The Audacious Roundup
Keep up with the Joel Gay Creative Fellows, Jet Toomer, Jesus Rodriguez, and Elspeth Michaels.
The December selection for the Audacious Book Club is Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa. Our conversation with Ava takes place on December 15th at 8pm EST/5 pm PST and registration is open.
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.
In my latest Work Friend, someone who sings aloud in their cubicle, an existential career crisis and much more.
My guest-edited issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now online as individual pieces. Brooke Obie on Gio Swaby; Amber J. Phillips on Firelei Baez and Tschabalala Self; Randa Jarrar on Kezia Harrel; and Ladi’Sasha on Black women making collage. I wrote about collecting art and trying to make sense of the art world and interviewed Calida Garcia Rawles and Jordan Casteel.
Damon Young offers some incredibly thoughtful words on Kyrie Irving and how we got here.
I’ve been on some oceans in the past year and kept wondering how birds rest when there’s no land for hundreds of miles. Turns out, they can fly on cruise control using only half their brain. Like, flying power naps.
Chris Christie’s niece was racist and rowdy on a flight out of New Orleans so she was arrested.
These volleyball players are incredible.
Mbappé is scoring a lot of goals in the World Cup.
Deshaun Watson is playing in the NFL again because profits always matter more than people.
MSNBC firing Tiffany Cross does not bode well for the future of opinion/political journalism by Black women.
Some people sabotaged some power stations in North Carolina, maybe to stop a drag show? Like… it’s so ridiculous and terrifying that that combination of words doesn’t even make sense.
There was this weird story about how the Biden campaign, before Biden was president, asked Twitter to remove posts of Hunter Biden’s dick and the owner of Twitter acted like this was… a bad thing? Or big news? That we didn’t already know? The depths he is willing to plumb to humiliate himself…. it has to be a kink, right?
In surprising news, hate speech is worse than ever on Twitter. Who could have predicted this? Kanye West was allowed back onto Twitter and then he double, triple, quadrupled down on his antisemitism soooo he’s banned again.
Speaking of… in NYC, there is a new sanitation commissioner.
The WaPo dance critic, Sarah Kaufman, one of the few full-time dance critics has been laid off. SMH.
An Alabama woman was held by police because they thought she might be pregnant. Fact is always going to be worse than any fiction we could come up with.
T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach, who host the third hour of Good Morning America are having an affair and they are consenting adults but they are also married to (maybe separated from) other people and it is M E S S Y.
After only publishing two issues, Astra Magazine is folding. It kind of doesn’t make any sense given how well the magazine was doing. Publishing is a rough business.
Drugs killed eight friends. So many senseless deaths.
Kyrsten Sinema is wearing “interesting” clothes again.
Railroad companies don’t want to offer their employees sick days and it’s ridiculous.
The corporations trying to prevent student loan debt cancellation.
Gay men are being targeted with drugs, and are then robbed and attacked. Stay safe out there.
After Dobbs, a run on vasectomies. And not a moment too soon. On college campuses, some students are helping to distribute emergency birth control.
Nia Long, one of the hottest women alive (after my wife and Beyoncé), has some strong words for the Boston Celtics and how they handled her husband’s affair.
RIP Christine McVie, a real one. Also, RIP Irene Cara, who was basically flawless.
A royal was racist and this is only shocking if you weren’t paying attention to what Meghan Markle done told us already.
Delta is restricting access to the Sky Lounges and look, it kind of had to happen. They are overcrowded which defeats the purpose. We’ll see how this works but lately when we go (with an actual membership), there’s nowhere to sit and it’s chaotic AF. Then again, that exemplifies travel so this is a non-problem in the grand scheme of things.
Cocaine Bear? Really? Okay.
The owner of Twitter promised a bunch of cities to solve their traffic problems by building underground tunnels and magic transportation systems but it was basically a scam.
About that dinner with Trump, Kanye, and Nick Fuentes.
South Dakota has banned access to TikTok on state-owned devices. That’ll show them!
The situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate.
Will Smith is still being forced to apologize for open-handed slapping Chris Rock like almost a year ago. It’s ridiculous.
The ten best books of 2022 according to The New York Times.
Protests in China over their harsh COVID restrictions that are, at times, costing people their lives but not from COVID.
Gold chains are popular again?
Patti Smith on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar.
Is this landlord trying to intimidate his rent-controlled tenant out of the building? Probably!
Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the country.
This week I learned that in some households, people vomit into a bowl, wash it, and then use it for food preparation. I am inconsolable. Get a fucking trash can.
Ruth Carter and her impeccable costumes return to Wakanda. This weekend we saw Wakanda Forever, and loved it. Beautifully down. Powerful. Resonant. And just one hell of a movie. So much respect for Ryan Coogler doing it AGAIN!
A conversation with Rabia Chaudry, author of Fatty, Fatty, Boom, Boom.
Wrongfully imprisoned people are being used for profit. It’s grotesque.
The dogs made me so happy, thank you.
The Audacious Roundup is always a highlight of my day! I love the links. I love your voice! Thank you, thank you.