A discussion on creativity with special guest, Skye Evelyn!
The Sunday Bundle: books, films, shows, music, art and reflections
The Sunday Bundle is a list of my best recommendations and reflections from the week! Soon to be a bonus offering for paid subscribers. If you like what you see, consider upgrading your subscription. The fruit is always fresh.
How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti is one of the funniest books I’ve read, it’s also a book which exposes the pitfalls of striving for success, especially as an artist. Believe it or not, this is a work of fiction about the main character Sheila and her best friend Margaux, working on their art, relationships, and success. Noted as, “Part literary novel, part self-help manual,” because both characters are real people in real life! Obviously one is the author of the book, Sheila, and the other is her best friend, who is faithfully exposed on the page.
In the story, Sheila is struggling to write a play and Margaux is painting a new body of work, challenged by her friends to paint something “ugly” for once. Meanwhile, Sheila wonders if she could be a genius at sex instead of writing her gosh-darn play. She decides to copy the mannerisms and behaviors or other people she thinks are brilliant, hoping to transform herself into an ideal person. She records her friends talking on a tape recorder. Her high expectations for success take over her life:
“I am writing a play. I am writing a play that is going to save the world. If it only saves three people, I will not be happy. If with this play the oil crisis is merely averted and our standard of living maintains itself at its current level, I will weep into my oatmeal. If this play does anything short of announcing the arrival of the next cock—I mean, messiah—I will shit into my oatmeal.”
Sheila asks huge questions about what it means to strive for a sublime selfhood in the modern day. I want to quote every paragraph to you! She perfectly mixes the cerebral with the “low-brow,” which is polarizing for literary conventions but perfectly enlightening for young readers like myself. I think at one point I call it “intellectual smut,” which is my favorite genre haha!
I was surprised by how validated I felt when reading this book. Are we all going around, not feeling ourselves yet?
I often wonder “How should a person be?” because I think there’s a version of myself that is the most successful one, and I have yet to discover it somehow. People often get in their heads about becoming the most-genius-world-changing-person, then feeling like a failure for never being enough.
One of the conclusions I took from Heti, is that the question of “How should a person be?” is flawed to begin with. You can only be yourself.
Perhaps a more open way to approach the ways you show up in the world is by letting yourself be. And let’s be honest, this would be a healthier way to engage in creating art or conceptualizing your career.
And yet…it’s hard for me to fathom a day I won’t obsess over if I’m presenting myself correctly and making the right decisions. Thanks to our cultural environment, which feels like one wrong move can throw you into destitution and one right move can make you rich beyond comprehension. It’s a confusing place to wonder, “How should a person be?” For me, this book is a reminder to crawl out of those traps when you fall into them. Ask yourself what do you value instead?
Read this if you like stories about female friendships, or if you’ve ever identified as a perfectionist.
The short story A Cure for Solastalgia, by E. M. Linden, published by Strange Horizons. I love speculative fiction more than anything!
When I leave home at seventeen, my mother tells me three things. Not to care too much. To keep my gift a secret. And to get used to being alone.
“You’ll see what it’s like,” she says. “Out there in the real world.”
None of this is good advice.
I’m happy to discover the above litmag Strange Horizons, thanks to a writer friend, Edidiong Uzoma Essien, who had their story “Speak No Evil” published in it last December. Another incredible read for you!
The glue habit started a week after you saw the woman. It was born of simple childish equivalence, but what can you do about it now? Your brother, Benjamin, once told you that soap cleanses impurities. He had seen someone’s mother stuff a bar of Dove soap into their open mouth because they’d said naughty words—“curse words,” Benjamin called them. Washing their mouth with soap removed their foulness. Permanently.
You find yourself unable to shake his story out of your mind. If soap cleanses, then paste must hold tenuous things in place.
The article from Elle, Black Jane Austen fans have never had it better. Two new adaptations of Sense and Sensibility—one a true-to-the-original Hallmark Channel movie and the other a remixed modern romance by author Nikki Payne—view a classic English love story through a Black lens.
Time for Book Club updates!
The April book club pick is Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst! (here’s a Kirkus review!) Grab your copies ya’ll, in any form you wish! And meet me in my chat.
We’re halfway through the month for our March pick Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead! Wow, I’m blown away by Whitehead’s prose! He somehow keeps me in suspense but also makes me laugh in the same paragraph! I can’t wait to see where this historical-heist story goes…I hope Carney and his family come out on top 😅
I spent my Saturday with an insane 3-layer banana, coconut, chocolate cremeux pie made by local pastry chefs, and Harlem Shuffle, after too much laundry (Spring cleaning time!)
If you know somebody looking to join a book club, send them our way, we’re open. :)
I’ve been wearing this coat around the house, and most of the time with nothing else underneath, like a luxurious robe. Yes, my ideal WFH outfit is to be nude in a big coat. How many days do I have left to wear it before the weather gets too warm?
Oh the importance of rest and maintenance! Since I caught a bug of something last weekend, I’ve been working to get myself, and my home, back into shape. (Like my friend who recently worked an 18-hour-day, I too am drinking coconut water to get my electrolytes back.)
