a 14 year old confused about their sexuality. I realized my friends in real life wouldn’t be able to support me, so I found a community online where I felt surrounded by people who finally “got it.” I was so lonely in high school, especially in my first two years. But I knew that I could come home at the end of every day, do my homework, and go on the internet, where I could be reminded that the world was bigger than Windsor, Connecticut.
As the second part of the title says, Balderdash! is a comic about two witches. So far, their paths haven’t crossed, and instead we’ve been following their individual journeys to see how they get to where they are today. Georgie is a witch who grew up on an Elk Farm out in the country and wants nothing more than to be a great baker. Afia is a city witch who’s making her way into the River Valley to learn more about magic. This whole comic is told with such a profound hope and kindness. It lifts your spirit and makes your heart swell.