Newsletter feed for Not dead yethttps://buttondown.email/samnabiA monthly selection of compelling writing, curated by Sam Nabi.en-usMon, 29 Jun 2020 01:46:13 +0000Variations on escapismhttps://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/variations-on-escapism/<p>Welcome to the seventh installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly-ish roundup of compelling writing. Are you gardening this summer? I harvested some salad greens and radishes today and it&rsquo;s true what they say: everything tastes better when you grow it yourself.</p> <hr /> <p>A different kind of isolation: <strong>Anna Maxymiw</strong>&lsquo;s travel diary from the far reaches of Norway provides some much-needed escapism. <strong><a href="https://outpostmagazine.com/arctic-norway-hideaway-maxymiw/" target="_blank">On the Cusp in the Fleinvær Archipelago</a></strong> is a wonder-filled reflection on her time getting to know the people, the landscape, and the unforgiving weather during a writing retreat.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/01b05a37-2adb-4b3b-82c3-9171afdb68e0.jpg" /> </p> <p>If your interest is piqued by Anna&rsquo;s reference to the tiny huts for eider birds, follow this article up with <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/19/eiderdown-harvesting-iceland-eider-duck" target="_blank">The weird magic of eiderdown</a></strong> by <strong>Edward Posnett</strong>.</p> <hr /> <p><strong><a href="https://hazlitt.net/longreads/paper-faces-parade" target="_blank">Paper Faces on Parade</a></strong> by <strong>Anthony Oliveira</strong> is a tribute to the unapologetic, campy genius of the late director <strong>Joel Schumacher</strong>, who passed away last week. I was barely conscious of popular culture when <em>Batman &amp; Robin</em> came out in 1997, but I remember being captivated by just how larger-than-life the characters seemed. Before gritty reboots made everything so moody, Schumacher reminded us that superheroes are <em>supposed</em> to be cartoonish.</p> <blockquote> <p>As an artist, Schumacher recognized there is something important, transformative, and transcendent about joy as resistance; he had as instinct what every poor NYC club kid knows: the revolution, when it comes, must be <em>opulent</em>.</p> </blockquote> <hr /> <p>It can seem appealing to move to a new city to start your life over again. A fresh start. And when that new city is Vancouver, well, who can blame you for trying? <strong><a href="https://www.geist.com/fiction/Laughing%20Heir/" target="_blank">Laughing Heir</a></strong>, a short story by <strong>Cary Fagan</strong>, explores the tension between building a future for yourself and running from your past.</p> <hr /> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/c8272ce7-f4ee-4283-8037-3ab1e72b9774.jpeg" /> </p> <p>Some sharp cultural commentary from <strong>Leigh Stein</strong>, who breaks down how <em>Lean In</em> feminism failed to achieve real societal change. In <strong><a href="https://gen.medium.com/the-end-of-the-girlboss-is-nigh-4591dec34ed8" target="_blank">The End of the Girlboss Is Here</a></strong>, she takes us through the rise and fall of millennial hustle culture. Was it a special cultural moment, or just another way to prop up the same old capitalism?</p> <blockquote> <p>Now that racism is on her radar, the girlboss is on an apology tour, donating to bail funds and sharing the mic. So why do I find myself bracing to find out how anti-racism becomes the branding for her next for-profit venture?</p> </blockquote> <hr /> <p>This story has got to be in the running for the cutest quarantine phenomenon I&rsquo;ve seen. Read about the jump in demand for advice from baker support specialists: <strong><a href="https://www.eater.com/2020/6/15/21289617/king-arthur-flour-baking-hotline-quarantine-sourdough-questions-comfort-support" target="_blank">King Arthur Flour’s Baking Hotline Has Never Been Busier — and the Questions Are Getting Personal</a></strong>. <strong>Nick Mancall-Bitel</strong> and <strong>Erin Berger</strong> pull together a surprising variety of stories that use baking as a prism through which to understand the broader challenges of COVID-19.</p> <p><em>Semi-related: here&rsquo;s a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3bWcI9KDaGd6wElFczMiYD?si=8N-APUmYQri12XAvBsLSiw" target="_blank">Spotify playlist intended for your sourdough starter</a>, created by author Robin Sloan.</em></p> <hr /> <p>I’d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email.