1. The simple cure for writer’s block from Seth Godin. In related news, Antidote for Writer’s Block, a poem on bentlily by Samantha Reynolds.

2. Grief Becomes You, the website Maya Stein built as a companion to the book of the same name, “a collection of poems, essays, images, and other narratives of loss, a compilation of work from nearly 60 contributors from the United States and abroad.” I’m sharing specifically because she is still taking submissions, (for the website not the book).

3. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön:

To think that we can finally get it all together is unrealistic. To seek for some lasting security is futile. To undo our very ancient and very stuck habitual patterns of mind requires that we begin to turn around some of our most basic assumptions. Believing in a solid, separate self, continuing to seek pleasure and avoid pain, thinking that someone “out there” is to blame for our pain — one has to get totally fed up with these ways of thinking. One has to give up hope that this way of thinking will bring us satisfaction. Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there’s anywhere to hide.

4. CTZN Podcast, “conversations at the intersection of wellbeing and justice. We’re not afraid to ask hard questions and have radical dialogue about politics and patriarchy, white supremacy and worthiness. And we’re serious about showing up for one another and taking action for the wellbeing of everyone.”

5. Justice for Breonna. “Breonna Taylor was an award-winning EMT and first responder in Lousiville, KY, who loved helping her patients and her community. ‘She was an essential worker. She had to go to work,’ her mother, Tamika Palmer said of her dedication to standing on the frontlines of this pandemic. ‘She didn’t have a problem with that.’ Breonna survived the frontlines of a pandemic that disproportionately kills Black people, only to have her life stolen by police.”

6. We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence, which includes links to a playlist on Spotify and iTunes.

The 50 songs discussed in this list often describe specific acts of police violence but they are not limited to that subject. Together they construct a kind of timeline of an ongoing movement within American music, stretching back more than a century. It is meant to be revelatory but not complete. The songs here take on some of the ugliest stories with which America — and, since it goes international, the world — has to reckon. They mourn the dead and fight for the living. Some are easy to identify as protest songs; others feel like a party. Many address police violence directly decades before that subject became a lodestone in hip hop. Some of these songs have been misinterpreted even when their messages are perfectly clear. All contribute to the history of Black people showing what America’s official histories would hide in plain sight: the destructiveness of white supremacy and the uprisings against it that are not only organized and political, but personal.

7. You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument on The New York Times.

The dream version of the Old South never existed. Any manufactured monument to that time in that place tells half a truth at best. The ideas and ideals it purports to honor are not real. To those who have embraced these delusions: Now is the time to re-examine your position.

Either you have been blind to a truth that my body’s story forces you to see, or you really do mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed, and you must at last acknowledge your emotional investment in a legacy of hate.

8. It’s Time For White Folks to Dismantle the Master’s House.

By design, white people have been diverted from critically analyzing the racial identity assigned to them. Whereas the survival of Black and brown bodies mandates that they develop an intimate comprehension of race, the privileged existence of white bodies within a racialized system requires that these bodies remain ignorant to the harm being wielded by the very same racialized system they receive privileges within, in exchange for their ignorance. The work before white people at this moment in our collective pursuit of racial justice is to do the very heavy and personal lift of increasing their own comprehension around whiteness. From there, it is then incumbent upon white folks to make the conscious decision to constantly free themselves of the many ways in which whiteness is weaponized… pro-tip: liberating oneself from whiteness, or anything for that matter, is an ongoing life-long commitment. It is a practice, not a perfect.

9. Chrome-Plated Pistols and Pink Polos: The Face of Elite Panic in the USA. “Rebecca Solnit on Plutocracy and Its Paranoias.”

10. ‘Black leaders aren’t just trying to save their lives, they’re trying to save your lives too’ — a conversation with Eric Ward. (video) “The executive director of the Western States Center explains why black leaders are so exhausted right now.”

11. Vivid Photographs by Trung Huy Pham Capture Annual Water Lily Harvest in Vietnam.

12. What is the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation?

13. No doomscrolling from Austin Kleon. Guilty as charged… In related news, Why I’m Social Distancing From Social Media.

14. 5 Things that Aren’t Allyship. “More and more people are awakening to the realities of racism and feeling inspired to become allies in the quest for racial justice. We are no doubt in a great awakening, and I am filled with hope and motivation to continue showing up and playing my part as an educator in the most honest and helpful ways I can. So this week I’ve created a guide of common things I’m seeing in the name of allyship that aren’t, in my eyes, actually helpful and some suggestions on what you can do instead.”

