This one has been in the pile all summer, and I’m glad I set this one aside for now. Lemieux’s personal story is so smart and relatable, she shares without shame, and her voice is light and clear despite navigating often-heavy subject matter.

In particular, I want to tag the last section of the book where Lemieux invited other single mothers to write from their perspectives, centering their voices in their own words, including stories from notable names like Tarana Burke. Timely and well executed.

Finished reading: Black. Single. Mother. by Jamilah Lemieux 📚

Some blog notes:

  • I’m doing most of my writing here via iPhone apps, and tinkering later. This means I’m making a lot of post-publish edits, buyer beware. (Welcome to the indie web where things are forever unfinished.)
  • Remember that what makes songs, poems, writing, books, and games mimetic - and websites and platforms - is that they function something like a mirror. Their meanings emerge through interaction and reflection, and you drive (unless an algorithm, or author, or designer, or coder, or instructor drives), while you iterate through your own perspectives and relationships. And today, virality tends to happen when something produces outrage, especially when units of content are removed from their original, and often more local, context.
  • Original blogs were considered something in the spirit of “problem-based learning” praxis, and pro-tech, fwiw. A lot of early ed tech started here, all in good faith and tech optimism. Today many blogs are self-marketing machines, but that’s not what I intend to do here. I don’t want a new, glittering platform, I enjoy several already; I’m here to ponder and learn while welcoming comment and critique within open, defined web parameters.
  • I’m rusty in this area, though I hear there’s a new Freire documentary online. The neighbors are hosting a yard party with a group showing of Minecraft after dark. I hear kids laughing through the roar of cicadas. There will be a fire. Life is good.
  • In my experience: when I read to diagnose rather than understand, I have probably lost the plot.

Loose Ends

🎵 : Pere Ubu - Humor Me
🎵 : Party Dozen - Wake in Might

I happened to catch an up-and-coming band called Yolk at a local festival, and it took me down some regional music rabbit holes. I suspect the local music scene has some juice.

I’m old, but I’ve heard enough about basement shows to know Madison has a growing, thriving live music scene outside the usual venues. The kids are stressed and pressed, and it seems like they’d rather be pressed against each other than locked online with us. Can’t blame them. Yolk hangs with Milwaukee band Social Cig, who have been touring the region and have all the ingredients to go large.

The shared energy across these scenes is generative. Weird and lovely industrial, metal and punk bands are everywhere in the Midwest. The warehouse scene in my neighborhood turned out several excellent groups, from Crazy Doberman to Data Unknown, and brought real punk and avant-garde acts through an otherwise sleepy community. I’ve been thinking about them since I discovered Party Dozen earlier this year, who come out of Australia’s warehouse scene.

I mentioned in a previous post that I grew up in (greater-, greater-) Chicagoland, on the Jorjiana side of the ombré. In my day, house shows brought Freddie Gibbs and Daniel Knox through.

In other news: I heard there was a mosh pit at the local high school Homecoming, so I asked the kids what they mosh to today. Turns out, they love Foenem’s hits celebrating the Milwaukee Central Library and the Milwaukee County Zoo. Talk about zeitgeist. I’ve been watching this scene since 414BigFrank went viral last year.