Foundress Of Nothing

long sentence lover; she/her

[foundress0fnothing]

June is Busting Out and It's All Over!

For June (tomorrow! horrible!), I'm going to once again be chronicling some daily writing here. All the April work helped push my book toward completion (and now my baby has to go on the death march of trying to convince someone to publish it) so I'm here to hopefully find something new for the next book (and so I can feel less precious about the poems I just finished).

I'm primarily going to be using "The Time is Now" prompts on Poets & Writers to guide my writing each day; I'll link the ones I use and some favorite lines. Join me in writing and/or reading!

June 1: Prompt from 5.26.26, Lost Map

June 2: Prompt from Rattle's ekphrastic monthly call

June 3: Prompt from 6.2.26, Machine Seeing

[laterkiss]

i have [gestures vaguely] my tendencies

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[jstor]

The preservation of transgender history is essential to ensuring that the stories and experiences of trans people are not forgotten. The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) has taken on the vital task of gathering and protecting this history, bringing together documents, images, and materials that reflect the rich and diverse experiences of transgender people across time and place.

By making these resources accessible, the DTA facilitates explorations of the often-hidden or erased narratives of trans communities. From personal stories to institutional records, these materials provide a window into the challenges and triumphs faced by trans individuals, while also celebrating the resilience and diversity of these communities.

Preserving this history is also about ensuring that future generations can learn, understand, and be inspired by the stories of those who came before them.

Explore more about how these efforts are safeguarding trans history, and why it matters, on JSTOR Daily.

Image: A man in drag and a man in male clothes looking into each other’s eyes, via Digital Transgender Archive.

[foundress0fnothing]

Day 3 of June is Busting Out and It's All Over!

Prompt (from P&W 6.2.26): The machines are watching you . . . and they’re talking to each other. In an interview for Phaidon, Trevor Paglen, artist and author of How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI (Verso, 2026), speaks about how most images made in the world today are not centered around a human observer, but are made by machines for other machines. “A simple example is a self-driving car that is making tons and tons of images every second to navigate,” he says. “They’re not making those images for humans, they’re making them for themselves.” Spend some time imagining how a machine might “see” a photograph differently from how a human would, and write a poem with a particular image in mind. What might a machine notice or not notice? How might processing an image and communicating about it be different when we dispense with our conventional ideas of human emotional responses? Experiment with the way certain details are described and remembered.

lines: (i used the picture from yesterday to see if I could write something i liked better): it's unevenly framed. / this means humans love the sky more / than their children. / they offer their eyes, their lives, their children's food / to the vastness, the destruction of it.

[ceruleanheaven]

month starting on a monday we have no excuse guys lets get to work and lock the fuck in

[ceruleanheaven]

yk its actually very chic and avant garde to start on tuesday the second

[ceruleanheaven]

many claim theres nothing more subversive and revolutionary than starting on wednesday the third

[dykerikki]

crawls out of my hole that resembles the grave but isnt. #myholethatresemblesthegravebutisnt

[foundress0fnothing]

Day 2 of June is Busting Out and It's All Over!

Prompt (from Rattle's ekphrastic monthly call): a parent and a child, reaching something out into the sky, which dominates the picture.

lines: here's how to summon a storm, sweet thing, / you hold the cup and I'll draw from it, stretched out over blue / over clouds, over things we cannot / name below us / just the earth and all she holds / observing, perversely peering at our hope

[foundress0fnothing]

no yeah drafting the frame of my dissertation is oging so well. actually. so many thoughts. articulating them for sure

[currentlycryingaboutlancelot]

more people on this website need to be blogging about weird literature no one cares about

[byjove]

what drink I think certain characters from Arthurian legend would order at a bar:

Sir Lancelot: Vodka Red Bull.

Sir Galahad: A glass of water, no ice.

Sir Gawain: The most pretentious craft beer.

King Arthur: Any beer. Not pretentious, not picky.

Queen Guinevere: Grapefruit seltzer of some kind.

Sir Kay: Stout of some kind.

Sir Bedivere: Dry martini.

Sir Perceval: The fruitiest, girliest, most whimsical cocktail on the menu.

Merlin: Also a whimsical fruity little drink enjoyer.

Morgan: Espresso martini.

The Green Knight: Absinthe and he genuinely enjoys the taste.

[byjove]

Galahad orders himself a single glass of water with no ice because of his ascetic mindset. Sometimes other knights will order him a Shirley Temple and he secretly enjoys that.

[sylferino]

every $30 purchase is like a razor sharp arrow stuck firmly in my muscular wearwolf back

[malewifesband]

the setting is also a character. many do not know this but its true. it has a history and a future and often an arc of its own, and the other characters all have personal relationships with it

[bowditch]

this is why college, modern, bakery, flower shop, fantasy, post apoc, etc etc AU is either boring af to me or one of the best stories in a fandom. the thing that makes or breaks the story is whether or not the setting change is treated with the weight of a Character-- how does it impact characters and still keep them recognizable? it's like you've given everyone a new bestie or enemy and they all have to live with it. how does it shape them and change them? what parts survive? what parts of them impact the setting?

[foundress0fnothing]

Day 1 of June is Busting Out and It's All Over!

Prompt (from P&W 5.26.26): Write a poem that begins with directions you cannot give, whether it’s returning to a childhood home that no longer exists, finding someone you’ve lost, or reaching a place that has only ever appeared to you in dreams. Let the poem move between the literal and the imagined, charting not only streets and landscapes, but also memories, misdirections, and silences. What landmarks have shifted? What details remain sharp? Allow the act of mapping to reveal both presence and absence, and bring the reader in on what it feels like to be in the place you want to bring them.

lines: if I remember right / you need a key card / but it's been years and i don't have one but if / you make it in the door / follow your nose / it beckons, acrid sweetness and holy musk / see at the front a marriage of sorts / a boy and a girl and the priest / and not enough concern between them but / his hand on her back / his hand on her shoulders / making vows before the angels / half-high on devotion

[anarchistmemedistro]

ALT

ALT

[forsapphics]

WITCHES FOR QUEER RIGHTS

[userfish]

this pride month we’re all going to be radically pro transgender. or else.

[userfish]

hey so this means radically pro ALL transgender. don’t put limitations on this. all trans people are radically accepted here.