These are the words, images, and beers that inspired the GBH Collective this week. Drinking alone just got better, because now you're drinking with all of us.
READ.// “When you step outside the door in the morning, pause for 10 seconds. Ask yourself questions like, ‘What does the air feel like? How many different kinds of birds can I hear? What are the clouds doing?’” This TED Ideas dispatch is written for parents who want to cultivate a love of nature in their children, but I found the prescriptions just as useful for us adults. It’s comforting to know we don’t need to plan a backpacking trip in Yosemite or a hiking excursion along the Continental Divide Trail to become more in tune with nature. Just a walk around the block will do.
LOOK.// If you’ve already finished the second season of the FX show “Pose,” as I nearly have, take a deeper look at the world of ballroom culture through Nicholas Jenkins’ short documentary, “Walk!” I particularly appreciate that Jenkins hands the mic to performers themselves, allowing members of this community to tell their own stories and express their own anxieties.
DRINK.// Mother Earth Brew Co.’s Cali Creamsicle
Maybe it’s the 90-degree weather. Maybe it’s nostalgia for more carefree summers. Or maybe I don’t need to justify why I’m digging Mother Earth Brew Co.’s Cali Creamsicle Cream Ale, a spinoff of the brewery’s original vanilla Cream Ale. The beer is as sweet as the melted Dreamsicle on its label, so it’s not likely to become an everyday choice for me, but it’s a light, fun dessert beer or post-grilling treat.
READ.// “To deal with this subject with the gravity it deserved was scary,” Colson Whitehead told The Guardian about his Pulitzer prize-winning book, “The Underground Railroad.” Many of us are reexamining the history lessons we learned about our country as children, and while this is a fictionalized story of an enslaved person seeking freedom, Whitehead based his novel on thousands of recorded interviews and written anecdotes from formerly enslaved people. For anyone whose education included “10 minutes on slavery and 40 minutes on Abraham Lincoln,” as Whitehead notes, this is required reading. Buy it from a Black-owned bookstore.
LOOK.// Brittany Harris makes art that is bright and vibrant—it’s impossible to look away from her pieces when they pop up on my feed. Her work is both visually stunning and thought-provoking, drawing inspiration from the African Diaspora, women’s reproductive health, and social justice. Brittany is also Chicago-based, and created a beautiful mural in the Wabash Windows celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Bauhaus School (I didn’t know much about the Bauhaus School until I listened to an episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class about the women of the acclaimed and short-lived design school.)
DRINK.// Middle Brow Beer Co.’s Bloc Party Mango
Middle Brow’s commitment to social justice takes on a lot of forms. From selling Black Lives Matter posters for protestors (all proceeds of which go to the Chicago chapter of Black and Pink, an LGBTQ prison abolitionist group) to a new tipping policy that’ll add a 10% surcharge to all purchases for employee health benefits (which is critical during a pandemic), Middle Brow continuously demonstrates that doing the work is possible for all breweries. I’m hoping others take a page from their playbook. Also, yes, this beer is delicious.
READ.// “HOW ARE THE protestors behaving? The protesters are sitting on toilets, picking up their kids from school, on their way home from work, grading papers, fixing shows, selling beers, drinking them, just got out of dance class at their after-school program, are out fetching water from the well, using fruity loops to make beats, eating cereal, stretching goatskin over hollowed pieces of wood, pulling their masks from their backpacks, applying eyeliner, tagging signs, swiping phones, typing on their computers, sharing/blocking their locations ... They are not hard to find.” After several years living in Paris, Saul Williams returned to New York City and spouted newfound observations mixed with familiar urban patterns and textures in US(a.), his latest book of poems. It was published in 2015, but feels entirely relevant to the current moment.
LOOK.// After listening to the GBH podcast episode with Day Bracey of Fresh Fest, one point that struck me was a conversation about inclusive spaces. As a former design student, I went down a rabbit hole and tried to find the illustrated “Principles of Universal Design.” Unfortunately, I could only find this tweet with high enough resolution because as it turns out, The Center for Universal Design “is currently not active due to funding challenges.”
DRINK.// The Veil Brewing Co.’s All Together IPA
Reiteration has been present in my life lately. Call and response. Repeating names, chants, and rally cries. Retweeting thoughts and reposting stories. I enjoyed this juicy IPA in a quiet park, turning the label to read, “We are all in this together together.”
Curated by The GBH Collective
