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On taking a Taurus Season break.
Hey folks, it’s been an exhausting week here in the world of Anna Marie. In the wake of the most upsetting news out of Palestine we’ve seen yet, this was also the week that my workplace sent state police in riot gear to arrest more than 130 peaceful protestors. If you like, you can read about the meeting with the university Chancellor that occurred in the hours leading up to the event, as well as a full play-by-play of the arrests, which included six faculty who I consider colleagues.
Naturally, I spent Wednesday through Friday ceaselessly shifting between dissociation and organizing, trying to figure out what, if anything, there is to do about this. I personally believe that all charges against these protestors should be dropped, as they were making the morally correct choice to protest our entanglement with the military-industrial complex. As an abolitionist, I am fully against calling police on students, and I support movements to get cops off campus. It is also worth noting the sheer brutality of the arrests (cw: police violence) and that the protestors seemed to be incredibly diverse: Jewish, Arab, people of all genders, so on and so forth.
If anybody is “making students feel unsafe on campus”, it’s police officers in riot gear.
I haven’t had time to write this week. I haven’t had capacity to write this week. I would love to write a deep and thoughtful piece about the campus protests going on around the world and what the media is getting wrong about them from my unique perspective as a current faculty member, but that’s just not going to happen. The realest—and most honest—thing I can say about this situation is that I am tired and angry and tired of being angry.
It’s high time I accept just how burnt out I am. So, I’m taking a little break for the rest of Taurus Season. It’s my birthday next weekend and I don’t plan to be writing then, either. I will be back either May 25th or June 1st with my usual end-of-semester reflection (and let’s be honest, probably some Pride Month discourse too).
Just so my paid subscribers don’t feel like they’re throwing their money away, I’ll be donating all the money I make from paid subscriptions in May to the Operation Olive Branch Perinatal Project, which supports mothers in Palestine who are giving birth during this unprecedented genocide. You can find out more about the various OOB projects here.
I also recommend checking out my summer class on plastic pollution, which you can take this coming July for 4 college credits! It counts as a Gen Ed if you’re a Five College student and you get to watch video essays made by me! If you have a college student in your life, please share my course info using the link here or these TikTok and Instagram videos about it.
Finally, I’ll give you one last Digest section for the month. Enjoy!
Currently Reading
Erin Reed’s reporting continues to be indispensable. Her posts about the non-scientific Cass Review are the posts I would be writing if I had the capacity; transphobia leads to bad science!
TechInquiry.org lays out the various connections between the military-industrial complex and knowledge-producers like private companies and universities. We should always ask, who gets to decide what knowledge is being produced, and for what purpose?
Watch History
A new Alexander Avila banger about the creation of “gender ideology” as a rhetorical device.
A brilliant unpacking of the new Doctor Who specials and what they mean for franchise resurrections.
A fun search for the beginnings and ends to Skyrim’s various rivers.
Bops, Vibes, & Jams
If I’m 100% honest, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” were the #1 reason that I was able to get through this past week.
And now, your weekly Koko.
I’ll see you all really soon!
In solidarity,
-Anna