BITES // 09.03.20 // ILLUMINATION
Every month we collect six of the best pieces of content published on the web and share them with you, because we believe that the most extraordinary thinking is inspired by looking to unexpected places. BITES is a reading list for those who want to bring a little of the outside, in.
1. GARDEN OF POSSIBILITIES
The act of gardening has taken center stage during the pandemic, serving as a means to exercise self-reliance in a time of great uncertainty. But for a vanguard of Black farmers and activists, tending to the soil is also a defiant act; a protest of a food system that has consistently harmed marginalized groups. For Ron Finley, self-described as the “gangsta gardener” of Los Angeles, gardening is a means to grow “possibilities, solutions, and freedom.” For singer-turned-chef Kelis Rogers, growing her own food is a way to instill her children with a lifestyle that gives them control over their health and future. Turning to the earth becomes their own source of light and power, illuminating what’s possible when we can get back to basics and achieve food sovereignty.
2. BEAUTIFYING EDUCATION
A platform known for its focus on imagery over words, Instagram has now become a hotbed for community education via a new class of “slideshow activism.” The 10-slide carousel has been repurposed as a format for shining a light on topics ranging from anti-racism, allyship, defunding the police, climate change, to the crisis in Lebanon. Through bold fonts, pretty color gradients, and whimsical illustrations “akin to wall decor you might find in a chic minimalist apartment,” the intent is to break through the clutter on a platform that prioritizes the pretty things. By literally making the content more “visible,” people can’t help but look. But the work shouldn’t stop there: we can only hope that these slideshows illuminate a path for further learning, understanding, and most importantly, action.
3. CALLING OUT CANCEL CULTURE
Cancel culture offers a compelling look at the lengths we go to illuminate bad behavior. While calling out someone shines a light on the wrongdoing, cancelling someone takes it one step further by holding the perpetrator accountable (with online and IRL implications). While it may have been impossible to bring down powerful figures in the past, now, a collective force has the ability to speak truth to power. But the approach of cancellation often reveals something else: an attempt to “tone police” each other in order to look more sophisticated or woke, and an inability to communicate, forgive, and allow room for growth. In a time where everyone is shouting over each other, how do we ensure the spotlight stays on solving the issue at hand rather than getting caught up in the approach that so often detracts from it?
4. WHEN THE BUBBLE BURSTS
Sports offer a comfortable escape, a way to take our mind off the worries of everyday life. But as racial injustices continue to unfold, slipping into complacency and distraction is a dangerous place to be. The NBA “bubble” has served as a stage for bringing awareness to social justice issues, but the police shooting of Jacob Blake created a moment of reckoning, jolting the bubble to its core. With the Milwaukee Bucks strike and the chain reaction that ensued, the empty courts became a new stage for action, a rejection of the normalcy and distraction that they helped create. By rendering play inactive, the strike became an “instant agent of clarity,” demonstrating the power that athletes hold in forcing people to wake up and take notice.
5. A REAL LIFE HORROR
HBO’s latest series, Lovecraft Country, is a masterful rejection of H.P. Lovecraft, the pioneer of cosmic horror and also one of the most virulent racists of the 20th century. Helmed by Misha Green and produced by Jordan Peele, the show cleverly subverts Lovecraft’s literary tropes and transforms them into commentaries on the very kind of racist beliefs he held. Whereas Black people were usually the metaphorical villains in Lovecraft’s stories, the show re-centers them as its main characters who are just trying to navigate and survive the hurdles of systemic racism at every turn. Employing Lovecraftian horror to create a visceral layer of dread becomes a provocative format for illuminating the Black experience in America, showing us that the supernatural monsters pale in comparison to the reality of racism.
6. THE GREAT FIRE
Metaphor has the power to explain concepts in new and profound ways, and that’s exactly what Ta-nehisi Coates utilizes in his editor’s letter of the Vanity Fair issue, “The Great Fire.” Inspired by a 20th century poem about White Chicagoans who saw the influx of Black communities to the city as “the worst calamity since the Great Fire” of 1871, Coates uses fire to establish a sense of threat. But by the end of the letter, Coates eloquently transforms the fire’s impact. It’s threatening not because of its heat or destructive nature, but for its power as a light source in illuminating the dark parts of ourselves we do not wish to face. The more this Great Fire grows, embodied by the Black Lives Matter movement we see today, the more power it has to bring racism out from the shadows into the light.
TAKEAWAY:
In an age where everyone has a voice and a platform, people are tapping into creative mechanisms and innovative formats to shine a brighter light on the parts of society that have previously been hidden in the shadows. Whether it be horror, metaphor, athlete strike, or Instagram aesthetic, these approaches break through the noise and demand our attention in new ways, forcing people to look at what was once conveniently tucked away. As we continue to become a more lucid and enlightened society from this illumination, we must turn our collective awareness and understanding into action and ensure the brightness intensifies rather than dims.
