We really need to move the inauguration to some place during the year’s return policy window. Let’s take a deep breath or two before we get started, shall we?

“What are we doing, V?” I usually know what to say, but January has been a dozy for me as well. Do I write a new year’s newsletter filled with my usual optimism? The way I can spin negative attacks on our communities to uncover wins for us? Write a handbook on what we can do? Oh, wait, Shannon already did that. Whew! Join her Patreon to stay up on how you can do awesome things for the community and your heart. How do we talk to our kids about all that is happening? I wrote a book that I think helps to start that conversation. Each time I read at a story-time, the kids have a lot of ideas on how to make the world a better place.

Persist. That is what we should do. We persist in all the ways possible. We persist in loving each other. We persist in showing up for each other. Did you know that the Secretary of Homeland Security is frustrated by how Chicago has been educating undocumented neighbors about their rights? Watch! I’ve attended an ICE watch training to learn how to spot ICE and how to respond. One big thing I learned and have been sharing is that you should NOT try to put yourself between agents and someone being detained. If you want to attend a training, check in with any local elected officials you know are down for this work. Also look for your local migrant and immigration rights organization. In Chicago we have a bunch. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) has a family support network people can call to report sightings or ask for assistance if someone you know has been detailed. The City of Chicago has a whole website filled with information.

As I ponder all the fab people I know doing amazing things around my small town, I want to keep writing so I don’t leave them out. But I’d be here until the next administration. I am seriously blessed. But that means I have a lot of things to write about this year. A lot of things to report out on.

And this is what we do next. We look to see who is doing what in our community. Tap into those spaces before you start something new. I have my own new(ish) things to share later this year. That’s def an accountability sentence. Now I OWE you something new. The mind of a Capricorn, y’all.

Each time I try to finish this newsletter something else happens. We’ve had two airplane crashes, federal workers getting the weirdest email requests to resign, federal websites getting scrubbed, and few people truly understand what DEI stands for. It’s truly a scary time. But this is when we double down on community. We pull each other close. Not to hide, but to support each other. To lean on each other. To cry together.

I started writing online as a response to the 2000 Presidential election.

Here’s to 25 years of raging at the President.

How I’m Persisting…

Books

My current read is I just finished TreeNotes A Year in the Company of Trees by Nalini Nadkarni. This collection of micro-essays is pretty perfect for our current attention span. If you are a tree hugger, this book is for you. I am often left with wanting more from some essays. Nadkarni ends things just as she gets my brain rolling. But I’m trying to focus on what she does gift us. Preorder now. Publication on February 18th.

I’ve finished two books this year (one I started in December) that I believe are worth others reading. In My Jewish State: How I was trained in pro-Israel advocacy and learned to talk back to my culture, find my own humanity, and fight for peace by Elana Sztokman is a vulnerable and critical look at her upbringing in the Orthodox Jewish community. She takes us on her journey to reexamine her long-held beliefs and how she was educated in them. Sztokman is an award-winning author who has taken the feminist lens to Jewish life. I don’t feel like she came to a firm conclusion as to how be both a feminist Jewish woman who cares deeply for Palestinian people, especially friends, believes the War on Gaza is wrong, and still hold Zionist beliefs. That struggle is the aspect of the book I most appreciated.

Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging by Tara Roberts is also an examination of the author’s life and the meaning of homeland. Roberts is inspired to learn to scuba dive in order to join Diving with a Purpose - an organization that seeks to document and preserve the history of shipwrecks connected to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Throughout the memoir, Roberts is looking for the place to feels like home. As she wrestles with this concept, she learns more about the many hands who are missing from the most basic history we get in the USA about slavery. While she starts off as a storyteller, I feel that she ends up far more confident in her place as a storyteller, a documentarian, as the book closes. Home is where you hang your snorkel.

TV & Movie

Shrinking: I watched the entire two seasons in about six weeks. Considering my schedule, that’s fast. One thing is for sure, we must protect Alice (seen above) at all costs. ALL COSTS. It is quite something to be watching this show about therapists who need therapy as I had to wind down my relationship with my own therapist. She’s moving practices and doesn’t take my insurance anymore. Fuck this country’s healthcare system. The only debatable thing on this show is how much I might be hating Jimmy, Alice’s dad, versus feeling like he’s finally coming around. But I guess that’s the ultimate plot of the show. If you have AppleTV, watch it. Just make sure you have tissues at the ready.

Nightbitch: What can I say that Jude Doyle doesn’t say in their review? Not much. Just that I thought it was a great depiction of motherhood. Pieces of my experience, pieces of friends’ experience, all wrapped up in a weirdo movie. A+…until the end. If you’ve seen it, read Jude’s review. If you haven’t, go watch, but stop at the end of the art show. Trust me.

Storytelling

This newsletter isn’t the only thing I’m writing these days. Which also explains why it took me so long to get this one out. In January I read at 20×2. I was a back-up and sure enough some one canceled. 20×2 is such a fun show! 20 people get the same question or prompt and get to answer it however they want. This show was “Where to?” And I talked about being on a cruise ship and pondering career moves. The next show is March 23rd, so put that on your calendar!

I also read at Write Club. This is another fun show. This one pits 2 writers against each other. This is the third time reading and my third defeat. One more and I’ll get a Buffalo Bills hat. The show is every third Tuesday at GMan Tavern, at 7:30 p.m.

In January I attended OUTSpoken for the first time because I am scheduled to read in April. April 1st in fact! Which is hilarious to me. I have no idea what I’ll be talking about, but I hope you’ll join me!

And then there is Miss Spoken. This is my favorite show to read at. It’s a lady live lit show - so all the readers are women, ladies, femmes, nonbinary, etc, basically everyone except cis men. It’s been a rough few months for Miss Spoken and for 2025 it is getting a new home. I’m sure I’ll be reading there soon, just not sure when yet. WATCH THIS SPACE!

One last way I’m persisting is hanging with friends. Seriously, the world is on fire - quite literally - and I will continue to remind you that we need each other. We need to take care of each other. Not just when times are shitty, but to make times less shitty.

Until next time…