15. What Can You Do When You’re Flattened by Depression? Plan for It. “By adopting a take-charge approach towards living with depression, you can start to feel more in control and less powerless, says health activist Jessica Gimeno. She shares three helpful strategies.”

16. This is the right way to challenge someone’s thinking. “If you want to share your perspective in a way that gets heard, and acted upon to create positive change, try these three steps.” To be clear, even though I think these are helpful strategies, I don’t like the title insisting they are “the right way,” implying there aren’t other equally effective strategies.

17. Essential Meaningful Productivity on Zen Habits.

18. In this week’s People Behaving Badly: California Cops Seek Pair Who Defaced Black Lives Matter Mural Because There’s ‘No Racism’, and Texas Woman Who Claimed COVID-19 Was ‘Media Driven’ Hoax Dies From Virus, and Former Air Force Officer Betsy Schoeller Suggests Sexual Harassment That Lead To Vanessa Guillen’s Murder Was Deserved, and Aurora Police Officers Fired For Photo Mocking Elijah McClain’s Death At His Memorial Site, and A likely culprit in Covid-19 surges: People hell-bent on ignoring social distancing orders, and In Fourth Of July Remarks, Trump Attacks ‘Radical Left’, and An Attack on Indigenous People’: Mount Rushmore Trump Event Denounced as Racist, Dangerous, and Disrespectful, and Michigan Woman Who Pulled Gun on Black Family Charged With Felonious Assault, Husband Fired From Job, and Anti-maskers are decrying ‘tyranny’ in Florida, where face mask policies have been proposed as COVID-19 cases rise (video), and Hugo’s Tacos temporarily closed its two taco stands in LA after customers refused to wear masks (video), and White Hampton Inn Employee Fired After Calling Police on Black Guests Who Were Using the Swimming Pool, and Couple holds woman at gunpoint after accusing her of shoplifting, and Reddit, Acting Against Hate Speech, Bans ‘The_Donald’ Subreddit, and Entitled “Karen” Mistakes Customer For An Employee, He Makes The Situation Hilarious For Himself, and NYPD Shoved Protesters And Used Pepper Spray During Queer Liberation March, and Supermarket “Karen” Goes Viral For Food-Throwing Tantrum After Being Asked To Wear A Mask.

19. If Life Feels Bleak, It’s Because Our Civilization is Beginning to Collapse. “2030 Will Be Even Worse than 2020. And 2040 Will Be Even Worse than That. Unless.” Maybe don’t read this one. It’s really, really hard.

20. The Sordid History of Mount Rushmore. “The sculptor behind the American landmark had some unseemly ties to white supremacy groups.”

21. Widespread Use Of Face Masks Could Save Tens Of Thousands Of Lives, Models Project. In related news, Fauci doubts effectiveness of coronavirus vaccine in US due to anti-vaxxers, and Someone Comes Up With A ‘Freedom Cafe’ Analogy To Explain How Not Wearing Masks Is Dangerous And Stupid, People Love It, and to be filed under “things that six months ago would have seemed like a joke but now seem like they might be a good idea”, Pop-up wearable tent for COVID-19 protection in offices, schools, and medical facilities.

22. Florida State University Child Care Policy Draws Backlash. In related news, In the Covid-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both, on The New York Times.

23. 21 Day Anti-Racism Challenge.

24. What Systemic Racism Means And The Way It Harms Communities. “NPR’s Noel King speaks with Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want To Talk About Race, about systemic racism. What is it, and how does it affect people day to day?”

25. Why the term “BIPOC” is so complicated, explained by linguists. “There is no ‘one size fits all’ language when it comes to talking about race.”

26. ‘I Will Not Stand Silent.’ 10 Asian Americans Reflect on Racism During the Pandemic and the Need for Equality.

27. Netflix Series About Colin Kaepernick Is in the Works From Ava DuVernay on The New York Times. “The six-episode show will be based on the athlete’s teenage years growing up Black with a white adoptive family.”

