Narrator's Digest ✎

Week of November 4-10, 2024 ✉

Nov 11, 2024

This may contain: a man sitting in a chair with a quote about love has never been a popular movement — James Baldwin in Paris

If we share similar values, I can safely assume this particular week has felt dull and hopeless. I’ve come to learn that when the world feels all too consuming and despair envelops your insides, there is still a light that creeps in—a reflection of you, of your willingness to remain good and kind in the face of hate and fear.

This week, I’m sharing a list of media I find especially fitting during these unprecedented times. Remember when the word “unprecedented” was everywhere in 2020? You’d think we’d have moved forward to a timeline where critical thinking, common sense, basic human decency, and empathy were the baseline. But if history teaches us anything, it’s that if we don’t acknowledge our past, we’re doomed to repeat it.

So, welcome to Narrator’s Digest, where I, your friendly first-person narrator, share a list of curations in the hopes that it might replace another hour-long doom-scroll.

(I recommend you listen to it whilst you read)

but specifically this song:

What does freedom mean to you?
What are some inner barriers you hope to grow through?
How can you build community in your microcosm?

“The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose.”

James Baldwin, “The Creative Process”

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”

A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf

This may contain: the book cover for beloved by tomi morrrison, with an image of a woman's hat

“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

Beloved by Toni Morrison – On memory, trauma, and the impossible weight of reclaiming one’s humanity after slavery.

This may contain: the plague albert camus book is laying on the ground

“I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment, I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.”

The Plague by Albert Camus - Endurance, community, and the moral dilemmas faced during collective suffering.

This may contain: the cover of between the world and me by ta - nehisi coates

“I am not a cynic. I love you, and I love the world, and I love it more with every new inch I discover.”

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates – Coates’ letter to his son on race, survival, and resilience in a fractured society.

This may contain: a poster with the words'mutila aid'in black on an orange background

“Mutual aid is a tool for survival and a practice of love.”

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade – A call to action on building connections and helping each other through crises, with empathy and collective responsibility.

Parable of the Sower (novel) - Wikipedia

“All that you touch You Change. All that you Change, Changes you.”

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler – A (not-so) dystopian world warns of environmental and societal collapse but offers hope through resilience and vision for a better future.

This may contain: a book cover with a woman sitting on the ground in front of her head and hands behind her back

“To emancipate woman is to refuse to confine her to the relations she bears to man.”

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir – A foundational examination of womanhood, freedom, and the social constructs that hold us back.

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks | Goodreads

“Love is an act of will—namely, both an intention and an action.”

All About Love by Bell Hooks – On love as a transformative and radical force and it’s potential to reshape communities, confront injustices, and foster healing.