#28: greet yourself arriving
Past Disquiet, hospicing modernity and queer monarchs
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Viewing
The Past Disquiet exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town.
Past Disquiet is a documentary and archival exhibition based on research conducted by the curators for over a decade around four seed collections of art that were intended to be “museums in solidarity” or “museums in exile”, that incarnated the engagement of artists with a particular political cause. It is an exhibition of stories, told with documents, photographs, pamphlets, press clippings, posters, interviews, and videos.
Amazing to see the global solidarity with the anti-apartheid and Free Palestine struggles in the 1960s through to the 1980s, all of this collaboration and exchange before the internet.
While in Cape Town, I went on Daiyaan Petersen’s walking tour of the Bo Kaap district: “unpacking the history of slavery, political exile and colonialism that shapes our society today”. South Africa is a country that intimately understands the psychology and tactics of apartheid and colonialism. Regarding Palestine, being in Cape Town felt like being somewhere sane, where the genocide is recognised by the state, and where grief is visible and normalised (see mural above).
Reading
Journal of an Ordinary Grief by Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, published in 1973. More than anything else, his work is helping me to appreciate the deep intertwining of land and the Palestininan people, and the grief at that severed connection due to Israeli occupation (again, see mural above).
Hospicing Modernity. Provocative reading for anyone interested in the work of composting systems of harm. I found the prose repetitive, academic and self-aggrandising at times, an appraisal which Michado de Oliveira pre-empts early in the book by stating that such reactions are themselves a product of modernity… which is possibly true and also a convenient tactic to deflect criticism.
Sister Outsider. “These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through that darkness. Within these deep places, each one of us holds an incredible reserve of creativity and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling. The woman’s place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep.”
Holding Change. I’m deepening into my facilitation practice this year, grateful to have adrienne maree brown’s typically generous and clarifying words to bolster me.
My jaw kept dropping at Odds and Ends of History’s outline of Transport for London’s AI trial at Willesdon Station in 2023 (gathered from various Freedom of Information requests). The scope of what AI could do within stations is mind-blowing and a bit frightening (see Mr Bates vs The Post Office below).
Friendship is my theory of change by
. I highly recommend subscribing to .Free lunches, brain breaks and happy teachers: why Estonia has the best schools in Europe.
What comes after Whiteness? by
. I appreciate Brian’s ability to walk his reader through complex territories with vulnerability: “This is the problem: there is at present no exit from Whiteness, no offramp to liberation”.Watching
Mr and Mrs Smith. Smart and sexy, befitting a Donald Glover creation. I loved the Trent Raznor-style score and the inspired knock-down fight on the New York high-line.
More spies in The Americans. The first series was excellent but I gave up midway through series three (the incessant murdering of innocent people got a bit much).
Mary and George. Bring back queer monarchs and men wearing little pearl earrings!
Renegade Nell. Initially, I thought Sally Wainwright had done it again: created another peerless drama about a brilliant woman in a cat-and-mouse chase with a villanous man. But, while fun, Renegade Nell is all over the place, too tangential to be truly satisfying.
Anatomy of a Fall. How would the thousand careless things we say and do in our relationships stand up in a court of law? How do we treat artist mothers who live with the freedom ordinarily only afforded to men?
As a newly minted Sandra Hüller fan, I immediately watched Zone of Interest: fantastic, diabolical, the most horrifying non-horror film I’ve ever seen.
Priscilla. Worth a watch, great performances and beautiful costumes and sets.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office. I’m glad this show brought such a huge miscarriage of justice to wider attention, warning us about uncritically allowing technology to run our workplaces, but I did find the script mawkish.
Listening
Writing
An interview for
about endometriosis, chronic pain, medical racism and grief. We talked about some seldom articulated chronic illness griefs: how lifestyle change creates loss, particularly around friendships. And the grief of losing pain, or losing symptoms, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. I’m grateful to Jodie for tenderly sharing her story with GriefSick. I appreciated her perspective on her body and her womb as someone who has endometriosis and doesn’t want children (a rarely shared view). Also available as audio if longform is not your vibe.A quarterly update on how
is going and what I’m learning.Fran made this gorgeous short video about the intuitive, emergent process of making GriefSick. I get emotional every time I see it; what a nourishing, creative summer that was.
Still feasting on my life
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Thank you for all these but especially for reclaiming Love After Love from noughties GCSE English hell!