June Update
After prolonged personal and family health difficulties, June has proven to be a productive and generative month.
Following publication of my essay Reindigenising, we developed the Reindiginse! Pennines programme. Olu and I have been writing again and they've been asking great questions, some of which I still have to reply to, when I get time 😅
As part of the October Salon Collective's successful community funding call, we have been able to fund three artist-led workshops to "engage participants in local heritage, geography or social context". One of these will be used to deliver a 'queer community snapshot', which aims to generate a network of people and materials to enable future queer heritage work in and around (Central) Lancashire. I'm currently designing this so if you are interested in working together on local queer heritage, please email me ☺️
I built my first Magic: The Gathering Commander deck!
I have started working on self-printing, -binding, and -publishing my first poetry collection. I'm hoping to get the first run printed, bound, and ready for distribution in the next couple of months. If you'd like to keep up to date with that, make sure to register your email for my mailing list at the bottom of the page!
I have done a lot of shadowwork, both psychological and spiritual, which has been tremendously healing. I feel like for the first time I really know what my path in life is.
I've been reading Klee Benally's No Spiritual Surrender on The Anarchist Library, it's one of the best things I've ever read and I'm only a little over halfway through.
I've been listening to NTS Radio a lot. It's probably the biggest development in my personal music listening experience and approach since I discovered Discogs.
My girlfriend cut my hair! 🌈
I've been helping students in Gaza find and apply for international scholarship opportunities so they can evacuate from the genocide. It's been difficult because there are not a lot of open opportunities at this time of year. But they are all amazing. It is humbling to get to know these incredible young people. Free Palestine 🇵🇸
I've also been able to take part in some other bits of activism which has felt good and, hopefully, had some impact.
Other bits I haven't been able to make impact due to people ignoring me. Like my MP, who is ignoring me while I am trying to get them to sign Early Day Motion 240, "that the draft [piece of garbage transphobic EHRC] Code of Practice for Services, public functions and associations, a copy of which was laid before this House on 21 May, be disapproved."
I started writing some speculative fiction and recording some music. I wrote, "music is powerful, accessible magic." I also wrote an ecological grace:
We receive this food with humility, with gratitude to all those who constitute it, and with the gentle awareness and acceptance that we are all food for someone else.
We've learned about some really interesting stuff near our home which we need to go visit 😸
I'm helping select exhibitions for The Harris' Gallery 2 community space. If you have an interest in what we show in the gallery, please email us!
I've booked some time in for a proper holiday, after I have my annual progression meeting for my PhD.
My PhD has slipped a lot due to all the issues we've had, but I've managed to make some really good progress. My writing has improved significantly. I feel I have a good understanding of my methodology (finally), and it should be achievable by my deadline, so long as I can get enough staff interviewees 🤞
Been spending more time out on the land, paying attention to plants and insects and other non-human siblings.
After an absolute rollercoaster of 6-8 weeks, I'm glad that this month has had a good end, and I've managed to keep some of the wheels spinning throughout the difficulties.
If you like what I'm doing, please subscribe and send me an email to say hello and introduce yourself ☺️
Happy solstice!