I heard this trouble song on The Current a few days ago:
Trouble needs a home girls,
a covert abode
from Tucson to Ohio
back through Tobacco road.
And she is armed and will fight for the souls
of girls around the world.
Standing up to Satan,
dancing on st. Michael‘s sword.
I’m on her side, in this brutal war.
Don’t cry baby…
Here’s a book that I’m interested in checking out: Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World. It was published on April 1, 2014, of course.
Invoking such historical and contemporary figures as P.T. Barnum, Jonathan Swift, WITCH, The Yes Men, and Stephen Colbert, Kembrew McLeod shows how staged spectacles that balance the serious and humorous can spark important public conversations. In some instances, tricksters have incited social change (and unfortunate prank blowback) by manipulating various forms of media, from newspapers to YouTube.
Last year, J Butler spoke about the continued need for the humanities. I was particularly drawn to her use of “capacious.”
Ideally, we lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more expansive world — in short, we become more critical and more capacious in our thinking and our acting.
To be capacious is to be generous when listening to others’ perspectives, to be willing to take seriously ideas and experiences that we don’t understand or with which we don’t agree. I love the idea of valuing capaciousness. It fits with making and staying in trouble because being capacious (creating/inhabiting roomier, more generous spaces of understanding and engagement) demands that we push ourselves to think deeply and critically, especially about our own actions and ideas.
This story on This American Life inspired me to “fire up” this blog again. Maybe I’ll start writing here again?
Bonus: Original Story How Did Toast Become the Latest Artisanal Food Craze?
While I don’t have time to write about it right now, I thought I’d quickly archive a great hashtag that’s been making the rounds on my twitter feed over the past couple of days: #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen
A few sources:
