full transcript at threadings.io

The global working class engages in active revolution as we speak (and here I am to pontificate about it). As I (ismatu, artist, the pen behind these essays) become more powerful in my world-making, where do I go? Will I defect out of the working class and join the rank of capitalists? Or will I stake my personal powers for collective gain?

In which writer and child of immigrants ismatu gwendolyn discusses the systematic deportations of academic immigrants. Beyond debating whether fascism has “taken hold” in the United States… what do you do when you are afraid for yourself? What happens now that plain-clothed “officers” hunt in broad daylight?

All transcripts and sources available at threadings.io

https://www.threadings.io/they-hunt-in-broad-daylight-2/

In which Ismatu Gwendolyn, young revolutionary with a pen in hand, seeks to stake their power with and for The People, rather than utilizing the trust of their masses as a site of endless extraction.

Link to essay:

Link to video: https://youtu.be/jaEMTluGj5E

Show Notes:

Twenty Enemies by James Forman

twenty enemies james forman.pdf

you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it's making you easier to oppress):

Information Anarchy: The Case Against Sponsorships

Midnight musings on Bird Flu, Yahtzee, and the merits of taking a jumping break with your resident one year old. Pour some tea for this one.

All essays (transcripts) available at threadings.io

Otherwise entitled, “Everybody wanna be Nina Simone; don’t nobody wanna sing Mississippi Goddam.” In which ismatu gwendolyn, writer and public scholar, unpacks our collective desire for artists that reflect the times (and holds up a persistent and unforgiving mirror).

The full transcript can be viewed at threadings.io.

Read the full transcript, and all other essays, at threadings.io

https://www.threadings.io/state-of-the-constituency-2024/

in which ismatu gwendolyn returns to their stage to talk about what’s keeping them up at night.

Transcription available at threadings.io

https://www.threadings.io/on-fear/

The strangest part about terminal illness is how often death comes for a peck on the lips and nothing more. A few weeks ago, I flew home to attend my mother's final affairs. Now we sit, smoothies and champagne glasses, watching a movie to spend time together. It's sunny this Tuesday. Here are reflections from Invisible Beauty on Bethann Hardison, from both me and my mother.

Jazz of the Episode:

Stepping Through The Shadow x Menahan Street Band

Tryin’ Times x Roberta Flack

Estate x Leilo Luttazzi

Slow and Easy x Speedy West

Rainy Day Lady x Menahan Street Band

Love And Peace x Quincy Jones

Read the full essay at ismatu.substack.com

a series of musings nearly entitled, “I am frightened by the way people tire of the world.”

I have had a negative amount of desire to write but Toni Morrison said it’s your job to write when evil wishes to distract you so. Here I am, I suppose. The thesis of today’s musings are that we want the fiction of a happy ending more than we want actual liberation.

Looking for a transcript, sources and links? Read the full work at ismatu.substack.com.

Selected Jazz of the Episode:

Muziqa heywete x Getatchew Mekurya

Afternoon of a Swan x Speedy West

HOW CAN WE MEND A BROKEN HEART x Kahil El’Zabar

Love and Peace x Quincy Jones

A Taste of Honey x Andy Bey, The Bey Sisters

Better Than x Lake Street Drive

Soul Serenade x Aretha Franklin

La notte muore (orchestra) x Sandro Brugnolini

Sweet Leilani x Les Paul & His Trio