</p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in four weeks’ time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who’d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:46:13 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/variations-on-escapism/Black lives matter here.https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/black-lives-matter-here/<p>Welcome to the sixth installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly-ish roundup of compelling writing. If you&rsquo;re in Kitchener-Waterloo, I hope you&rsquo;ll join the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/584661392432523/?active_tab=about" target="_blank">KW Solidarity March for Black Lives Matter</a> tomorrow — virtually or in person. Show up for <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/my-cousin-s-not-jumping-family-questions-police-involvement-in-woman-s-fatal-fall-1.4958705" target="_blank">Regis Korchinski-Paquet</a>, for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/dafonte-miller-case-1.4243956" target="_blank">Dafonte Miller</a>, for the <a href="https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2020/02/28/at-the-end-of-the-day-even-when-i-m-on-campus-i-m-a-black-guy-full-stop.html" target="_blank">Black lives under threat</a> in our communities and beyond.</p> <p>Waterloo Region has already shown that <a href="https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2014/03/11/elmira-vandalism-spree-led-to-restorative-justice-movement.html" target="_blank">restorative justice</a> can work. Let&rsquo;s keep building alternatives to armed police. We should live in a world where cops don&rsquo;t kill any of us.</p> <hr /> <p>In <strong><a href="https://reverb.com/news/how-the-modern-remix-came-to-be" target="_blank">How the Modern Remix Came to Be</a></strong>, <strong>John Morrison</strong> traces a lineage from Jamaican dub, through disco and hip-hop. As with many great innovations, the remix was born thanks in part to an accident in the studio. </p> <blockquote> <p>&hellip; as Treasure Isle engineer Byron &ldquo;Smithy&rdquo; Smith was cutting the acetate, he mistakenly left off the vocal track, leaving Redwood with one fresh acetate that only had an instrumental version of the tune (along with another acetate containing the standard mix). When Ruddy played this instrumental version tune later at a dance in Spanish Town, he&rsquo;d switch between the original vocal version and the instrumental, exciting the crowd and coaxing them to sing along.</p> </blockquote> <p>The article is full of video clips, so you can listen along while you learn how the remix, as an art form, has changed over time. </p> <hr /> <p>In some scenes of <strong>Amanda Parris</strong>&lsquo; play, <a href="https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/O/Other-Side-of-the-Game" target="_blank">Other Side of The Game</a>, young Black activists in Toronto debate tactics with their civil rights-era elders, as they butt heads on the most effective forms of organizing. </p> <p>Her latest article, <strong><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/an-oral-history-of-the-black-film-and-video-network-1.5559797" target="_blank">An Oral History of the Black Film and Video Network</a></strong>, shares some of that energy. Near the end of the piece, you can sense the frustration from the original founders of the BFVN, that today&rsquo;s Black creatives haven&rsquo;t been able to carve out enough space in the film industry and that they&rsquo;re having to fight the same battles over again.</p> <p>There were victories amid the struggle for representation, and it&rsquo;s inspiring to see how all these artists found ways to lift each other up and advocate in all angles of the industry: unions, funding bodies, professional development. Sometimes they could eke out a victory from the dominant white artistic culture. Other times, they&rsquo;d have to do it themselves through hard work and mutual support.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/2b9832e8-46b1-42b6-94fe-0979c79056aa.JPG" /> </p> <hr /> <p>I&rsquo;ve never once heard someone tell me, &ldquo;When I get old, please put me in a long-term care home.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s never a first choice.</p> <p>In <strong><a href="https://torontolife.com/city/life/i-know-nothing-about-my-dads-final-moments-was-he-scared-was-he-in-pain-what-its-like-to-lose-a-parent-in-a-long-term-care-facility/" target="_blank">What it’s like to lose a parent in a long-term care facility</a></strong>, <strong>Terence van Dyke</strong> explores those feelings of guilt, of helplessness, of trying to be there for an elderly parent whose needs exceed your ability. </p> <p>His story highlights how there are seldom good options for most families who need care for their parents. Our economic and social structures aren&rsquo;t set up for it. So we put them in a nursing home and hope for the best. With COVID-19 still raging, that hope feels dimmer than usual.</p> <hr /> <p>It&rsquo;s been a year since the report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was released. <strong>Alicia Elliott</strong> takes a look at how we&rsquo;re doing with respect to the report&rsquo;s 231 recommendations. (Spoiler alert: not very well.)