Media, Lately

What I've read, studied, watched and listened to since about mid January

The onset of March has been a jump scare for me because I’m now telling folks the novel I have been working on since 2019 is publishing “next month.” Wild. Unfathomable.

(For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this photo below of me with my first printed copy of Love in 280 Characters or Less that I started edited when this picture was taken in 2020.)

((Also, consider preordering said book here.))

The lead up to publishing a book is a storm of unpredictable emotions, so I’ve been grounding the best way I know how: writing—and consuming a whole lot of media.

Here’s some of what I’ve been reading, watching, studying and listening to:

1. Milestone Compendium One: I finally read this from cover to cover and I’m glad I did. I came away from it thinking more about Black folks and flight even more than I usually do, as the motif showed up at least once in every title. Loved Static as I always have; Rocket pulls most of my interest in Icon and Rocket so that’s a close second; and I could pass on Xombi. It’s not bad! It’s just not my wheelhouse, but I know it’s somebody’s!

2. Something Like Right by H.D. Hunter. Hugh and I did a virtual author event for Katherine Morgan’s romance bookstore out of Portland, Grand Gestures Bookstore, in January so I read his YA contemporary in preparation. (Check out the rest of his works here.) It’s such a tender account of a first crush and subtle examination of all the loves the main character, Zay, knows that give him a little guidance for how to navigate the feelings. Something Like Right is so many things done well, there’s no way to do it justice in a few lines here.

3. This Beautiful, Ridiculous City by Kay Sohini. I’m endlessly proud of Kay for finding her way through academia by holding onto her creativity, and then finding a foothold in trade publishing with this gorgeous debut graphic memoir about the draw she felt to immigrate to New York City. It is lush, it is literary, and the pages live with me still.

4. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man on Disney+. What can I say? I’m pretty much always going to consume new Spider-Man movies and TV.

5. My 21st Century Blues by Raye. This album’s been on rotation, especially since she’s been performing at the awards shows this season. I never get tired of her voice.

6. Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn. Happy Oathbound Eve to all who celebrate (which should be everyone, as Keara Rodriguez, of The Boricua Bookworm fame, rightfully said to me earlier today). I’ve been rereading the Legendborn Cycle in preparation for the release of the third book and it actually gets better every time I read it. As a reader, I’m obsessed. As a writer, I want to be able to do a fraction of what Tracy does with language. As a (former?) scholar, the ground for exploration in fantasy narratives, southern studies and Black girlhood studies is RICH and FERTILE. As a Black graduate of two historic predominantly white institutions in the south, I feel seen. So if you’ve ever wondered what a Black girl from the South would do if she realized that the mythic Round Table wasn’t a myth at all, this is the series for you.

7. Abbott Elementary on ABC. Listen, if you hate Abbott, just say you don’t like to laugh and move on. I’m sure there’s another show out there for you.

8. Electric Dusk by Leon Thomas, and his NPR Tiny Desk concert. I was a more than casual viewer of Victorious so I’ve known for a while Leon Thomas is enormously talented, but I lost track of his work until MUTT came out. Now I’m going backward and catching up on what I’ve missed, and I’m delighted that I love his 2023 album. “Breaking Point” has been on repeat for like a week, I can’t stop listening to it.

9. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, season 2B. The second half of season two of MGandDD finally dropped on Disney+ last month. I watch for MG news pretty carefully and I still missed the drop. There was very little advertisement about it that I could see. I’m also disappointed that the show won’t continue on Disney+ but I hope the showrunners pursue finding another network for it.

10. Original Sins: The Mis-Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing. This book has been such a heavy hitter for me. I’m going slowly, talking to the book, chatting about it with friends. There’s a lot to think about. I’ve been sitting with the first chapter “Jefferson’s Ghost” for the better part of a week, because I am a Black Virginian educated at the two institutions most deeply tied to Jefferson’s legacy: William & Mary and the University of Virginia. (I also taught at both of them—I taught a student self-designed course as an undergrad at UVA and then as a TA and instructor of record at W&M.) It’s requiring a lot of me but Dr. Ewing’s writing has been an excellent guide. This book also hit the New York Times Bestseller List! (I’m so proud of her! I do not know her personally! I have just been rooting for her from a far for like the better part of a decade!) I also got to see her in conversation with Clint Smith about this book over the weekend at Politics & Prose in D.C. and got my book signed!

11. Queenie: Godmother of Harlem by Aurélie Lévy and Elizabeth Colomba. If you love the stories out of the Harlem Renaissance time period as much as I do, but you really like the out the way ones, not about the artists yet include them, then you should absolutely read Queenie. Fair warning, it’s an intense one in terms of themes and what is depicted on the panel, but absolutely stunning.

12. A Crown of Stories: The Life and Language of Beloved Writer Toni Morrison by Carole Boston Weatherford and Khalif Thompson. I’ve been working through some picture books of late, and I am discovering that if I see Weatherford’s name on the cover, I’m picking it up. What a career she has! Dozens of picture books on some of Black history’s important figures. They’re all stunning, with a wide range of fabulous artistic collaborators.

13. “Lessons for the End of the World” by Hanif Abdurraqib in The New Yorker. I’m pretty susceptible to reading anything Hanif writes but he posted about this essay with a photo of him and Nikki Giovanni from not long before her passing, and because my grief is still tender, I reached for the words like they might soothe something. They didn’t, but I needed to read it anyway.

14. Abbott, #1-5 by Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivela. I’m sure at least one person tried to tell me to read this series when I was in grad school but one of my major character flaws is that I am very resistant to recommendations. But my friend Nathan gifted me the entire series years ago, like this was early pandemic, and I just…did not read them. I…deeply regret taking so long to read them. Abbott is the actual Black Lois Lane. See, y’all should’ve pitched it to me like that. Guaranteed read!

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This is not all I have read, watched and listened to as of late. I’ve read a dozen picture books, a few more novels, Making Comics by Scott McCloud, reread “In the Name of Beauty” by Tressie McMillan Cottom, listened to a few more albums and rewatched a lot of my favorite movies around Valentine’s Day. This is just a snapshot.

I look forward to consuming more. I have Roxane Gay’s Opinions out from the library, along with Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension and Jade Adia’s Batgirl: Possession. I think I’m going to start Paradise on Hulu and get caught up on some comic runs I’ve been getting but haven’t read yet. I just got a nice haul of things from Politics and Prose¹, including Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall, Onyx & Beyond by Amber McBride and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. I’m excited to intentionally listen to Nao’s new album and I think I need to put Jamila Woods back in rotation.

I don’t have any answers. I never do. But reading helps me do my best to find my way through.

1. There is a signed copy of my debut, Love Requires Chocolate, at the Politics & Prose on Connecticut Ave in D.C.!