Capturing the darkness + describing the light

Surprise me View in browser April 12, 2019 It's good to be home in Los Angeles.    This week Turns out you can get a lot of random, low-stakes stuff done when you spend a few hours every day avoiding writing a book. To wit: Amina and I recently revamped the Shine Theory website, and we dedicated this week's episode of the podcast to a 101-style explainer of what Shine Theory is and what it means to practice it. This is timely, as several impressive new congresswomen have been shouting it out all the time.  It's a very weird feeling to have something that was essentially a private meme between two friends become a more widespread cultural shorthand. We love seeing Shine Theory pop up everywhere, but don't always love the way people characterize it. Now the website and this episode are the definitive places to learn about Shine Theory, beyond the hashtag. I'm reading An NBA player reckons with his racial privilege. What women know about the internet. Raffi vs. Trump, whose resorts rely on immigrant labor like so many American businesses do. Architecture's lost heroine, Madelon Vriesendorp. Inside the fight for missing and murdered indigenous women. The return of Andrea Dworkin's radical vision. A recipe for the perfect #MeToo comeback. A gutting essay by Jayson Greene about losing a child. Kris Jenner and the cultural history of the momager. One black woman's long, winding road away from Christianity. Why diabetics would stockpile insulin. Do we all have to be beautiful? The rogue conservationists fighting to save the sequoia. The weird world of neighborhood Facebook groups. What's up with the fat, 70s-style fonts you're seeing everywhere. Everlane and the New York Times are selling the same thing. How photo booths survived. Pockets full of oranges, far from citrus trees. Your brain is probably a computer, whatever that means. Members only Become a paying member for just $5/year. [This is a secure site that takes all major credit cards but, unfortunately, not PayPal. For now.] I'd love your support. What are you missing? Click here to see what these pie charts are all about. I'm looking & listening Killing Eve! Seeing the Fleabag one-woman show when I was in New York turned me into a true Phoebe Waller-Bridge fan, so I finally watched season 1 and now am SO ready for season 2. An in-depth podcast on how motherhood explains the pay gap. A conversation with Esperanza Spalding. GIFspiration I'm probably not alone in obsessing over the black hole as metaphor this week. I love a news event in which phrases like "[it] is not the event horizon, it’s something inside" and "spaghettification" and "cosmic trapdoor" appear with regularity.  The first black hole to be captured on film has been named Powehi*, meaning “the adorned fathomless dark creation” or “embellished dark source of unending creation” and comes from the Kumulipo, an 18th century Hawaiian creation chant. Henceforth, I'll be referring to the first draft of this book I'm writing as "the unadorned fathomless dark creation." *The above gif is a NASA artist's rendering of a black hole devouring a star—not Powehi itself, which has yet to be captured in giffable format. I endorse Quickly listing 10 things that scare you. I've been enjoying WNYC's 10 Things that Scare Me podcast. Over a few glasses of wine one night this week, some friends and I made our own lists. We tried to say things quickly as they came to mind, without long pauses for consideration, but the digressions were inevitable. It was surprisingly fun for being an exercise in dread and fear. You endorse Mariposa by Kim Guerra.  "A lot of us are stepping out of Internalized oppression and Into radical self-love - liberation. We are reclaiming the magic of our melanin." "This book has been passed around from prima to prima in my family for the last month or so. It's been so moving to read Kim's work and finally have poetry that Latinx womxn can identify with. Kim speaks the truth and I couldn't be more grateful for her spreading powerful brown girl magic." -Stephanie Martinez. This space is for subscribers! What do you endorse? Submit anything here. The Classifieds Feeling stuck? Get a free, weekly newsletter on how to have a happier, more meaningful life. Join the Largest Online Conference for Remote Work, Freelance & Digital Nomads. Speakers from Dell, WordPress, Dribbble. Get your Free Pass! Write your memoirs, reclaim yourself. Get 10 free and impactful memoir-writing prompts so you can stop procrastinating and start already! Women writers! Dive into an 8-week personal nonfiction writing workshop in Brooklyn. Recent work has appeared in the NYT and Longreads. Looking for an alternative sympathy gift to the customary flower bouquet or fruit basket? Here For You delivers tastefully packaged household essentials & self care products to support your loved ones during life's toughest transitions. #GiftWhatTheyNeed (aka #NoFlowersNoFruit) Want a personalized slice of internet each day without compromising your privacy? We’re looking for iOS testers. Learn more about the Canopy beta app. Ads have been disappearing faster than a star approaching a black hole. Buy early. Click for rates + info. Testimonials "That lamb gif was the inspiration I needed to finally become a paying member! I've been putting it off due to sheer laziness, but if that little lamb can bound around, I can dig my credit card out of my wallet." -Megan. Wow, the power of the lamb! ".@annfriedman's newsletter this week is making me miss the home country. Could go for a toasted special and half pint of Harp now." -Kate. If this newsletter is making you crave highly specific snacks and beverages, I'm doing my best work. This newsletter is a ring around the void. Forward it to someone who sees your light. AF WEEKLY Subscribe Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Manage paid membership MORE ANN Email me About me Writing archive Public speaking Rent my brain Manage Preferences | Unsubscribe | Ladyswagger, Inc. PO Box 26932 | Los Angeles, CA 90026 © 2019