</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.chatelaine.com/opinion/mmiwg-anniversary" target="_blank">Canada Asked For A Report On Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women And Girls. Now It&rsquo;s Ignoring It.</a></strong></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/bc3ceea1-43b8-4d83-8dac-fff9da5650f2.jpg" /> </p> <hr /> <p>I admit to not knowing much at all about Hong Kong, Taiwan, their colonial histories and their separate relationships with China. So I&rsquo;ll let <strong>Terry Glavin</strong> bring us all up to speed with his article, <strong><a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/the-fight-for-a-free-hong-kong-isnt-over-even-if-canada-acts-like-it-is/" target="_blank">The fight for a free Hong Kong isn&rsquo;t over just because Canada wants no part of it</a></strong>.</p> <p>To my untrained eye, Hong Kong&rsquo;s situation has parallels with Ukraine&rsquo;s 2014 pro-Europe protests, and the subsequent invasion/takeover of Crimea by the Russian army. Or perhaps China&rsquo;s treatment of Tibet? Or its persecution of the Uyghur population? If you have some further reading to recommend, please send it my way.</p> <hr /> <p>I’d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email.</p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in about four weeks’ time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who’d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Tue, 02 Jun 2020 20:16:46 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/black-lives-matter-here/Future folklore: fractured?https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/future-folklore-fractured/<p>Welcome to the fifth installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly-ish roundup of compelling writing. I hope you&rsquo;re enjoying the sunshine and also that you&rsquo;ve rearranged the furniture in at least two rooms of your home by now.</p> <hr /> <p>In many ways, this pandemic is slamming the brakes on the arts and entertainment industries. It&rsquo;s chaos for artists, but I enjoyed reading <strong>Odessa Paloma Parker</strong>&lsquo;s essay, <strong><a href="https://fashionmagazine.com/style/street-style/does-street-style-have-a-future/" target="_blank">Does Street Style Have a Future in a Post-COVID-19 World?</a></strong>, because it offers a bit of a silver lining.</p> <blockquote> <p>“I noticed less creativity amongst the show goers, possibly because of the over-saturation of influencers who are paid to wear specific goods,” says Grioni about how she’s noticed street style change over the years.</p> </blockquote> <p>Fashion and art have become too commercialized. Is this the opportunity we need to re-orient the field toward independence, creativity, and spontaneity?</p> <hr /> <p><strong><a href="https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-art-of-turning-fish-into-leather/" target="_blank">The art of turning fish into leather</a></strong> is a fascinating read. <strong>Chloe Williams</strong> profiles several people who are rediscovering this craft, both as a way to reconnect with Indigenous practices and to create alternatives to industrial factory-made leather goods. </p> <p>What&rsquo;s most interesting to me is how this article spans continents and cultures, from Japanese assimilation policies, to the Smithsonian museum, to European research initiatives, to the relationship with land and water on the B.C. coast.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/97e290a7-0a41-4f78-85ca-24471e402658.jpg" /> </p> <hr /> <p>It&rsquo;s hard to push back against the &ldquo;American dream&rdquo; culture of homeownership with its ideals of suburban family living. I, for one, value dense urban neighbourhoods with more public space and less private space. But trying to have a conversation with someone that doesn&rsquo;t already share that worldview is usually unproductive, and ends up with two people talking past one another.</p> <p>That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m so impressed with this article by <strong>Juliette Baxter</strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.chatelaine.com/living/downsizing-from-house-to-condo/" target="_blank">Why This Family Traded Their House For A Condo—With No Regrets</a></strong>. It&rsquo;s written with an honest and disarming style, challenging the desire for a house with a yard, without coming across as holier-than-thou. </p> <hr /> <p>Springtime is coming into bloom and the sunshine feels less grey these days. On our cherished daily walks, Julia and I find delight in the ducks swimming along Schneider&rsquo;s Creek, or the geese honking obnoxiously from the roof of neighbouring apartment buildings. <em>Nature is healing.