There’s a great scene in the series Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Prime), where a character gives advice about doing regular exercise like yoga to prevent pain saying, “Life is maintenance,” but many of us haven’t been raised to think that way about our bodies (or our relationships). And I snapped my fingers saying, “Tell ‘em!”
15 minute dance workouts from Kukuwa Fitness (Youtube) have been a go-to for my body maintenance, to get moving and jiggling, to get the heart pumping, and to smile! I’m obsessed with the multi-generational family of women who run this, who’s fun energy is infectious. They take you around the African continent with incredible songs from different countries, letting you know with specificity the origins of the music.
Remember to modify what doesn’t feel right! Do less, make it smaller, and if the moves get too hard, simply do the two-step. Or if you’re seated make your arms and chest dance! Movement is crucial for maintenance. HAVE FUN. (I remind myself.) Dance naked in a big coat.
It was a pleasure to watch The Holdovers (Peacock) and then Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Oscar winning speech right afterwards for best supporting actress. I will always love stories about unlikely friendships. My partner, Will, says the film gives homages to The Dead Poet’s Society and Good Will Hunting, where the characters are coming-of-age with a smothered brilliance.
The series Everything Now (Netflix) is about a 16-year-old girl returning home after months in recovery for an eating disorder. To make up for lost time, she makes a bucket-list of teen experiences she wants to do, with the help of her friends who are way ahead of her. A bit-of-a content warning, this show may not be for everyone! The central drive of the show seems to be to illuminate what teen girls are experiencing. You might like this if you watched Skins growing up.
The album Nice Mover by Gina X Performance, from 1979 (Spotify, YouTube). A queer electro-pop icon from Germany. I’m hooked! Find me bopping to the song by the same name “Nice Mover” and “No G.D.M” with lyrics perhaps ahead of its time for 79’, but reminds you that “queerness” isn’t new but goes infinitely into the past and future with vibrancy:
“Wanna be a great dark man, Nothing but a lesbian. You are perfect, you are sheer, If you are a red-haired queer. That's life, one dies. C'est la vie, ma cherie”
The Spotify playlist Ghibli Sleep with songs from the Studio Ghibli films, like Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke (HBO Max), but played in the form of dreamy piano. So comforting. I am a full adult but I imagine these lullabies would be great for your kids too!
The podcast Table Manners out of the UK (Spotify, Apple, Website stream), hosted by a mother daughter duo who invite you to dinner alongside a special guest each week, with sixteen seasons of episodes to choose from! A truly mind-boggling array of guests, “from the worlds of music, culture and politics drop by for a bite and a bit of a natter. Oversharing guaranteed.” The newest episode with actress and writer Millie Bobbie Brown is a delight. Other favorites are with dancer Johannes Radebe, Dolly Parton, oh and also Cher!
I had an email exchange with Skye to ask about her wonderful work I came across online! (website, instagram) Me being so inspired, it has given birth to an occasional new addition of the Sunday Bundle, in which creative people answer my favorite interview question.
Amani: Feel free to be yourself by the way! My newsletter isn't stuffy and is meant to be more like having a moment with a friend.
Skye: My name is Skye Evelyn Matthew (at times Milo Matthew) and I am a 22 year old photographer based in London. I primarily work with analog mediums, enjoying a darkroom based practice. I would describe my images as raw and insightful, quite intimate, and vulnerable.
Skye: Photography acknowledges my sensitivity, I utilise our meeting to reflect on my nature, that of another or of life, through a documentation of our interactions. A camera is a tool through which I can introduce myself to new experiences—in a way, my growth is reflective of the nurture of my practice. Photography has proved to be the medium to which I return to.
Amani: How do you hope people will be transformed when they interact with your work?
Skye: I hope for my work to feel immersive. I hope for the viewer to access the resonance between myself and the subject, to whatever degree we may know each other, and to sit with that feeling. A sense of familiarity that extends to themselves, even when my subject may be previously unknown to me.
Skye: I hope for the viewer to find their own access point within the image, something they like, the shadow they are lost in, the miscellaneous object that recalls a memory, the person that looks much like their _____.
I’m not sure if I can say this is transformative, but as with all (subjectively) good photography, you are most definitely touched, and leave the image feeling differently, carrying yourself in a way you maybe hadn’t before.
Skye: This is what good images do for me, this is what observing the life of another does for me. I’m not sure what my images do for you, but I can wonder.
Amani: This is so wonderful, thanks for sharing what your work and medium means to you. It's really special to be able to explore this further. I love what you've written, especially about finding “access points” in the work and in yourself simultaneously. What a great way to think about art.
The quote from Heti’s book is so me lmao the drama behind “I will weep into my oatmeal” felt soooo me. The coat is a vibe, may it make it thru the summer heat! I love film photography that feels that intimate. I took similar photos when I cut all my hair off last summer so I felt very seen thru their work 👁️👄👁️
Omg I’ve had a bug too. It’s been shit. As if we were suffering together! I’ve been wanting to see The Holdovers! I might take a solo trip to the cinema this week.