Is there any box wine more box-winey than a giant white crate of uber-cheap pink wine that even in its own tasting notes, humbly acknowledges that you will likely consume it with Ramen noodles? “Complements cheeses, salads, and simple pasta,” it says of itself.
Lavender Menace Tees in the Autostraddle Store now!
Women’s Style (S-2XL) – https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/autostraddle/products/lavender-menace-purple-womens-tri-blend
Unisex Style (XS-4XL) – https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/autostraddle/products/lavender-menace-purple-unisex-tee
… I am Aisha, and I like to read and write and teach about art. This month I’ll be curating this series. Specifically, I am looking for personal essays about how your black queer life has been saved or influenced by art in all forms, including art categorized as “pop culture.” How do you craft and cope? What was it like the first time you realized Nina Simone was (is) trying to get your attention when she sang To Be Young, Gifted and Black? Who are your poets? Where are your choreographers? Who draws your comics? Can we come with you to a museum or a movie?
Sure, the heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune married a Prince, but on their wedding night, she climbed on an armoire and threatened to kill him if he approached her.
“We’re not just writers who are hired to go into an office every day and write our stories,” Bernard says. “We connect with readers on and off-site, and we have camp where we meet people and have cabins and build a family in real life. We—the writers, the team—need the readers as much as they need us.”
LOOK IT’S US! WE ARE OF IMPORTANCE!
Once, and only once, did I ever let my brain consider the possibility that I might like girls in a way that was different than what was expected of me. I considered this thought, honestly and quietly, knowing that this had the potential to rip my world apart, and then I reminded myself that I barely knew how to survive with the identity I already had. I didn’t know how to be poor, and black, and biracial, AND queer. So I wasn’t. I shut it down. I quieted the voice inside of me, convincing it that this was not a world in which it could survive. I had seen no examples of anyone like me, not in my life, not on tv, not in books, so rather than be the first of my kind, I decided not to exist.
Do you know how traumatizing it is to live your life thinking that you don’t exist?