</em></p> <p><strong>Guillaume Rivest</strong> explores our collective wish to undo generations of human-caused destruction in his essay, <strong><a href="https://beside.media/a-dolphin-in-venice/" target="_blank">A dolphin in Venice</a></strong>. The challenge is, we actually have to be willing to put in the work to create a better world.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/9f3e5261-df03-49b4-9732-f145ba31f30f.jpg" /> </p> <hr /> <p>Leave it to <strong>Rebecca Solnit</strong> to take a concept you thought you understood, burrow deep into it, and emerge with your understanding transformed. That&rsquo;s how I feel about her meditation on crisis, <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/what-coronavirus-can-teach-us-about-hope-rebecca-solnit" target="_blank">&lsquo;The impossible has already happened&rsquo;: what coronavirus can teach us about hope</a></strong>.</p> <blockquote> <p>A disaster (which originally meant “ill-starred”, or “under a bad star”) changes the world and our view of it. Our focus shifts, and what matters shifts. What is weak breaks under new pressure, what is strong holds, and what was hidden emerges. Change is not only possible, we are swept away by it.</p> </blockquote> <p>This story is also available as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/apr/27/rebecca-solnit-impossible-has-already-happened-coronavirus-hope-podcast" target="_blank">podcast episode</a>, read by the author. I highly recommend going on a long walk with your headphones on, and hearing this in her own voice.</p> <hr /> <p>I’d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email.</p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in four weeks’ time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who’d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Sun, 03 May 2020 15:46:56 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/future-folklore-fractured/Everything is breakinghttps://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/everything-is-breaking/<p>Welcome to the fourth installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly-ish roundup of compelling writing. I must admit I haven&rsquo;t been reading as much as I usually do in the last few weeks. Julia and I are working overtime at the store trying to adapt to Covid (and the Covid-related panic buying) as best we can.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s an incredibly strange time, being thrust into urgency and finding myself called a &ldquo;front-line&rdquo; worker, as life has slowed to a crawl for many of my friends working from home. Every day feels like a week, my physical world has shrunk, and yet my responsibilities have compounded. Everything is cancelled, and everyone is recalibrating their relationship with the world.</p> <hr /> <p><strong>Fitsum Areguy</strong> hits on some hard truths in his essay for <em>Briarpatch</em>, <strong><a href="https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/covid-19-community-policing-kitchener-waterloo" target="_blank">COVID-19 and the threat of “community policing”</a></strong>. Drawing from his experience as a youth worker in Kitchener, and from an interview with <strong>Desmond Cole</strong>, he questions the motives of community policing in Waterloo Region.</p> <p>The model, ostensibly focused on relationship-building, looks an awful lot like surveillance and profiling — especially when police forces are reticent to share information about the data they keep. </p> <hr /> <p>In <strong><a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2410996/eric-pam-bealer-alaska-death" target="_blank">The Frontier Couple Who Chose Death Over Life Apart</a></strong>, <strong>Eva Holland</strong> hooks you in with a mysterious, even salacious introduction about a couple that chooses the place and time of their own passing. </p> <p>If you&rsquo;re looking for CSI-style gruesome details, skip this one. The story spins out into a broader reflection on the right to die in Canada and the USA, and its impact on a small fishing community.</p> <p><em>(Eva also has a new book out about the science of fear. <a href="https://www.bookmanager.com/1318225/?searchtype=keyword&amp;qs=nerve&amp;qs_file=&amp;q=h.tviewer&amp;using_sb=status&amp;qsb=keyword" target="_blank">You should check it out.</a>)</em></p> <hr /> <p>Our society is being reshaped into forms we had given up imagining, or had been told were not realistic. Basic income and paid sick leave are being rolled out by governments that quashed those ideas mere months ago. </p> <p>As we begin to imagine a post-Covid relationship with work and the economy, I&rsquo;ve been thinking about <strong>David Graeber</strong>&lsquo;s 2013 essay, <strong><a href="https://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs/" target="_blank">On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs</a></strong>.</p> <blockquote> <p>It&rsquo;s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen.