Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂

Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂

This time it’s a 100% women’s month (and all YouTube because sorry but I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube)

>Number One<

It’s Hard Out Here

Hallease brands herself as a digital storyteller which is true but I also find her videos are really uplifting even when she is covering deep, heavy topics she just has this lightness and optimism about her that leaves me feeling better at the end of the day. This is one of those videos which is a kind of love letter / outreach to people who don’t feel creative or maybe have had to put their creativity on hold. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but sometimes you just need the right little voice in your ear to get some juice flowing.

Extra recommendation: Check out her fantastic video on the cost of calling while incarcerated.

>Number Two<

Black Women in Love (and other Romantic Tales)

I may have jumped head first into romance novels (and movies from the 50s) during this pandemic as a way of trying to eek out a little joy in the darkness and I noticed pretty quick that romance is a white women only genre. I love Amanda’s essay here exploring some of the history and reasons behind this. Also this is basically the only video I found about this topic that wasn’t solely or mainly about Bridgerton (!!!). Amanda is an aspiring film maker at NYU who makes some really fun videos. I’d also check out her recent video about making Instagram casual which was a really fresh perspective.

>Number Three<

Being Messy (Art is not Therapy!)

I’m pretty sure I’ve featured For Harriet on here before but she’s great so I don’t feel bad about doing it again and also I watched this video because I was enjoying people dunking on Malcom and Marie and its uhh…messiness but I stayed for the absolute fusion of themes and ideas that she synthesizes towards the end of the video. She really gets at the heart of some of my feelings about critique, art, and how we are and aren’t served by what we’ve learned about processing art.

Also check out her absolute banger on WAP and the Spectacle of Sexuality

>Number Four<

Political Expression (Emotional)

This is basically my new favorite channel right now. Khadija sits on her floor, does a little singing and a little drinking and a lot of talking and just lays it out for us. An opera singer by profession she brings together media, art, and intersectional perspectives with some really great reading recommendations. This video was so good I immediately went out and read Permission to Feel which was great!

If this exact video isn’t up your alley try Why is Doom Scrolling?

>Number Five<

If You Don’t Learn from History…

Elexus is a fantastic YouTuber who specializes in history and sexuality but in this video she breaks down some of the forces in the 70s which culminated in not just Reagan’s rise to power but also to the social and demographic shifts that took the 1970s in the US to the 1980s. Her channel is just an absolute all out greatest hits of interesting topics you rarely see covered and this video is actually the final part of a 15 part (!) series about the 70s: Lexual Does the 70s. I’d highly suggest carving out some time for it.

If that’s too much of a commitment you can wade in with The Anatomy of Stan Culture.

Alright folks, that’s it for this month, see you next month!