Hello friends—a bit late, but some links for reading and a poem for the (last) week:
One of the many, many stories that can be told about the first tests of nuclear weapons that do not center one man’s genius—and how the real history of the bomb and its aftermath in this country (and in Alaska)—let alone in Japan and the Pacific—continues to be ignored.
“If [Indigenous] ledger drawings are going to be confined to ethnological and history museums, then it is time we put works by Bierstadt and his contemporaries in the same museum as an example of White privilege.”
A bit older, but an important look at Elizabeth Siddal—who is often only talked about as a rather tragic, pre-raphaelite muse—but who was (of course) an artist and poet herself, and the pre-raphaelite style may have originated with her.
An eighteenth-century lifetime of recording the first signs of spring.
A chance for an overnight stay (for £7!) in a 300-year-old secret library at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
And also, a job as reader-in-residence (yes please!)
Loved this exploration of how folktales should be considered in a more expansive canon of philosophy.
Not surprising, but bumblebees have advanced social learning skills.
And finally: Wilderness survival tips for women in male-dominated fields
And a poem by Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547), from Sonnets for Michaelangelo:
If I often fail to take up the file of good sense and, looking around me with scornful eyes, refuse to embellish or erase my rough, uncultivated verses, this is because my primary concern is not to garner praise for it, or avoid contempt, or that, after my joyful return to heaven, my poems will live on in the world more highly honored, but the divine fire, which through its mercy inflames my mind, sometimes gives out these sparks of its own accord, and if one such spark should once warm some gentle heart, then a thousand times a thousand thanks I owe to that happy mistake.
Niitsitapii artist John Isaiah-Pepion profile in Orin Magazine.
Beautiful work don't miss it.
https://orionmagazine.org/article/blackfeet-ledger-art-john-isaiah-pepion/?mc_cid=ae75d0374e&mc_eid=758ae6b56e
https://johnisaiahpepion.com/
Lovely poem selection ❤️