</p> </blockquote> <p>If you&rsquo;re newly working from home, how has your relationship with your job changed in this period of social distancing? Does it feel more like bullshit, or less?</p> <hr /> <p>I’d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email.</p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in four weeks’ time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who’d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Sat, 04 Apr 2020 22:58:42 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/everything-is-breaking/Old-world words, new-age mapshttps://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/old-world-words-new-age-maps/<p>Welcome to the third installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly-ish roundup of compelling writing. It&rsquo;s a little late, but it&rsquo;s my newsletter and I can procrastinate if I want to. Let&rsquo;s get into it!</p> <hr /> <p>Do you think of cancer as a uniquely modern disease? I hadn&rsquo;t ever given it much reflection, but I never really thought of cancer existing in society before Terry Fox&rsquo;s Marathon of Hope. </p> <p><strong><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/cancer-is-the-voracious-animal-that-early-moderns-imagined" target="_blank">This ragged claw</a></strong> by <strong>Ellen Wayland-Smith</strong> gives us new words — and old words — to grapple with that &ldquo;biting, grasping, greedy beast&rdquo;. Exploring ancient and medieval attitudes towards cancer, intertwined with the author&rsquo;s personal story in a contemporary hospital room, this essay will re-calibrate your thinking.</p> <blockquote> <p>The modern English sense of the word ‘worry’ – to feel ‘mental distress or trouble’ – is of relatively recent origin. The original Old English word was much bloodier: <em>wyrgen</em>, to ‘strangle’, or to kill by biting and shaking an animal by the throat.</p> </blockquote> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/a55eaea8-c668-49e2-a7f8-f819ba34add9.png" /> </p> <hr /> <p>In <strong><a href="https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-a-group-of-journalists-turned-hip-hop-into-a-literary-movement/" target="_blank">How a Group of Journalists Turned Hip-Hop Into a Literary Movement</a></strong>, <strong>Dean Van Nguyen</strong> celebrates and laments an era of hip-hop writing that seems to have fallen by the wayside.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m particularly struck by this statement, from <strong>Michael A. Gonzales</strong>, about the cultural mood in 1977:</p> <blockquote> <p>Growing up in these surroundings—as he puts it, “the height of disco, punk, the blackout; New York is going to shit”—influenced Gonzales’s streetwise style.</p> </blockquote> <p>There&rsquo;s an edge there, a cynical despair at the state of the world, that seems fitting today. Are we ready for a renaissance in hip-hop writing? Recent works by <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781477316481" target="_blank">Hanif Abdurraqib</a> and <a href="https://amandaparris.com/upcoming/other-side-of-the-game/" target="_blank">Amanda Parris</a> appear to be carrying that torch. Let&rsquo;s look to the poets and the playwrights, and maybe we&rsquo;ll find that the golden age of hip-hop writing never left.</p> <p>Before reading this article, I had never heard of <strong>The Word Movement</strong>. I suppose it&rsquo;s only a surprise to people who haven&rsquo;t been paying attention to Black writing over the last 30 years. Good thing there&rsquo;s an extensive reading list at the end of the article.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/87f65f9b-a44f-4db6-a46e-5e9deeb67ccd.png" /> </p> <hr /> <p><strong>Alicia Elliott</strong> calls out our collective failure to engage with Black writers in her recent piece for CBC, <strong><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/black-canadian-writers-offer-us-vivid-portraits-of-black-life-but-we-have-to-actually-listen-1.5477512" target="_blank">Black Canadian writers offer us vivid portraits of Black life — but we have to actually listen</a></strong>.</p> <blockquote> <p>Black writers have been putting their history on the page for decades and continue to do so today — but if most Canadians don&rsquo;t know this history, all that are left are stereotypes, which are continuously repeated and reinforced by elected politicians, then turned into policies that further hurt and criminalize Black communities.</p> </blockquote> <hr /> <p>Any article about maps and infographics is clickbait for me, so of course I immediately bookmarked <strong><a href="https://willard.lapels.club/" target="_blank">Emma Willard’s Maps of Time</a></strong> when I came across the link. The webpage even has an off-the-wall design that evokes Willard&rsquo;s unconventional mapping techniques. <strong>Susan Schulten</strong> doesn&rsquo;t pull any punches with this piece, praising Willard&rsquo;s feminist influence while revealing her role in whitewashing America&rsquo;s history books. </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/bbe48008-4348-49ac-9906-8dcd06d9f9ec.png" /> </p> <hr /> <p>I’d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email.