Five Fine Things on a Thursday...
*me inflicting my taste on you, dear reader
Photo: Me and Laura Williams my business partner at Spot-Lit Education. Here we are chatting books whilst drinking tea from fine china! Credit: Soul Rebel Headshots, Kimberley Archer for Spot Lit Education.
Absorbing! Sylvia Rivera’s powerful speech at the 1973 Gay Pride Rally in NYC. Sylvia, who identified first as a drag queen and later as a transgender person, was almost booed off the podium at this rally by those in the Gay Liberation Movement who wanted to distance themselves from, as Sylvia put it, the ‘drag queens and the street people', and as such from many of those who were most prominent and courageous in those early (official) days of the Gay Liberation Movement including during the seminal Stone Wall riots. Sylvia was an inspirational force of nature and would not allow herself to be bullied off stage by bigots - opening the speech with ‘y’all all better quiet down’. (I discovered this speech whilst watching the, also highly recommended, Marsha P. Johnson documentary on Netflix.)
Reading! Eliza Clark’s novel Penance which captures the voice of British teenage girls both perfectly and terrifyingly. This fictional, true crime novel, (get your head around that), zooms in on our, (let’s be honest, odd), cultural obsession with true crime. As well as this Clark hones in on the particular atmosphere of deprived seaside towns, on British classism, on the mores of Brexit-era Britain, of police incompetency, of internet and youth culture, and more. However, do not read this list and assume this is a didactic book, it is deeply immersive, nuanced and (thankfully) avoids giving easy simplistic answers in response to real life complex horrors. (Oh and the first few pages are really hard to read, the description is visceral and dreadful, but if you can get past this it’s definitely worth it.)
Listening! to a myriad mix of Tiny Desk concerts on You Tube, mini-gigs which I’ve turned to for joy and solace for many years now, especially during the lockdowns. My all time favourite/most listened to is Sharon Van Etten’s one, (the emotion in her voice when she sings Seventeen is goose-bump-creating!). However, recent discoveries include this incredible Usher TDC, now I was never really an Usher fan so this came of something as a surprise but that voice stripped back, (without all the production that was on the original tracks), is really something to behold, plus the talent and chemistry of his band and these musicians is indeed, as he puts it ‘black magic’. (Usher flirting with the audience during Nice and Slow, from 11.56, is the cherry on top!)
Selling! my used books at We Buy Books. Now for a long, long, long time I was that avid reader who could not let a book go; even if it was one I hadn’t especially enjoyed, would never read again, or had never read and likely never would. However, after reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way something shifted, (more on that amazing book workbook another time), and I am now able to give away books whilst retaining a sense of peace in my heart! I usually give them to the Little Free Libraries that have popped up all over, (what an incredible initiative that is), but more recently I’ve been making a few bucks by selling them here. The site is user-friendly and the process is simple, hardbacks on average go for 1-4 quid and papers packs on average go for 30-50p, not huge amounts, but if you’re a book-hoarder like moi then this process will make you feel both lighter, (in that Marie Kondo way), and heavier in terms of wallet weight. You can then of course take said weighty wallet to your local bookstore to buy some new books with! Hurrah! Here’s an aligned piece I wrote on the joys and anxieties of selling one’s wares at the pawn shop (that’s pawn with an ‘a’!) and here’s a list of some books I enjoyed over the summer.
Podcasting! with my friend and fellow educator Laura Williams, (as per pic above)! Finding that although there is literally a billion podcasts out there we were yet struggling to find an academic and literary one on those core and classic texts we teach we decided to make our own! So far we have given our (informed) opinions on Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (we also created some very cool flash cards on this classic), and Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night. More to come! Also if you do know of any other great academic Literature podcasts we’d love to hear about them so please do comment below. Thank you! (And on the topic of podcasts here’s me being interviewed on Shine Radio about my non-fiction book Roaming Wild, the Founding of Compassion in World Farming.)
Thank you very much for reading, and if you like this newsletter then please do like, subscribe (for free!), share, comment or, if you can afford it consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. I’ve had a few new paid subscribers recently and it really does mean the world to me! Thank YOU 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏!
Finally, I would LOVE to hear of your own recent ‘Fine Things’ too, so as it it says above ‘Leave a comment’….
Also, please do check out my brilliant guest’s current obsessions, here’s painter David Horgan Art’s Fine Things and here’s musician Mark T. Vernon’s.
Love,
Emma x o x o