hi ismatu 💜 what are we reading? can we bounce back and forth on who reads aloud each character? regardless, whenever i read these, i imagine i’m with you. parasocial relationships are twisted. i feel like i know you from somewhere. i think you’re awesome and you’re flawed and you’re real, just like me.
hi ismatu <3 i drank earl gray tea tonight while i read your email. i am so deeply grateful for your raw, powerful insights - but more than that, i am grateful for your humanity. i see you in the immense vulnerability that you embody, in your self-love as archival. i also know you're hurting and exhausted and i send you love
hello ismatu! i am sheila. i am not drinking tea tonight but a little bit of wine and lots of water. today i filmed the late afternoon sunlight glinting off the water and felt myself float for a few brief sweet moments of bliss <3 thank you for your words <3 i receive them with gratitude and love
hello ismatu! hello hello good evening from chicago, i am finally drinking water after a long day in the sun and i listened to and read this as i did so. mutual wanting stood out to me, and as much as we are in your living room, I want you in mine as i'm struggling to fit a couch in here so i can read in the sun and focus on a page properly to do research i care about. i want to witness you as much as i want you to witness me. you're raw and open and i see it in the mirror.
Hiiii Ismatu! Thank you for your friendship. As I listen to your expressed ideas I feel warmly connected to you. You, my dear, are love. I welcome your energy into my space very intentionally. You are a member of a tribe that leads with love and integrity as we work to build a more just world daily. I hope to meet you one day soon friend.
hello ismatu, I’m Olivia. I left you a note in your email inbox. I’m drinking bottled water because that’s what we’re capable of today but there’ll always be plenty of ambrosia for tomorrow
Hi Ismatu - thanks for showing up real here. So much to grieve. I'm eager to share learning slowly through this book with you, to do my own radicalization with and in front of some folx (snotty tears and all! and tea :)
Hello Ismatu! I keep feeling like a novice but hearing your words have been like soup for my soul these last couple of months. Thank you for showing up and sharing with us and thank you for reminding me that a better world is actually something worth working towards. I will be listening to each episode in order, and wanted to let you know that your existence holds a place in my heart. This is the language/type of conversation I am trying to surround myself with. It is motivating to join a community like this, and remember we aren't alone. Thank you<3
Hello from Seattle! I am drinking a watered-down earl grey (if I replace the tea bag throughout my workday I get shaky but I haven't definitively determined this is better). We are in parasocial relationship. I am reading your essay months late. I have read your thoughts and I like them, but I do not and can not *know you* from here, across this gulf, this void that is time and space and connection through a screen. I will do my best to honor your request to not consume you, to not forget your humanity-- I will try to catch up in time to where the substack agenda/curriculum is now, so that I am not wading constantly in the past like a digital archaologist, choosing to avoid the heartbeat of the present. Everything is hard and we are all slowly dying. Thank you for sharing the parts of yourself you choose to put up here.
hello! thank you for the tea and having me in your living room 🫧
Hi ismatu, this all sounds so fucking overwhelming. I would love to read with you & thank you for sacrificing so much to be on the internet with us
hi ismatu 💜 what are we reading? can we bounce back and forth on who reads aloud each character? regardless, whenever i read these, i imagine i’m with you. parasocial relationships are twisted. i feel like i know you from somewhere. i think you’re awesome and you’re flawed and you’re real, just like me.
We’re reading mutual aid by dean spade!!
What chapter are we at? I lost my bookmark 😅
We just started! I finished the introduction and chapter one today
Hello 🌺 I bear witness to the real Ismatu. I see you. And I love you dearly.
hello ismatu, my brain too is fried and i can barely read let alone respond but we’re here in your living room and i’m grateful
Hey Ismatu! I am grateful for your sharing. I see you. I hear you. I would love to read with you, and please please always add extra honey to my tea.
hi ismatu <3 i drank earl gray tea tonight while i read your email. i am so deeply grateful for your raw, powerful insights - but more than that, i am grateful for your humanity. i see you in the immense vulnerability that you embody, in your self-love as archival. i also know you're hurting and exhausted and i send you love
hello ismatu! i am sheila. i am not drinking tea tonight but a little bit of wine and lots of water. today i filmed the late afternoon sunlight glinting off the water and felt myself float for a few brief sweet moments of bliss <3 thank you for your words <3 i receive them with gratitude and love
hello ismatu! hello hello good evening from chicago, i am finally drinking water after a long day in the sun and i listened to and read this as i did so. mutual wanting stood out to me, and as much as we are in your living room, I want you in mine as i'm struggling to fit a couch in here so i can read in the sun and focus on a page properly to do research i care about. i want to witness you as much as i want you to witness me. you're raw and open and i see it in the mirror.
Hi, thank you for sharing <3 I'm having coffee lying on the floor
Hiiii Ismatu! Thank you for your friendship. As I listen to your expressed ideas I feel warmly connected to you. You, my dear, are love. I welcome your energy into my space very intentionally. You are a member of a tribe that leads with love and integrity as we work to build a more just world daily. I hope to meet you one day soon friend.
“ I am a person and I am still dying slowly” brought tears to my eyes. Hello & thank you 🩷
hello ismatu, I’m Olivia. I left you a note in your email inbox. I’m drinking bottled water because that’s what we’re capable of today but there’ll always be plenty of ambrosia for tomorrow
Hi Ismatu - thanks for showing up real here. So much to grieve. I'm eager to share learning slowly through this book with you, to do my own radicalization with and in front of some folx (snotty tears and all! and tea :)
Hello Ismatu! I keep feeling like a novice but hearing your words have been like soup for my soul these last couple of months. Thank you for showing up and sharing with us and thank you for reminding me that a better world is actually something worth working towards. I will be listening to each episode in order, and wanted to let you know that your existence holds a place in my heart. This is the language/type of conversation I am trying to surround myself with. It is motivating to join a community like this, and remember we aren't alone. Thank you<3
Hello from Seattle! I am drinking a watered-down earl grey (if I replace the tea bag throughout my workday I get shaky but I haven't definitively determined this is better). We are in parasocial relationship. I am reading your essay months late. I have read your thoughts and I like them, but I do not and can not *know you* from here, across this gulf, this void that is time and space and connection through a screen. I will do my best to honor your request to not consume you, to not forget your humanity-- I will try to catch up in time to where the substack agenda/curriculum is now, so that I am not wading constantly in the past like a digital archaologist, choosing to avoid the heartbeat of the present. Everything is hard and we are all slowly dying. Thank you for sharing the parts of yourself you choose to put up here.