</p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in three weeks’ time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who’d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Wed, 11 Mar 2020 16:36:57 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/old-world-words-new-age-maps/Space food, but make it fashionhttps://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/space-food-but-make-it-fashion/<p>Welcome to the second installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly-ish roundup of compelling writing. It&rsquo;s been two years since I last <a href="https://twitter.com/WREDC_Tony/status/961776820143222785" target="_blank">caused a dust-up</a> on Twitter about how we brand Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge as &ldquo;Waterloo&rdquo; for economic development purposes. I&rsquo;m sorry, but I did it again because <a href="https://twitter.com/samnabi/status/1225581219204694024" target="_blank">this is the petty hill I want to die on</a>.</p> <hr /> <p>One of my favourite writers on music and culture is <strong>Hanif Abdurraqib</strong>. He recently put an <a href="https://twitter.com/NifMuhammad/status/1214679044123496448" target="_blank">informal call-out</a> for stories from people who worked in shopping malls. The mall as the hub of social activity, especially for teen life, is less true now than it was in the &rsquo;90s or early 2000s. Their cultural significance has become diluted, and now&rsquo;s a good time to reflect on what a weird, obsessive, insecure, dominant place they once occupied.</p> <p>Among the replies to Hanif&rsquo;s tweet was a link to this essay called <a href="https://theboilerjournal.com/2018/09/24/robert-james-russell/" target="_blank"><strong>Blue Raspberry</strong></a> by <strong>Robert James Russell</strong>, about his time working at Abercrombie &amp; Fitch.</p> <blockquote> <p>The phrase “good-looking people” was one I came to despise. I saw how it made people feel, shopping in our store. The management culture was one of cold-shouldering-rejection. We were supposed to ignore customers—we were told, in no certain terms—to seem “out of touch” with what was going on. It would make customers want to be part of our brand.</p> </blockquote> <hr /> <p>What&rsquo;s the best way to convince people to adopt a plant-based diet? Has the gimmick of processed veggies that taste, look, and feel like meat run out of steam? The approach taken by <strong>nonfood</strong> continues to fascinate me because they run in the complete opposite direction. They market themselves more as a high-art fashion brand than a sustainable food company.</p> <p>nonfood&rsquo;s solution is algae, and lots of it. There&rsquo;s a lot of techno-utopianism in their vision of the future, one where urban agriculture is thriving thanks to self-reliant, community-scaled greenhouses. In <a href="https://www.tastecooking.com/the-future-is-flavorless/" target="_blank"><strong>The Future is Flavorless</strong></a>, <strong>Alison Sinkewicz</strong> tackles the question of how algae could work its way into our food culture while not pretending to be anything else.</p> <blockquote> <p>It’s perhaps nonfood’s unsentimental approach to food systems that makes it such an interesting endeavor. There are no grandiose man-made solutions to be found in nonbar. There’s no promise that it will taste like the bake-sale cupcake of your elementary days, nor that it will bleed like an animal when you cut it. It will taste like green algae.</p> </blockquote> <hr /> <p>An oldie but a goodie resurfaced in my newsfeed this month. In light of the <a href="http://unistoten.camp/feb7/" target="_blank">ongoing violence by the RCMP</a> to push a pipeline through Wet&rsquo;suwet&rsquo;en territories, <strong>Chelsea Vowel</strong> re-shared her blog post about the concept of traditional territory, and how settlers generally don&rsquo;t have a good grasp of what it means. The post is titled, <a href="https://apihtawikosisan.com/2012/01/questioning-assumptions-sawyer-did-it-will-you/" target="_blank"><strong>Questioning assumptions, Sawyer did it, will you?</strong></a> and it upends the typical colonial understanding of &ldquo;setting down roots&rdquo; and what it means to maintain a stable home base over generations.</p> <blockquote> <p>You’ve probably heard of our territories which perhaps in your mind mark some sort of hazy boundary within which we did all this roaming. You’ve no doubt also heard about our tie to the land, blah blah blah, but perhaps you never really considered what that actually means, and what knowledge (and stability) it requires us to have.