The Audacious Round Up
For the week of March 7th
Greetings from Australia!
The March selection for The Audacious Book Club is How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. We will be in conversation with Sequoia on March 21st at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is now open. If you missed it, you can watch our conversation with Hanya Yanagihara, as well.
Tressie, Debbie Millman and I are hosting a writing workshop retreat in July 2022. You can also register for this if you want to spend a weekend with us. We hope to see you there! It will be fun and more.
Roxane Gay Books is closed to unagented submissions until 6/15/2022. I’ve found, I think, my first few books! I am open to agented submissions so please send me great books! I am also open, again, for submissions to The Audacity’s Emerging Writer Series. Read the guidelines and submit your best writing. Submissions will be open until I have 24 essays.
Don’t Forget: Why Design Matters by Debbie Millman.
In the Emerging Writer Series, The Ladies Room by Nancy Powaga.
On The Roxane Gay Agenda this week, I speak with Cerise Castle, a Los Angeles based journalist who wrote a multi-part exposé on gangs within the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
So Ryan Coogler, in Atlanta filming Black Panther 2, went to Bank of America to withdraw $12,000 from his own account. He wanted to be discreet so he wrote his request on a withdrawal slip and provided his debit card etc. The teller, a black woman, assumed he was a bank robber, spoke to her manager, also black, who suggested she call the police, which she did. Coogler was taken outside, handcuffed, and only then did the police ask him what was going on. The whole situation is terrible. It is depressing. It is infuriating. But even more aggravating is the discourse. I have seen people, and especially black people, dissecting Coogler’s actions every which way.
He should have known better. Why was he writing his request? Why was he being so weird? Why didn’t he make himself as small as possible? What did he need that much money for?
So many questions that avoid the only question that matters—why wasn’t Coogler allowed to complete an ordinary banking transaction without being handcuffed? SO many questions that elide this very important fact—even if Coogler was being weird, it is not a crime! It does not matter at all what he was going to do with that money because it is his money and his business.
There are these moments when you see just how internalized racism can be, when you can see that every single day, black people spend an extraordinary amount of effort calculating how to behave in public spaces so that they can survive being in public spaces. And then we police not only ourselves but each other. Something about this situation has really gotten under my skin, maybe because that could have easily been me, maybe because I am intimately aware that this could have gone sideways and a black man could have lost his life, maybe because we should be able to be how we want. We should be able to conduct personal business without making the news. Anyway, this is clearly on my mind and it will be for some time.
Substack now has an app, so you now have a new way of reading your favorite Substack newsletters.
Storyboard P is an incredible dancer. Get to know his work.
Visual artist Jordan Casteel is looking for a studio manager.
On the writing of Diane Oliver who died far too young.
March 13th will be the two-year anniversary (what a terrible word for this) of Breonna Taylor’s murder.
Small scale artist doing cool, cool things.
The UnionDocs summer documentary lab is accepting applications until March 15.
A new short story from Paul Yoon.
The Whitehouse meeting people where they’re at.
Kitchen design as social engineering.
Hollywood fancy people are demanding that the Oscars air all the awards. For once, they are right.
This woman is amazing. What strength!
This story is going to make a mighty interesting Lifetime movie.
The New York Times Book Review is hiring a new editor. I personally nominate Kaitlyn Greenidge.
This guy, running for office in Michigan, seems like a quality father.
Republicans continue to forward their agenda. Don’t say gay in Florida, blah blah blah blah fucking blah. Idaho. Missouri. Every damn where.
Speaking of…. conservative alumni and boosters at Texas A&M are trying to have undue influence on campus culture.
Ukrainian runners are not letting war keep them from getting the miles in.
Shipwreck, found!
After fifty years, Al Pacino reflects on The Godfather trilogy.
Domee Shi, breaking barriers and being great.
Why isn’t more attention being paid to Brittney Griner’s situation? I suspect the answer is far more complicated than this piece addresses but still. it is a good question.
On one of my new favorite shows, Grand Crew. It is so damn good.
An incredible collection of Black history artifacts is going up for auction.
New Cormac McCarthy coming this fall.
A recipe for flour tortillas that I got from Alicia Kennedy’s great newsletter.
Jessica Valenti on how no one is entitled to friends.
Jen Doll on cooking as a way of bringing a blended family together.
Malika Rao on three bodies in Texas.
A really great essay on seeing fat women on the screen and trying to see something of yourself.
What goes down is always going to come back up, at least when we’re talking about rent in NYC.
The man who cleans Sydney’s opera house.
LOLOLOL.
It is a very sad day when a Black person cannot walk into a bank and withdraw money from their OWN bank account without ending up in handcuffs, regardless how they ask for it. Mr. Coogler was prudent in not advertising that he needed $12k in cash. All the teller had to do was ask for his ID since he had already provided hid debit card. The saddest part is that our own people do not see us as capable of being successful but easily can be a bank robber. We have been brainwashed to not even see our own worth. SMH!
I've been ashamed to be a Florida resident or some time now, but this "Don't say gay bill" is overflowing my cup. We are taking so many steps backwards when it comes to civil rights, we're about to fall off the damn ledge. As for Brittney Griner, I hope our government is working diligently and quietly to secure her release and she comes home safe and soon. Let's dare to be ambitious and audacious in all we do!! Great Round Up!
And I, greet you from gadigal country also known as Sydney. Hope you and Debbie Have a fabulous panel time 💜💜