Serendipity
"the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way."
Greetings,
I’m the king of procrastination or, at least, a cousin of the those at the pinnacle of procrastination’s royalty. Does this sentence even make sense? Sometimes, attempts at being clever with words can fall short. And, sometimes, we have to suck it up, realise that the pun fell short and move on.
I have a client for who I source writing from across the African continent. It means constantly seeking out writers, looking at their previous work and trying to determine whether they would be a good fit. It also means dealing with a diverse collection of personalities and editing their writing. I am the first to bristle when my own writing is edited but will often suck it up because that’s the nature of the beast.
I recently had a writer politely tell me to ____ off because I told them that their unsolicited piece wasn’t up to scratch, giving suggestions and examples of how they could fix it. Said response prompted this tweet:
It is a little weird being on the other side of such an interaction. It has me thinking back to my tone when responding to requests to rework a piece of writing. I usually grumble a little and then make the necessary changes.
Anyway….
1
“If timelessness had a soundtrack it would be one of the many flowing pieces played by the hands of LARAAJI. The American musician seems to hold the key to any sort of meditative state.”
This article from Fantastic Man introduced me to the music of LARAAJI. It’s been the soundtrack to my morning journaling for a few days now. Beautiful.
2
The release of my book Listen To Your Footsteps is getting closer. One thing I have procrastinated on for about 8 years is starting a podcast. With the book, I thought this would be a good time to actually start it. The first episode has been recorded and, to ensure that I can’t chicken out, it has already been registered on various podcasting platforms, including Spotify:
And the eBook is finally available for pre-order on Amazon and Kobo.
3
When I worked in magazines, it was often impossible to find relevant stock images of Black people that weren’t African American. At some stage, I was talking to a developer and some photographers about starting an African stock images platform. Photographer saw the same problem and founded Color Space because, as he tweeted:
4
Today is the birthday of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz/Malcolm X who has had a profound impact on my life. I wrote something on the 45th anniversary of his assassination some years back. Thought I would share as a tribute: The Assassination of Malcolm X.
5
This was a dense read, for me, and I will probably have to go through it again but I am often drawn to writing around identity and the labels society - and at times we - places on us. You are a network: You cannot be reduced to a body, a mind or a particular social role. An emerging theory of selfhood gets this complexity
6
I have been slacking on my reading lately and am still working my way through Space Is The Place: The Life And Times Of Sun Ra. I have been submerging myself in his music over the last month and I am continuously struck by how his thinking, his music, etc has a place in today’s world. And I am not alone: Why Is Sun Ra Suddenly Having His Moment. He may have passed away in 2014 but the Arkestra continues to spread his spirit.
7
Rob Walker, who wrote the book The Art of Noticing, has a thing called Dictionary of Missing Words which he describes as “an exercise in paying attention to phenomena you encounter — sensations, concepts, states between states, feelings, slippery things — that could be named, but don’t seem to be.” Love it.
That’s it for this week. You know what to do. Comment, share, subscribe. Until next week.
Easy
Kojo