side of fries

I'm a 24 year old girl wonder. What else could you possibly need to know? Disclaimer: I will most likely spam you with the following: anything related to television, writing, books, poetry, feminism, art, awesome black people, and things I find beautiful.

[studioafrica]

I’ve recently come across the work of the O.G. Ghanaian photographer James Barnor. His style bears a lot of similarities to my all-time favorite photographer, Gordon Parks.

Barnor’s career has spanned 60+ years and he’s still shooting today. Some of his most notable work has been the independence and modernization movement in Ghana as well as the ever-changing cultural landscape of London.

[mozzarella-sticks]

[nprbooks]

AFAR is a gorgeously illustrated graphic novel, set in a North African-flavored fantasy world, about a girl who discovers she has the ability to dream herself across the stars into different bodies and worlds.

Check out our review here.

– Petra

[npr]

Adding this to my reading list! -Emily

[losetheboyfriend]

Danser le twist; captured by Malick Sidibé (1965)

[apoemaday]

Saddest Poem

by Pablo Neruda

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: “The night is full of stars, and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance.”

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms. I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her. How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. To think I don’t have her. To feel that I’ve lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her. And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn’t keep her. The night is full of stars and she is not with me. That’s all. Far away, someone sings. Far away. My soul is lost without her.

As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her. My heart searches for her and she is not with me.

The same night that whitens the same trees. We, we who were, we are the same no longer.

I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her. My voice searched the wind to touch her ear. Someone else’s. She will be someone else’s. As she once belonged to my kisses. Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her. Love is so short and oblivion so long.

Because on nights like this I held her in my arms, my soul is lost without her.

Although this may be the last pain she causes me, and this may be the last poem I write for her.

[thelovejournals]

Maybe that’s what it all comes down to. Love, not as a surge of passion, but as a choice to commit to something, someone, no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way. And maybe making that choice, again and again, day in and day out, year after year, says more about love than never having a choice to make at all.

Emily Giffin, Love the One You’re With (via thelovejournals)

[disneylimitededitiondolls]

Close-ups of the new Belle dolls!

[dollsonmain]

She looks like she has an upset stomach.

[oak23]

these are hilariously sad

[nowhites]

doll got a strong ass face

[capacity]

It’s feels so good to laugh at this

[diaryofanangryasianguy]

These are just 11 of the Asian and Pacific Islander women you should have learned about in history class

03/22/17

1. Yuri Kochiyama

Kochiyama was a civil rights activist who fought for the anti-war movement, black power, and atonement for Japanese internment.

2. Queen Liliuokalani

Adding historical context to the phrase “Yas Kween,” Queen Liliuokalani was the first female monarch of Hawaii and last sovereign of the Kamehameha dynasty (which ruled Hawaii since 1810) after its U.S. annex in 1898.

3. Sarojini Naidu

A child prodigy and poet, Naidu was the first female president of the India National Congress AND first female governor of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

4. Grace Lee Boggs

Considered the eldest human rights activist of our time, Boggs was a philosopher who fought for women’s rights, environmental justice, black power (alongside Angela Davis and Malcolm X), and labor rights.

5. Corazon Aquino

Having served as the first female president of the Philippines, Aquino’s leadership stemmed from opposition to then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

6. Anna May Wong

Considered the first Chinese-American film star, Wong gained international recognition through dozens of movies in Hollywood and Europe.

7. Trung Sisters

The Trung sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, were freedom fighters who led a rebellion against the Chinese Han-dynasty with a group consisting mostly of women fighters in 40 A.D., briefly establishing a sovereign state.

8. Aung San Suu Kyi

Winner of a Nobel Peace Prize and recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal, Suu Kyi is a politician and writer whose activism started with peaceful movements for democracy.

9. Maya Lin

Lin is a designer and architect who, at the age of 21, designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. NBD.

10. Phoolan Devi

Devi’s story bears remarkable similarities to a blockbuster film: Nicknamed “Bandit Queen,” she took up a life of burglary and ultimately became a gang leader after enduring sexual abuse from a young age.

11. Junko Tabei

A mountaineer, Tabei was the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1975 and, subsequently, was the first woman to climb the Seven Summits (the highest peaks of the seven continents!) in 1992.

Continue reading

[housingworksbookstore]

Inside Saudi Arabia’s First Feminist Literary Magazine

‘I want to counter Western stereotypes about Middle Eastern women.’

[sansgod]

I love dramatically looking out windows on public transportation

[alababwa]

[betterthankanyebitch]

[luvyourselfsomeesteem-deactivat]

a clapback to remember

[apoemaday]

Momma Welfare Roll

by Maya Angelou

Her arms semaphore fat triangles, Pudgy hands bunched on layered hips Where bones idle under years of fatback And lima beans. Her jowls shiver in accusation Of crimes clichéd by Repetition. Her children, strangers To childhood’s toys, play Best the games of darkened doorways, Rooftop tag, and know the slick feel of Other people’s property. Too fat to whore, Too mad to work, Searches her dreams for the Lucky sign and walks bare-handed Into a den of bureaucrats for Her portion. “They don’t give me welfare. I take it.”

[collegiate-confession]

[alwaysbewoke]

[cheltrei]

[wordsnquotes]

You remember too much, my mother said to me recently.Why hold onto all that? And I said,   Where can I put it down?

Anne Carson, “The Glass Essay” (via wordsnquotes)