</p> </blockquote> <hr /> <p>Did you know that 750 oil refinery workers have been locked out by their employer for the last 50 days? That they&rsquo;re blockading access to the factory, facing down police, fighting a hostile media and pulling in support from labour groups across the country, all in an effort to save their pensions? I only knew about this saga thanks to <strong>Emily Leedham</strong>&lsquo;s investigative reporting from the prairies.</p> <p>She tells all from the front line of one of the biggest labour disputes happening in Canada right now: <a href="https://www.rankandfile.ca/dance-parties-personal-growth-and-police-three-days-with-locked-out-regina-oil-workers/" target="_blank"><strong>Dance Parties, Personal Growth, and Police: Three Days with Locked Out Regina Oil Workers</strong></a>. </p> <hr /> <p>I&rsquo;m a sucker for speculative fiction that wrestles with the consequences of our tech-connected world. In <a href="https://findingctrl.nesta.org.uk/fair-arbiters" target="_blank"><strong>Fair Arbiters</strong></a>, <strong>Rebecca Lynch</strong> takes us on a thought experiment of how we might moderate online discussion to weed out extremism. </p> <p>A solution presents itself, in the form of yet another new tech platform (of course):</p> <blockquote> <p>“For humans, the task would be insurmountable. Even with these tools. But AI gives us the chance of making a real impact. All of this data – it’s also a training ground. We’re training a team of AI moderators – Fair Arbiters, we call them – who can work across hundreds of platforms at once.”</p> <p>“You’re making an army of bots to spam the internet with Keep Calm memes?” I said.</p> </blockquote> <p>After you&rsquo;ve read Rebecca&rsquo;s essay, you can poke around the entire archive of other stories published alongside it, as part of <a href="https://findingctrl.nesta.org.uk/" target="_blank"><strong>Finding ctrl: Visions for the future internet</strong></a>. This is an online &ldquo;vision book&rdquo; that was put together to mark the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web, featuring contributions from thinkers and artists from around the globe.</p> <p>(Sorry! That&rsquo;s my way of sneaking in a bunch of additional links at the end of this newsletter~)</p> <hr /> <p>I’d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email.</p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in four weeks’ time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who’d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Sat, 08 Feb 2020 20:02:53 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/space-food-but-make-it-fashion/I thought Edna Staebler was wokehttps://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/i-thought-edna-staebler-was-woke/<p>Welcome to the first installment of <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong>, my monthly roundup of compelling writing. Sometimes, I&rsquo;ll send you articles that got lost in the hyperspeed distraction economy of our social media feeds. Other stories will be older articles that I&rsquo;m revisiting for their staying power.</p> <p>I don&rsquo;t want this newsletter to be a burden. So be assured that I&rsquo;m not giving you a list of required reading. I&rsquo;ll try to keep things relatively short, with about five stories for you to check out in each email. I started this newsletter as a way to get myself back into the practice of writing, so by the time it lands in your inbox it has already fulfilled its purpose.</p> <hr /> <p><img alt="Sauerkraut and Enterprise" src="https://buttondown.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/3f451030-4874-4c41-b1c4-971c378b17c6.jpg" /> </p> <p>A couple months ago, I picked up a used copy of <strong>Sauerkraut and Enterprise</strong> at Second Look Books. It&rsquo;s a delightful collection of essays by <strong>Edna Staebler</strong> about Mennonite life in and around a changing Kitchener-Waterloo. Growing up, my family kept a copy of Staebler&rsquo;s <strong>Food That Schmecks</strong> cookbook in our kitchen, and we would read the recipes for entertainment more so than for actually cooking something. These essays, first published in Maclean&rsquo;s in the 1950s, capture the folk culture, customs, and cooking of Waterloo County&rsquo;s Mennonites. She gushes over the Kitchener Market and talks a little bit about the growing city life of K-W too.</p> <p>One of the essays that appears in this book is also available online. <strong><a href="https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1958/9/27/why-the-amish-want-no-part-of-progress" target="_blank">Why the Amish want no part of progress</a></strong> appeared in the September 27, 1958 edition of Maclean&rsquo;s. This is how she recounts the story of the first Amish settler to Waterloo County:</p> <blockquote> <p>He landed in New Orleans in 1822 and walked most of the way to Waterloo County where he picked out some wilderness that he thought would make a good place for a colony. Then he went to the Governor of Upper Canada to ask him if it would be all right to bring people over here. The governor said, &lsquo;go ahead,&rsquo; but the Amishman was taking no chances. He went right to the palace of the King of England and got it in writing with a gold seal that the land would really be his.