Born to be Brave

"The Boley Rodeo in Boley, Oklahoma (a historic all-Black town), is widely recognized as the oldest Black rodeo in the United States, with roots dating back to 1903. This was shortly after the town's founding and well before Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907. Informal riding, roping, and community events began around the town's establishment in 1903.

It formalized into the modern Boley Championship Rodeo in 1961. As of recent years (including 2025–2026 references), it's celebrated as having run for over 120 years (e.g., 123 years in some 2026 promotions), making it the nation's oldest and longest-running African American rodeo."

can we stop with this style of writing now please (:

being in the shower: there is no past and there is no future, there is just the here and now, i am alone but i am not lonely, i am calm and one with the universe, existence is sublime

Sailor Moon / 美少女戦士セーラームーン (1992 – 1997)

I'm afraid this documentary about Nelly Mousset-Vos and Nadine Hwang may be geolocked for some, which is unfortunate because it's a moving watch.

We know why. Because they were women, in love.

Nelly & Nadine follows the granddaughter of Nelly Mousset-Vos, an opera singer born in 1906 who was a member of the resistance army for which she was imprisoned for 2 years in concentration camps, going through Mousset-Vos' effects and discovering/unearthing that her grandmother loved and lived with Nadine Hwang, a Chinese-Belgian daughter of a diplomat, whom Mousset-Vos met in the concentration camp at Ravensbrück.

Mousset-Vos left behind journal accounts of her experience in the camps, and photos and film of her life with Hwang in Caracas, Venezuela.

This was the moment I understood Hwang moved in the gayest of circles possible.

We hear Mousset-Vos's own words, the concentration camp portions heartbreaking to listen to, and see the documentation of their lives and life together. It's stunning and tender. Much of the film that exists was recorded by Nadine behind the camera.

The documentary tracks the present as much as the past and coming to recontextualize and understand the homosexual reality these women and their friends and peers lived--the love that dare not speak its name, truly, in that generation--and how this newfound knowledge and these women's resilience pay forward to inspiring and appreciating the greater visibility and acceptance/tolerance of today.

They were "cousins." They were "roommates."

Highly recommend if you have an available 90 minutes.

From Nadine Hwang's wikipedia entry:

Nadine Hwang, or Nadine Huong (Chinese 黃訥亭); (March 3, 1902 – 1972) was one of the first Chinese female pilots and served in the Chinese Air Force as an honorary colonel. She was at one point in a relationship with Natalie Clifford Barney and survived deportation to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Nadine Hwang was born in Madrid, to a Belgian mother, Juliette Brouta-Gilliard, and a Chinese father, Lühe Hwang. Both her parents were Catholics. Hwang was baptised in June 1902 in Madrid, in the parish church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Her father, who came from an influential Chinese family, was a diplomat and high official. In 1904 he was briefly transferred to Havana, where in 1905 Hwang's sister Marcela (later known as Marcela de Juan) was born. A few months later, the whole family returned to Madrid, where Hwang's father had been appointed head of the Chinese delegation.