Threadings.

Ismatu Gwendolyn, clinical social worker and former impoverished child, doubles down on the ugly (and obvious) truth of why poverty exists in the first place.

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If you’re reading or listening this, that means I’ve decided to pull back one of the veils of my life and tell you a little bit about my family history. My name is Ismatu Bangura, I am a Sierra Leonean Black American, and I am also the granddaughter of Paramount Chief Alhaji Bombolai [may he rest in peace].

Here is how my lineage affects my politic. Full transcription at substack.ismatu.com.

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Introductions to a month-long series about poverty eradication, labor rights, and reproductive justice. Partnered with a fundraiser to help agricultural production for indigenous folks in Sierra Leone!

Link to donate: gogetfunding.com/ismatu-gwendolyn

Read the full essay: substack.ismatu.com

SOURCES

2022 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, linked in article

Portela, J. (2021, January 15). 70% of the world lives on less than ten dollars a day. when do they get the vaccine? Stanford Politics. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://stanfordpolitics.org/2021/01/14/70-of-the-world-lives-on-less-than-ten-dollars-a-day-when-do-they-get-the-vaccine/

World Bank Group. (2018, October 17). Nearly half the world lives on less than $5.50 a day. World Bank. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/10/17/nearly-half-the-world-lives-on-less-than-550-a-day

How much money per day does the average person live on? Cultural World. (2023, January 8). Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.culturalworld.org/how-much-money-per-day-does-the-average-person-live-on.htm

Creamer, J. (2021, December 9). Inequalities persist despite decline in poverty for all major race and Hispanic origin groups. Census.gov. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html

Jazz Music of the Episode:

Tezetayé Antchi Lidj (Baby, My Unforgettable Remembrance) x Mulatu Astatke

Whisky Story Time x Alabaster DePlume

Cicada Season x Fuubutsushi

Lena's Songs The Sweet Enoughs

Michelle x Yusef Lateef

The Single Petal of a Rose x Ben Webster

These Foolish Things x Lester Young

Easy Living x Clifford Brown

Love Song from "Apache" x Coleman Hawkins Quartet

Manhattan x BLOSSOM DEARIE

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe

I do not set goals in January and I never will. I love myself too much to rush myself out of my winter hibernation.

Why do we impose so much on a year that we just met? How do I hope for the harvest when I have not even tilled the earth yet? The ground is frozen! What if we just... sat and rested instead? In which Ismatu Gwendolyn discusses treating January gently and changing the name of the podcast to Threadings.

read the full essay at ismatu.substack.com.

Jazz of the episode:

The Single Petal Of A Rose x Ben Webster

These Foolish Things x Lester Young

Easy Living x Clifford Brown

Love Song From "Apache" x Coleman Hawkins Quartet

Manhattan x BLOSSOM DEARIE

Abide With Me x Thelonious Monk Septet

For Every Mountain x Amber Bullock

...Feeling Good x Elvin Jones

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe

Can true, full, and nuanced love truly exist across parasocial relationships? Ismatu Gwendolyn reflects on the dehumanizing nature of fame (no matter how small the audience) and reflects on their own conceptions of love (or lack thereof) as they accidentally became an influencer.

read the full newsletter and join the bookclub: ismatu.substack.com

Jazz of the episode:

Skylark x Wynton Marsalis

Feeling Good x Elvin Jones

It's Too Late Now x Wynton Marsalis

Manhattan x BLOSSOM DEARIE

Love Song From "Apache' x Coleman Hawkins Quartet

But Not For Me - Live at the Pershing, Chicago, 1958 x Ahmad Jamal Trio

'Round Midnight x Thelonious Monk

Willow Weep for Me x Ray Bryant

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe

in which I read from The Annotated African American Folktales and she occasionally gives a heartfelt "mmm."

listen to the full story at Ismatu.substack.com.

The Twin Heroes: An African Myth adapted by Alphonso O. Stafford | from the section “Folktales from The Brownies’ Book” out of The Annotated African American Folktales

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe

Da’Shaun L. Harrison has penned one of my favorite texts in the past five years. I have read it three times in nine months and I have become more and more delighted with the person that I become absorbing these words. In Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, Harrison presents theoretical frameworks that compel us to meaningful action. I will tell you now and I will tell you for free: belief that compels me to meaningful action is exactly my shit. I am grateful, to my bones, for theory. Blessed are the workers who make the way clearer with their weighty, weighty words. I relish texts like this.

read the full essay (and join bookclub!) at ismatu.substack.com

Jazz songs of the episode:

Skylark x Wynton Marsalis

Abide With Me x Thelonious Monk Septet

Fools Rush In x Teddy Wilson (this is what was playing when my mom interrupted me)

My Romance x Gene Ammons (remastered by Rudy Van Gelder)

Confirmation - Take 3 / Master x Charlie Parker Quartet

Cup Bearers x Tommy Flanagan, George Mraz, and Elvin Jones

A Sleepin' Bee x Wynton Marsalis

Stomping At The Savory x Red Gardland, Paul Champers, Art Taylor

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe

Instead of willing myself to love something that I simply do not, what if I was honest in my self-loathing? What might I be compelled to change if I did not feel morally bound to positivity?

Read the full, pictured essay, sign up for the newsletter, and grab bonus materials at ismatu.substack.com

Jazz Songs of the episode:

Love, I’ve Found You by Wynton Kelly

Warm Valley by Johnny Hodges

Nancy (With The Laughing Face) by John Coltrane Quartet

In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning by Wynton Marsalis

Concerto for Trumpet, 2 Oboes, Strings and Continuo in D Major: II. Largo by Johann Friedrich Fasch et. al

Someone to Watch over Me by Marcus Robert

I Heard You Cried Last Night by Phil Woods, Vic Juris

Autumn in New York by The Modern Jazz Quartet

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe

what kindness do I owe terror? Is there a better relationship I can have with my own fear than kill it, ignore it, eradicate it? Ismatu Gwendolyn makes some apologies and benedictions over fear itself.

read the full essay and see very cute pictures of Ismatu as a child at ismatu.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismatu.substack.com/subscribe