march march march
i feel like everything is slipping out of control and im also incredibly grateful for every moment of peace!
food has been on my mind this month. with 95% of the world’s fertilizer transit at a halt because some expansionist fascists decided to wage a war on Iran, we will all feel the effects of this war to varying degrees. of course, those in SWANA and the Global South will be affected the worst, and civilians being targeted in Lebanon and Iran right now occupy my current thoughts. when I think more longterm, I wonder how the effects of this war will effect every day people here where I live, myself and my friends, as food, energy and gas prices rise steeply. It is not an optimistic future to graduate into, and I wonder if we are prepared for this future in the UK. (we are not.) I don’t want to live on a world dependent on ethnic cleansing, slave labour and ecocide to live affordably. that is so fucking stupid. and the idea that we can rely on international law, the west’s human rights and aid organisations for justice was killed years ago. Gaza is still being starved by israel, by the way.
we have been in need of food sovereignty forever but especially now. to have food resources that are not dependent on mass production, extractivist trade deals and to have access to food for free without the decisions of pedophile billionaires taking our access to food away from us as a needless consequence of their political decisions. (the accelerationist in me hopes this will mean the american empire and settler project in Palestine will end faster. the realist in me knows this will come with insurmountable loss, as we are already seeing.) so if you’re reading my monthly newsletter right now, I beg of you, learn a skill and teach it. skills to repair clothes, plumbing, electricity, skills to garden and grow, skills to cook and create together are priceless and disentangle us from the codependency of hyper-consumption. be patient because good skills take time to hone, these are things that you cannot rush and once you learn them you cannot lose. even more importantly, help your local foodbanks, food co-ops and mutual aid organisations. give your resources (gardens, allotments, land, money, time) as much as you can to support them because they will be the only thing supporting you soon enough. this is especially necessary in partnership with the Global South, and with colonised people. we have to disempower and deviate from the systems that rely on their slavery and subjugation (this is the premise of a boycott). and to ensure we too can flourish, we must create autonomous systems to replace them.
as for this month’s newsletter, it is a small glimpse into my month this time, and a repetition of the same gratitudes that help me live every day.
Gratitude
Finishing my dissertation oh my
Very grateful for my home, my domestic space and my friends who share it with me
gardeninggggg I love plants sm
Going out with friends and sharing new experiences
mermaid kitsch houseparty
shoutout yeast
flowers in bloom - i never truly appreciated tulips until this year
streams and rivers and ocean
On Da Brain
I want to collage more, or to record things more - to have a chaotic, scribbled source of inspiration which I turn to in moments of creative need; Had the itch to dye my hair and get piercings so I got 2 new piercings, bleached my eyebrows and the ends of my hair; new nutrition interest has emerged - I am learning so much about the nutritional value of certain vegetables, nuts, fruits and seeds (in a positive and exciting way! not for restriction but to add diversity and excitement to my meals); if I could have any future skills I think I would like to try several things including: being a chef, being a professional gardener, being a farmer of a non-dairy and independent small permaculture based farm, being vinyasa yoga certified for the shits and giggles (I would only consider this if I could train in space where decolonising yoga is a tenet of the practice), being a pottery artist or silversmith would be sick too; I really like working with my hands which is something I only recently realised about myself; been considering how to overcome mental blocks (I struggle with this one a lot); also been considering how the hell to make art less of a pressurising practice? I have deeply internalised ideas of right and wrong which I need to unpack here; play and playfulness in every facet has been inspiring me this month.
Works in Progress
homemade pillows/cushions tbc
bookclub first meeting had to be postponed - but I have almost complete Perfect Victims by Mohammed el-Kurd and it is a really brilliant book, please read it!
I especially enjoyed chapter 7 on credible sources and legacy media. shoutout Addameer, Adalah, and Al-Haq
I have expanded my CD collection and am currently on the hunt for CD players which I can burn my own music onto CDs with. My collection of downloaded music is expanding!
Some CDs I have include: David Gray’s White Ladder; Ali Farka Toure’s Talking Timbuktu; Morcheeba’s Who Can You Trust?
Have been a FB Marketplace fiend lately, hunting for an armchair for my room
Have been fermenting/pickling a TON lately - yet to taste my dill pickles, lemons and Đồ Chua but my red onions and radishes were fire
plans to garden and allotment ideas are otw
A mood, a summary, a carnal feeling - march has been
anticipation, dread, anxiety. affirmation, anticipation, hope. a mixed bag!