Friday Five: March 4, 2022
I’m back with the Friday Five, your weekly roundup of five things that will spark joy, comfort, or some delight in your life. Before I get into it, I want to give a shout out shout out my friend Jane who is fundraising for folks on the ground in Ukraine, as well as running a product drive out of her Brooklyn home for mothers and children who have fled without their belongings. She also wrote about her Ukrainian heritage in her newsletter. I’m grateful for everyone who has been making efforts to support those in/fleeing Ukraine (including African + Asian students and migrants) in a time of crisis, and if there are people or groups you’d want me to highlight here, please send them my way.
Poem: Katie Farris’ “Why Write Love Poetry" in a Burning World” is one I’ve read repeatedly as of late. Katie’s partner is Ukranian poet Ilya Kaminsky, whose work I shared with you all last week. She wrote this while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and while it might feel especially relevant now, this sentiment is (sadly) evergreen.
Song: “More Than A Woman” is one of my favorite songs by both Aaliyah and The Bee Gees. Aaliyah’s song has an incredible, mesmerizing (and uncredited — do better Timbaland 👀) sample, which comes from Syrian singer Mayada El Hennawy.
I could write multiple newsletters on the topic of hip-hop and R&B samples from Southwest Asia — which is honestly the geographically correct and non-orientalist/ decolonial way to refer to the Middle East (larger region would be SWANA, South West Asia + North Africa), which is harder to say conversationally but easier for me to make you read and internalize! 😏 If you take a moment to think of the name “Middle East,” it’s easy to realize that colonizers named it as such because it was east of their homeland and ‘in the middle’ of their version of the world. I digress…
Mayada’s vocals and this original beat are even more powerful than the sample. I feel comforted by this song, which reminds me of the music I grew up with. With every listen, I try to find Farsi cognates to make sense of the lyrics but I’m not quite there yet. Anyway, enjoy this musical beauty.
Cute Animal Video: These baby goats drink their milk from Sprite bottles and sound like a gaggle of babies as they run to get it. The levels of cuteness in this video are beyond my comprehension. To quote Bruno Mars: “Don’t believe me… just watch.”
Snack: My friend Stephanie started a cookie company called Wandel based off an old family recipe. I tried her wandel bites for the first time and I was immediately floored by the deliciousness. Imagine a chocolate chip cookie crossed with a biscotti crossed with a blondie crossed with cake, but coated in cinnamon sugar. Truly delightful!
Joyful Social Media Content:
Find me in the Marshalls Cinematic Universe,
Roya
Needed this <3