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It’s been a stressful week, the cherry on top of a year that’s been increasingly taxing. I’ve spent the past few days in alternating states of shock, numb acceptance, anger, grief, and, above all else, exhaustion. And it seems as though most other queer people out there are similarly situated. Meanwhile, social media has been filled with well-intentioned and galvanizing calls for people to get organized. And while that’s inspiring and important, I also think we should allow ourselves to fall apart a little bit — before picking ourselves up, and continuing to do the work we need to do to keep each other safe. That’s certainly what I’ve been doing, with music and art as my companions (in addition to my actual human companions, which I strongly encourage you to find as well, as tempting as it may be to burrow yourself under your covers for several months). As James Baldwin said in a 1963 interview with LIFE Magazine, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”
Below, read on for recommendations for some of the art that’s carrying the Them staff through these times.
Harper Collins
“The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On” by Franny Choi
I don’t remember when I first encountered this poem, which I have reached for many times over the past few years, but it was published in December 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the U.S. I’m tempted to call it prescient, but the whole point of the poem is contained within its title — that the world has ended for so many people so many times over, whether through the colonialism, slavery, environmental destruction, or all of the above. And yet, here we still are. I haven’t read it yet, but Choi also published a poetry collection of the same name in 2022; I’ll be ordering a copy.
