Brisket Vol. 1, No. 1 launches tomorrow and I am excited and nervous, preoccupied and obsessing. Between the newsletter and preparing for Friday night's Passover seder--where a brisket was served, of course--my week was spent writing, editing, designing, cleaning, cooking, and posting to social media. So this week's post is on the light side, but consider it an hors d'oeuvre before the big entree tomorrow.

Here's what captured my attention this week...

I'm reading: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose by feminist poet and essayist Adrienne Rich, gifted to me for graduation by a thoughtful family friend. I was searching for inspiration this week and picked it off my shelf of books-to-be-read. As I wrote on the Brisket Patreon page, I am struck by Rich's preoccupation in this collection with a "culture of passivity." For Rich, the women's movement had to reject passivity if it was going to "name and found a culture of [women's] own." When I picked up the book I was only looking for a good example of the essay form to use as a model and learn from--which On Lies, Secrets, and Silence definitely provides--but I also found a great model for how to quietly but forcibly roar.

I'm listening to: an old, sentimental favorite, Billy Bragg and Wilco's Mermaid Avenue. I listened to this album all throughout college and confess that when I listen to it now (as well as to Bon Iver's To Emma, Forever Ago) I am overwhelmed by that feeling that you get when you stare out the window of a train or an airplane. Wistfulness?

I'm watching: Nothing new! Yesterday afternoon I took my mom to see Black Panther, and it was just as good the second time.

What are you reading, listening to, and watching this week?