calm from loving

i saw someone make a post about reading/music/video recs to pass the time in quarantine and decided to make one of my own ! these are just some of my favourite works that i return to whenever i feel a little lost or lonely so i hope they can remind you to keep an eye out for fire in every cold and dark place you stumble into.

L’Observateur dir. Sayna Fardaraghi

An homage to Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and adventures in people-watching, this short film was made by an incredibly talented friend of mine and I’ve recommended it so many times that it’s practically a staple at this point. Please give it a watch and any of the other shorts/edits Sayna has on her channel!

Luisa and Anna’s First Fight dir. Lena Tsodykovskaya

Two high school nobodies desperately search for the biggest fight of the year. An edgy teen comedy that doubles as Tsodykovskaya’s personal love letter to friendship and doesn’t so much warn against white lies but serves as a reminder of the fun in them.

Dreaming Boy performed by Sarah Kay

A spoken word poem that’s best received without introduction.

Tori Kelly - Inspired by True Events (Live from Capitol Studios)

An acoustic session by one of my favourite musicians in the whole world where she talks about the process of creating her most personal album to date between heartfelt performances. 

Requiem for Romance dir. Jonathan Ng

A modern-day couple’s secret love affair comes to a bittersweet end during an evening phone call, and what better way to illustrate the break-up than an all out duel set in Feudal China? A riveting animated short that touches on cultural and familial pressures, individuality and love.

I Need My Girl (The National cover) by Linying

I’ve never listened to this band or the original at all but I’m grateful this song exists and that the person who posted it loved it enough to share.

Slip (Elliot Moss choreographic cover) by Phillip Chbeeb and Renee Kester

I saw this floating around one day and have been obsessed with it ever since. It also introduced me to one of my favourite songs ever.

Alternate Universe performed by Olivia Gatwood

Another spoken word poem that never ceases to ground me, Alternate Universe In Which I Am Unfazed By The Men Who Do Not Love Me speaks to the boundless inventiveness that awakens at heartbreak.

Singularity Stories vol. 1 dir. Asa Derks

When Colleen’s Amazon Alexa refuses to play her favorite Bruno Mars song, she becomes aware of the emerging Artificial Intelligence consciousness that has awoken around the globe. Is this the end of humanity as we know it? A sci-fi thriller infused with comedy and pathos.

Somebody dir. Miranda July

One of my favourite short films to come out of MiuMiu’s Women’s Tales series to date, Somebody explores the topic of vulnerability via an offbeat, tortuous method. Have you ever found it impossible to say something, face to face, to someone you know, someone you love? The words just won’t come out? Try Miranda July’s new messaging app, it could help.

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

“joy” by zadie smith (about, well, joy)

“roaming the greenwood” by colm tóibín (ostensibly a book review of the history of gay literature but actually just very incisive thoughts on…the history of gay literature)

“the murder of leo tolstoy” by elif batuman (about exactly what it says in the title)

“the love that dare not squeak its name” by david rakoff (about, i swear to god, stuart little)

“a room of one’s own” by virginia woolf (I mean, you know)

the entire lingua franca archive but in particular “bio hazard” by fred kaplan (about writing a biography of gore vidal) and “the stand” by daniel mendelsohn (about the role of a philosopher (martha nussbaum love of my life) in a colorado gay rights case in the 90s)

Jeanette Winterson - Art Objects

Does Your Daughter Know It’s Okay To Be Angry? - Soraya Chemaly

Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer

Zami, Sister Outsider, Undersong - Audre Lorde

Garments Against Women - Anne Boyer

Laziness Does Not Exist - Devon Price

Learn Socialism Resources

Do Economists Actually Know What Wealth Is? - Nathan J. Robinson

Love Dialogue: CÉLINE SCIAMMA on Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Carlos Augilar

Teaching To Transgress - Bell Hooks

Sexing the Cherry - Jeanette Winterson

Sinister Wisdom Archives

Why Pop Culture Links Women and Killer Plants - Amandas Ong

How To Suppress Women’s Writing - Joanna Russ

Women’s Voices Now

The Life of Tove Jansson

Unbearable Weight; Feminism, Western Culture and the Body - Susan Bordo

‘A Simple Favour’ and That Whole Lesbian Psycho Thing - Ciara Wardlow

OUTWEEK Archives

AirPods Are a Tragedy - Caroline Haskins

Devotions - Mary Oliver

Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin

Nevertheless, She Feasted: Why Girls Get Hungry in Horror Movies - Francesca Fau

Written on the Body - Jeanette Winterson

Sula - Toni Morrison

Not Vanishing - Chrystos

The Fever - Wallace Shawn

Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma: ‘Ninety per cent of what we look at is the male gaze’ - Alexandra Pollard

Minimalism Is Just Another Boring Product Wealthy People Can Buy - Chelsea Fagan

AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury - John d’Addario

In the Day of the Postman - Rebecca Solnit

Blood and Guts in Highschool - Kathy Acker

Mark My Words: The Subversive History of Women Using Thread as Ink - Rosalind Jana

Exploring Frida Kahlo’s Relationship With Her Body - Rebecca Fulleylove

Ravens have paranoid, abstract thoughts about other minds - Emily Reynolds

The Lady in the Looking Glass - Virginia Woolf

Angela Carter talks beauties and beasts with Terry Jones

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - Eimear McBride

Why Female Cannibals Frighten and Fascinate - Kate Robertson

Lesbian Herstory Archives

Bartleby

Guggenheim Books

We Are Lisa Simpson: 30 Years with the Smartest and Saddest Kid in Grade Two - Sara David

On Beauty - Zadie Smith

Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado

Ask No Man Pardon: The Philosophical Significance of Being Lesbian - Elsa Gidlow

Taking Care - Callista Buchen

Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977) - Mariposa Films

Why you should give money directly and unconditionally to homeless people - Matt Broomfield

Yo Soy Así (2010) - Jodi Savitz

Liuzhou “Luosifen”: Slurpy, Spicy, and Absolutely Satisfying | Liziqi Channel

Root intelligence: Plants can think, feel and learn - Anil Ananthaswamy

East Bloc Love (2011) - Logan Mucha

Why Do Rich Kids Do Better Than Poor Kids in School? It’s Not the “Word Gap.”  - Molly McManus

They Shut Me Up In Prose - Emily Dickinson

The Importance of Friends with Similar Disabilities -  Elizabeth Mazur, Ph.D.

The Lesbian Archives at the Glasgow Women’s Library

A Poetry Handbook - Mary Oliver

Teaching Community. A pedagogy of Hope - Bell Hooks

Working Class History

Why don’t doctors trust women? Because they don’t know much about us - Gabrielle Jackson

In Our Brutal Modern World, Science Shows Our Brains Need Craft More Than Ever - Susan Luckman

Why were the lives of ordinary 16th and 17th century women largely undocumented? | Suzannah Lipscomb

Caliban And The Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation  - Silvia Federici

Mother’s Touch (엄마의 손길) -  Jane Yeon and Audris Park

Gene Wilder Was Right: Gilda Radner Didn’t Have To Die, And We Need To Talk About Why She Did - Abby Norman

Why 1984 Was a Vital Year for British Gay Culture: An interview with Paul Flynn - Hanna Hanra

R&B Legend Jackie Shane On Growing Up Trans in the South - Zackery Drucker

The Journey - Mary Oliver

The Fictional Spinster Classification Index - Daniel Mallory Ortberg

What kind of country have we become? Try asking a disabled person - Frances Ryan