Dear readers,
hello! It is a difficult time as I am dealing with rejection from different quarters. The worst seems to have passed. But this is a quick note with recommendations.
While all of it was happening, a whole bunch of people sent in their stories for the new project - Let’s put a little love in the world, I prodded them and they rewrote their stories, sharing parts of themselves. Four people are recording those stories, some of them have offered to rerecord parts, one person edited their own recorded piece on Audacity. Many people have offered to sing songs as part of the stories. Some have learned new songs. My YT recommendations are changing as I playing these songs. I am adding the songs folks have sent to a list on YouTube and plan to update it. It currently has four songs and here it is.
Like someone said in an email to me, “Thank you for reminding me of the abundance of love and validation in my life that already exists in bountiful heaps.” I feel the same even though rejection and uncertainty still hurts
Other than that, I am here to share, I watched Paris is Burning, a documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston that provides a captivating and insightful look into the New York City drag ball scene of the 1980s, primarily among African American and Latin American LGBTQ+ communities. I found it on YouTube.
I also found out that the term ‘throwing shade’ comes from the Black and Latino LGBTQ+ community and mainly from the kind a dancing called voguing where it meant throwing subtle, humorous remarks on one's rival and was a way of asserting dominance and challenging opponents.
I have been reading two fab books. One is Kavitha Rao’s Lady Doctors. Though I haven’t yet reached the stories of Dr Anandibai Joshi or the fascinating Dr Rukhmabai Raut yet, (She orchestrated the Age of Consent Act, 1891 and began the discourse on child marriage. You have to read this amazing comic by Zarah Udwadia and Pia Alize.) the stories leading to the Indian women doctors are equally engrossing. I’d have to photograph everything I have read so far but since I can’t, I am adding a picture of not the most interesting part of the book.
The other book I am reading is Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal India by Ira Mukhoty and here’s what I found out:
That’s it. Next week, I promise to bring you the stories that have come my way.
<3
Indu
I read Daughters of the Sun earlier this year and loved it too :)
I hope things get better, and you get new successes and joys <3