I'm thrilled to announce a new set of writing fellows! These two not-yet-established writers get a stipend, mentorship, and editing from me—and a promotional boost in this newsletter. Please join me in giving their work some attention.  

Celia Mattison is a Black culture writer interested in film, fiction, and dead media. You might have seen her work in The Audacity, Electric Literature, and Literary Hub. Soon, she'll be writing about cinema for this newsletter. [AF note: I loved her piece on "The Scream Gap."]

Autumn Fourkiller is a Cherokee and Yuchi writer from rural Oklahoma. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Atlas Obscura, Scalawag, and Catapult. Subscribe to her coming newsletter, Dream Interpretation for Dummies, where Dear Abby meets Native Americana. It'll be excerpted in this newsletter. Do you have a dream you'd like her to interpret? Send details to sadboyhowdy@gmail.com.

If you're a paying member of this newsletter, you make this fellowship possible. THANK YOU. It's not some big formal program, but your financial support allows me to devote many hours (and some money, too) to the fellows.

And if you're an established writer or artist who is interested in doing your own lowkey fellowship program, hit reply and let me know. I'm happy to talk about how I set mine up and how you could do the same.

A great profile of Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, two friends who organized their fellow Amazon fulfillment-center workers by creating community: "they built bonfires to warm colleagues waiting before dawn to go home. They made TikTok videos to reach workers across the city. Mr. Palmer brought homemade baked ziti to the site; others toted empanadas and West African rice dishes to appeal to immigrant workers. They set up signs saying 'Free Weed and Food.' "

Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine, writes Julia Ioffe, are more than just crimes against humanity. They reveal "the failure of the very systems the West has constructed to prevent such things." In the Middle East, many see a double standard.

Nitasha Tiku on the "girlbossification" of crypto: "these NFT brands mix hustle culture with the language of social justice, blurring the line between community and commerce, and dangling empowerment as a customer acquisition strategy." Related: We sure do seem to love our white-lady grifter stories.

Legal marijuana was supposed to be a "social equity" measure help build Black wealth. Amanda Chicago Lewis reports on how and why it failed to live up to those lofty goals.

There's a damning new IPCC report, and something was mysteriously left out of the summary for policymakers: The role of the fossil fuel industry. And Brooke LaMantia on the burnout that happens when you realize you’re not going to single-handedly save the environment.

Black women at Harvard Law School react to Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic confirmation as a US Supreme Court Justice: "Wow, these things are attainable. But also dang, why hasn’t it happened yet? Or why is it that in 2022 is the first time this has occurred?"

"It’s the smallest thing, having one friend live one house over," writes Zan Romanoff. "But it is shocking how much that small thing helps."

---

This blooming poppy and only this blooming poppy, courtesy of Ngaio's newsletter.

This remains exhaustingly relevant.

---

Faith Ringgold at the New Museum. Her soft sculptures are incredible, and I love her Kuba-inspired paintings, but it's the story quilts that really blew me away. If you go, don't skip the text panels—plan to spend some time with them. I also really enjoyed this studio visit with her.

As an aside, I first learned about Ringgold two decades ago thanks to Le Tigre's "Hot Topic," which is a treasure trove of important artists and activists. Listen to Kathleen Hanna tell me about this song at the 15:30 mark of our interview from 2018.

Tomorrow! Los Angeles - I'm in conversation with Chloé Cooper Jones about her memoir, Easy Beauty. This book is excellent (check out this excerpt in The Cut) and even if you can't make the event in person, you can order a signed copy—it even comes with an art print.

April 21, virtual: I'm on a panel sponsored by the Freelance Solidarity Project and Canadian Freelance Guild about the business of being a self-employed writer.