The Audacious Round Up
Keep up with the Joel Gay Creative Fellows, Jet Toomer, Jesus Rodriguez, and Elspeth Michaels.
The November selection for the Audacious Book Club is Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer. Our conversation with Andrew takes place on November 17th at 8pm EST/5 pm PST and registration is open. If you missed this week’s conversation with Lola Ogunyemi, you can watch it on YouTube.
I am reading 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.
Debbie also has a new project, The Remarkable Life Deck, if you want to think through what the next decade of your life could look like. The cards are really beautiful and this is such a valuable exercise for looking ahead and taking stock of where you are. I don’t say that lightly. Normally, this isn’t my kind of thing but The Remarkable Life Deck is excellent.
If you’re looking for a nice notebook, check out my new Draft Writing Journal from Baron Fig. It’s pretty swank if I do say so myself AND back in stock.
Gonna brag about my wife a little more. For months, she worked on a memorial to the far too many Broadway luminaries who died from AIDS or AIDS-related complications for The Museum of Broadway. That museum opens Tuesday but tonight (Saturday), we got to walk through the museum and see her work and it’s fucking beautiful and haunting and I could not be prouder. She hand-lettered all those names, BTW. The museum, as a whole, is impressive and well worth your time.
I curated a special section of Gagosian Quarterly. It features women of color writing about Black women artists—Amber J. Phillips on Firelei Baez and Tschabalala Self; Brooke Obie on Gio Swaby; Ladi’sasha Jones on Black women collagists, Randa Jarrar on Kezia Harrell and I wrote an essay about art collecting AND interview Jordan Casteel and Calida Garcia Rawles. Finally, Chicago-based abstract artist Kellie Romany has a visual essay featuring her gorgeous paintings. Get into it.
New week, new Work Friend! Trying to make friends at work! Trying to quit when your boss is a friend! How to explain neurodivergence to your boss! Inheriting drama you’re expected to resolve!
Twitter is in complete free fall. First there was verification for $8/month, without actual verification and then people did exactly what you would expect so now that feature is not available while Musk realizes that verification wasn’t creating a caste system. It was protecting public figures and brands from imposters wreaking havoc. This isn’t rocket science which is… ironic, right? Lots of people are resigning. There’s no more working from home. It’s a mess.
Anyway… Method Man is still fine as hell. It must be said.
Nick Cannon is having another baby because it is a day ending in Y.
A conversation with two Jeopardy champions on how they prepared and played the game.
A look at how the cast and crew navigated grief and making Wakanda Forever.
This story about a ponzi scheme and a boy genius to whom people gave billions of dollars is WILD. Folks seem to just give white boys money because they talk a good game. And a lot of money is missing.
Speaking of… the rise of influencer capital.
Staff at Harper Collins have gone on strike for better pay and more.
Election day has come and gone and in many place it lingers as counts continue. There were, certainly, disappointments but the outcome was much better than we expected, we being people who believe things like, “women are people.” We have Black people, Gen Z’ers and other people of color to thank. White women, though… fascinating numbers in those exit polls. In Uvalde, some disappointing results after an unfathomable tragedy, which just goes to show that people will protect the Second Amendment over human life every single time. Also, the head of the DCCC LOST and has the audacity to talk shit about AOC who won her race and fundraised for other candidates and is rather excellent. Chuck Grassley was re-elected. He is 89. Need I say more? Many, many prognosticators were wrong about so much this year.
LOL. Tik Tok amuses me greatly. So many funny videos.
A look back at Britney Spears’s conservatorship.
A review of Rob Delaney’s A Heart That Works.
Global warming is affecting antiquities in Egypt (and elsewhere). Hopefully, these incredible places can be protected. I have been to Cairo and Luxor and seeing the temples and tombs and pyramids was a profound experience I won’t soon forget.
A Norwegian princess is married to a shaman and she thinks she is a clairvoyant and it’s all very interesting, what these royals get up to.
A young woman, Piper, who killed her rapist escaped from prison but, sadly, has been caught.
On the Black Jewish community in the South.
Melissa Febos on the unexpected places where she learned the art of seduction.
Someone in CA won a $2.04 billion lottery. Sadly, it was not Debbie and I. I reckon we should have bought some tickets this time.
Interesting piece on a cowboy (but also a lot of other things).
New short story from Brandon Taylor.
Dusty Baker has won a World Series!
