Mutual Aid is Mutual! Recap + Readings

Here lies a recap of the Mutual Lemon-aid (get it) series I did in short-form video.

click for a surprise <3

Since y’all stay asking me for resource lists. The here, damn! of it all.

[Editor’s note: I’ma tell you right now, the audio version of this newsletter-podcast ate the written version up and licked the crumbs off the plate. I recommend you listen to this one for maximum effect.]

if you buy a physical copy make sure to get it from verso books (not sponsored! buy it from wherever’s radical/local/not fucking amazon <3)

There are four critical questions you want to ask when considering a set of claims:

(1) Who wrote it? (2) For what reason? (3) For what audience? (4) What’s missing?

I already went through these questions in detail with a quickness here in this series, and over in a live (below).

Some patch-worked points from the book, which together create the thesis:

Point One: The contemporary political climate is defined by emergency AND the [United States + other imperializing] government actively produce and exacerbate said emergencies (pg. 1)

Anything you see in brackets and italics are words I’m adding in to make the sentence clear. Continuing:

Point Two: [Because of this, people ban together to survive.] This survival work, when done in conjunction with social movements demanding transformative change, is called mutual aid (1).

Dean Spade is also an anarchist!

Point Three: Mutual Aid has been a part of all large, powerful social movements, and it has a particularly important role to play right now, as we face unprecedented dangers and opportunities for mobilization. (1-2) [Mutual aid, paired with bolder strategies (2), caretakes our people while placing stress and friction on systems that harm us.]

see: Stiff Resistance.

reading hints:

• The first chapter of texts like these are usually introductions to the rest of the points in the book. In this way, they function as long, semi/very detailed thesis statement. Read the first chapter twice. Read it. Set it down. Wait. Pick it back up and read it again. Highlight what you think are thesis statements. Then start the book.

• Watching the author talk about the book is always super helpful. You can see Dean Spade discuss his book here, alongside scholars + organizers + teachers Mariame Kaba and Ejeris Dixson.

• For my audio visual learners: There is also a video series that Dean Spade did with the Barnard Center for Research on Women. You would know this if you watched the live I did! hmph!

• Take notes while you read! If you have a text, it is okay to write in the physical book! I write in the

• READ IT TWICE. You learn from the re-read! I read this book three times to talk about this series and the next. I read things one time fast, and I don’t retain everything amazing. There is no shame in rereading! In fact, I applaud you for it!

utilize the resource list in the back!!

love the slow factory. love.

You wanna know why I didn’t post nothin like this for so long? Because I don’t just want you to adopt my opinions and analyses! Even this is very analysis light! Use the resource list in the back! You don’t need some two-bit tracy on the internet to tell you how to explore more~! look at the sources! lean into your own curiosities! you are an amalgamation of the people who build the things you touch! no one can think like you!

everyone has a lane in world-making. do not let my lenses on my observable world overshadow your lenses on your own. respond to and draw for me what you see. what does winning look like for you? how do you dream of your hands in this loving work? this is the process of learning together.

Okay that’s awwwwlll. Much love. be well. hoping the work of your day passes through your hands with ease.

whatever your discouragements with the state of the world, breathe deep into your belly. we are alive today and i am grateful for that. freedom is coming tomorrow.¹

i.g

jazz of the episode:

Tony x Larry Nozero, Dennis Tini

Souvenir d’Italie x Lelio Luttazzi

He Knows She’s Good For You x Cyril Chambers

Two For The Road x Eddie Daniels, Bucky Pizzarelli

I Cover the Waterfront x Joe Pass

Zen x Philippe Sarde, Toots Thielemans

Message x Robohands

City in the Sky x Elijah Fox

1. Sarafina! is a musical starring Leleti Khumalo and Miriam Makeba about the Soweto student uprising in apartheid South Africa.