</p> </blockquote> <p>Those words sound embarrassingly colonialist and tone-deaf today, now that we know all about broken treaties with Indigenous peoples. Referencing the Halidmand tract has become common practice at local land acknowledgments. But can we really fault Staebler for a lack of critical thinking in the 1950s?</p> <p>It turns out, we can. Three years before she wrote that profile of Waterloo County&rsquo;s Amish community, Staebler turned her trademark curiosity to the Six Nations reserve, in a feature article called <strong><a href="https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1955/11/12/the-unconquered-warriors-of-ohsweken" target="_blank">The Unconquered Warriors of Ohsweken</a></strong>. A photo of the Haldimand treaty document is right there in full colour!</p> <p>Staebler&rsquo;s conversations with folks on the reserve run the gamut: tensions between hereditary and elected leadership, the role of religion in colonization, land rights being withheld.</p> <blockquote> <p>Canada has tricked them and robbed them and broken their treaties, the Iroquois say. They claim Canada has no right to govern them at all and that their land is not a reservation but a sovereign state in North America, as Switzerland is a country in Europe.</p> </blockquote> <p>It&rsquo;s incredible to me that these observations were printed in Canada&rsquo;s national magazine all the way back in 1955. It&rsquo;s even more incredible that Staebler went ahead to ignore that history in her later reporting on Mennonite and Amish communities.</p> <hr /> <p>Have you ever felt, like, so trapped by consumerism? Why can&rsquo;t we just collectively help each other out in community? Who even needs hierarchy, man? I had such a blast reading <strong>Alexandra Schwartz</strong>&lsquo;s New Yorker article about the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn: <strong><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-grocery-store-where-produce-meets-politics" target="_blank">The Grocery Store Where Produce Meets Politics</a></strong>. There&rsquo;s something attractive about an independent, member-driven store that isn&rsquo;t chasing profit. It&rsquo;s equally satisfying and horrifying to read about the social drama and pettiness that can arise with a labour structure where there are few paid staff and &ldquo;members must work a shift of two hours and forty-five minutes every four weeks&rdquo;.</p> <p>Chase this story with another food-and-labour-related one. In <strong><a href="https://heated.medium.com/i-heard-you-socialize-groceries-c1dbf9c0dd6b" target="_blank">I Heard You Socialize Groceries</a></strong>, <strong>Corey Mintz</strong> writes about a town in Florida that created a state-run grocery store &ndash; but it&rsquo;s totally not socialism.</p> <hr /> <p>In December, Iran killed a U.S. contractor who was working on an Iraqi military base. Then the U.S. assassinated Iran&rsquo;s top military commander as he was leaving an airport in Baghdad, Iraq. In response, Iran attacked U.S. military bases in Iraq. The Iraq War may be over but it continues to be a battlefield. </p> <p>But the country is not just a playground for powerful foreign militaries. In <strong><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/opinion/iraq-protests.html" target="_blank">I Will Visit Your Grave When I Go to Iraq</a></strong>, <strong>Sinan Antoon</strong> writes a touching eulogy for his friend and poet <strong>Safa al-Sarray</strong>, who was killed by riot police amid peaceful street protests.</p> <blockquote> <p>The most common and passionate slogan throughout these protests has been, “We want a homeland.” It reflected the anger and alienation Iraqis felt toward a political class beholden to external influence (Iran and the United States) and oblivious to its people’s demands.</p> </blockquote> <p>The next time you hear about Iraq, remember that people like Safa are working for a better future there. That they have art and families and book fairs and jobs to go to in the morning.</p> <hr /> <p>I&rsquo;d love to hear what you thought about these stories. You can reply directly to this email. </p> <p>The next <strong>Not Dead Yet</strong> will come in four weeks&rsquo; time. Until then, why not forward this email to a friend who&rsquo;d appreciate it?</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Sam</p>Sun, 12 Jan 2020 19:52:14 +0000https://buttondown.email/samnabi/archive/i-thought-edna-staebler-was-woke/
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