When we stop writing, teaching, documenting, and making art? That’s when they win. You nailed it: Wojnarowicz knew this. ACT UP knew this. They turned flyers into grenades and grief into action.
Write. Scream. Teach. Donate. Organize. Do it all. Like you wrote: "Writing is my activism."
Keep flyering from the future. We’ll keep passing them out.
Yes, this and the hard truth that follows it: "You have an incomplete love of the world because it does not include you." Contemplating that feels like standing on holy ground.
For me, it’s this: Palestinians in Gaza are still writing even as they are going hungry and being displaced and losing loved ones and fearing constantly for their lives. We can write, too.
this resonates so much—thank you for articulating it. there’s really no peace of mind, ever. but despite the many ways i distract myself from the work, whether thru doomscrolling or petty tasks, i feel pretty unmoored when i don’t write for a long time. inevitably, even when it’s hard, i feel most content and myself in that act. that’s something i’m grateful for.
“how do I tell the truth while I’m alive, and how do I keep telling the truth after I die? How do I keep showing up for what I believe in in ways that cannot be stopped? How can I keep making people feel possible? And so I try every day to live there…” I love this so very much. Thank you for helping this artist keep going!
Truer words have never been spoken: "But maybe it helped someone fix themselves and that is part of the work and if we all do it then great, the work is getting done."
I've come to believe the job of the individual is not to fix the world, but to fix ourselves enough to help others fix the world. We each respond in our own ways, as you are with your writing, as David did with his organizing, as your student did just by posing the question. Altogether, the compounding effect is something incomparable to that of any single, individual act.
Withholding despair as a strategy and writing as a flyer that keeps circulating after we’re gone turns self-care into infrastructure. You make the work feel like a relay instead of a scream into the void, and I’m holding that close. ✍️
Thank you for this. I have also come to the conclusion that being informed enough to be savvy but not numb, and to lean hard into making community and art and beauty, not just for myself, is the way I can do something with my life right now. And yes, donating. Thinking also about the need to imagine towards a future we actually want, which is a task where writing/art is essential.
When we stop writing, teaching, documenting, and making art? That’s when they win. You nailed it: Wojnarowicz knew this. ACT UP knew this. They turned flyers into grenades and grief into action.
Write. Scream. Teach. Donate. Organize. Do it all. Like you wrote: "Writing is my activism."
Keep flyering from the future. We’ll keep passing them out.
Needed this today. Grateful for you always, Alex!
“…yet I am someone who was taught to put his own needs last as a way to survive.”
Have mercy. This resonates.
Thanks Robert!
Yes, this and the hard truth that follows it: "You have an incomplete love of the world because it does not include you." Contemplating that feels like standing on holy ground.
For me, it’s this: Palestinians in Gaza are still writing even as they are going hungry and being displaced and losing loved ones and fearing constantly for their lives. We can write, too.
Yes. And they’re aware their lives depend on it. Even as it makes them a target.
this resonates so much—thank you for articulating it. there’s really no peace of mind, ever. but despite the many ways i distract myself from the work, whether thru doomscrolling or petty tasks, i feel pretty unmoored when i don’t write for a long time. inevitably, even when it’s hard, i feel most content and myself in that act. that’s something i’m grateful for.
“how do I tell the truth while I’m alive, and how do I keep telling the truth after I die? How do I keep showing up for what I believe in in ways that cannot be stopped? How can I keep making people feel possible? And so I try every day to live there…” I love this so very much. Thank you for helping this artist keep going!
Thank you. I have been feeling so much dread & despair & finding it hard to write lately.
not oppositional ;) loved reading this
Truer words have never been spoken: "But maybe it helped someone fix themselves and that is part of the work and if we all do it then great, the work is getting done."
I've come to believe the job of the individual is not to fix the world, but to fix ourselves enough to help others fix the world. We each respond in our own ways, as you are with your writing, as David did with his organizing, as your student did just by posing the question. Altogether, the compounding effect is something incomparable to that of any single, individual act.
Great piece. Keep taking those screenshots.
I love this idea of writing as flyering after death. Thank you for this. It’s something I’ve been struggling with a lot.
I cannot like this post enough. Thank you.
Great piece, so good to read this today
Thank you
Withholding despair as a strategy and writing as a flyer that keeps circulating after we’re gone turns self-care into infrastructure. You make the work feel like a relay instead of a scream into the void, and I’m holding that close. ✍️
Thank you for this. I have also come to the conclusion that being informed enough to be savvy but not numb, and to lean hard into making community and art and beauty, not just for myself, is the way I can do something with my life right now. And yes, donating. Thinking also about the need to imagine towards a future we actually want, which is a task where writing/art is essential.
Thank you so much for this. Thank you.
I was just asking myself if my writing still matters cause the world is ending and saw this?: yes!