28. We found at least 70 people who died in police custody after saying “I can’t breathe” in the past decade on The New York Times. “More than half were black. You’ve likely heard of George Floyd and Eric Garner, but you might not know many of the others — including Willie Ray Banks, who struggled for air as Texas officers restrained and Tased him in 2011. Only a few officers involved in the deaths have faced criminal charges, and almost none have been convicted.”

29. Beautiful Clay Art With Plant Designs. (video)

30. Water Cherry House, Tokyo, Japan. Yes, please.

31. “La la la, joy, joy, joy”, (video). My new favorite song.

32. The Best Books of the First Half of 2020.

33. PBS to Broadcast Metropolitan Opera’s ‘Porgy & Bess’ in July.

34. LGBTQ Buddhists: Teachings, Profiles, and Conversations. “A collection of teachings from, profiles on, and conversations with LGBTQ folks in Buddhism. Featuring Larry Yang, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Steve Silberman, George Takei, Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, Finn Enke, Ellen Krug, Issan Dorsey, Lama Rod Owens, Jeff Wilson, Justin Simien, Caroline Contillo, Koshin Paley Ellison, Robert Chodo Campbell, Pablo Das, Ray Buckner, and more.”

35. The Grounding Quality of Mindfulness in Unsettling Times on Lion’s Roar. “The practice of mindfulness allows us to become more aware and less reactive in unsettling times, says Lisa Bennett. She shares how she rediscovered its grounding, life-giving quality in the face of uncertainty.”

36. Moose And Her Calves Decide To Spend A Day In This Family’s Backyard, Man Documents How It Went.

37. John Prine Posthumously Named Honorary Poet Laureate.

38. 23 Of The Funniest Tweets From Women Ever (This Week).

39. Italian Woman Documents The Carefree Life Of Her Cat And It Kinda Makes You Jealous.

40. Just a sec a poem from bentlily by Samantha Reynolds.

1. Signs of Justice, “Visual Displays of Solidarity.” This is where our yard sign came from, and they offer lots of great yard signs, clothing, bumper stickers, and prints. Added bonus: the co-owner is a Black woman.

2. Rawness of Remembering with Esmé Weijun Wang, “Use the power of restorative journaling to survive, heal, and grow through difficult times.”

3. Marketing Without Social Media, free class led by Alexandra Franzen, “If you’re self-employed (freelancer, consultant, entrepreneur) and you want to use social media waaaa-aaaay less (or maybe not at all), you’ll gain a lot from this class. I’m excited to share some refreshing ideas with you. Less digital noise. Less scrolling. Less stress. More simplicity and calm.” Also from Alexandra, Do you need that?, which seems to be a really good question to be asking ourselves right now, as we enter a new normal or if it’s the end of the world.

4. No, We Can’t Agree To Disagree About Fat-Shaming (Or Any Kind Of Oppression) from Dances with Fat. Because this:

…when used in contexts of oppression “agree to disagree” is often a tool of oppression that gives power to the privileged, and makes those they are oppressing seem unreasonable.

When it comes to equality, oppression, and human rights, when someone in an unaffected group suggests that we need to “agree to disagree,” what they are actually doing is asking oppressed people to agree to continued oppression and also stop talking about it. Fuck that.

5. Uncertainty Soup from Laurie Wagner.

6. The Not Knowing of This Moment of Confronting Racism on Zen Habits, because of the inclusion of wisdom from Rev. angel Kyodo williams and this:

Many of us want a simple solution to the systemic racism we’ve allowed to happen — but there isn’t one. When we don’t have a simple solution, our first reaction is to get discouraged and frustrated and give up.

But we can’t just give up. We have to let ourselves stay in the place of not knowing. We have to stay with the questions, and explore with curiosity.

We have to listen. Listen to those who are most impacted, listen to their stories, listen to their anger and exhaustion and pain. Listen as if we don’t know anything, because we really don’t.

7. Dynamic Chair Yoga Practice: Using a Chair as a Yoga Prop (video) with Dianne Bondy. “Chair yoga doesn’t have to mean gentle or easy poses! Today we are using a chair to enhance a more vigorous seated practice. In today’s challenging chair yoga practice, we will move through seated and standing poses, using our chair as a yoga prop as we go. Get ready to move through seated prayer twists, downward dog, camel pose, high lunge and half moon.”

8. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: A Conversation on Love and Rage: Lama Rod Owens and Kate Johnson, (“In this conversation featured in Lama Rod Owens’ new book Love and Rage, he and Buddhist teacher Kate Johnson discuss how the dharma can help us hold our anger and work with our rage”), and Toward a Worldwide Culture of Love by bell hooks, (“The practice of love, says bell hooks, is the most powerful antidote to the politics of domination. She traces her thirty-year meditation on love, power, and Buddhism, and concludes it is only love that transforms our personal relationships and heals the wounds of oppression”).

9. White Supremacy Culture (pdf) by Tema Okun.

This is a list of characteristics of white supremacy culture that show up in our organizations. Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking. Because we all live in a white supremacy culture, these characteristics show up in the attitudes and behaviors of all of us –people of color and white people. Therefore, these attitudes and behaviors can show up in any group or organization, whether it is white-led or predominantly white orpeople of color-led or predominantly people of color.

10. White urgency to end racism: why now? “How can whites work against racism while also ensuring that we don’t re-center white supremacy in the process?”

11. Go Brave from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.

12. Wisdom from Rachel Naomi Remen: “Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”

13. Hand Embroidered Portraits by Nneka Jones.

14. All good things must begin from Austin Kleon. “I always take comfort in the fact that even the great writers needed to pump themselves up to get to work…Even if you don’t believe it or feel it 100%, it can be of great help to write down the things you want to be true about your life and work. (If you believe otherwise, why write?).”

15. Resource Guide: Prisons, Policing, and Punishment.

16. The Black Lives Matter Protests Have Taught Us More About The Coronavirus. “Even though hundreds of thousands of protesters and police crowded onto the streets, overall social distancing actually strengthened in big cities with major protests.”

17. The Lost Art of True Rest on Zen Habits.

18. These 7 courses will teach you how to be anti-racist. “These courses were developed by Black women, and will teach you to recognize and work against racism.”

19. Protest news: Meet Ken & Karen: The Couple That Pointed An AR-15 At Protestors In St. Louis, and Cops in Aurora, CO pepper spray peaceful protesters who were watching a violin performance to honor Elijah McClain, (“It’s unclear why cops just didn’t stand back … this was almost entirely a peaceful protest and especially given what police did to Elijah, they could have just watched from a distance.”), and St. Louis Mayor Says Sorry for Doxxing Protesters During Livestreamed Q&A, and Vistaprint Put “All Lives Matter” Posters In An Order For A Black Lives Matter Fundraiser, and Parties — Not Protests — Are Causing Spikes In Coronavirus, and Woman Who Praised KKK Apologizes, Vows To Never Wave Confederate Flag Again, and Elderly neighbor calls cops on 9-year-old for chalking ‘Black Lives Matter’ outside her own house, and Fans Are Canceling Erin Condren for Exploiting the Black Lives Matter Movement, and Revisiting the story of a man arrested at his job for “trespassing”—and the cops who paid no price for wrongly detaining him dozens of times.

20. COVID-19 news: COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States, and California Man Has Total Racist Meltdown After Black Store Manager Asks Him To Wear A Mask, and Justice Department Issues Warning About Fake Mask Exempt Cards, and Unhinged Karen Escorted Out Of Trader Joe’s For Not Wearing A Mask, and Woman Who Shamed Starbucks Barista for Refusing to Serve Her Without Face Mask Speaks Out as Barista’s GoFundMe Grows, and U.S. Must Release Children From Family Detention Centers, Judge Rules on The New York Times, and These Are The Most Common Symptoms Of COVID-19 Right Now, and COVID-19 Memorial Project, and Austria Has 90% Drop in Coronavirus Cases After Requiring People to Wear Face Masks, and Covid-19 Has Sparked An “Anthropause” Revealing The Impacts Of Humans On Wildlife, and Remembering Front-Line Workers Lost To COVID-19, and How Exactly Do You Catch Covid-19? There Is a Growing Consensus, and Comedian Laurie Kilmartin live-tweets her mom dying of COVID-19 with humor and grace, and Anti-maskers in Florida are warning of satanism, pedophilia, and even death if public health policies are enforced (video).

21. Trump admits it: He’s losing. In related news, Trump Retweets Video Of Apparent Supporter Saying ‘White Power’, and Twitter User Creates Account to Tweet Exactly What Trump Does to See If He’ll Get Suspended, and It Only Took 3 Days, and Trump’s reality TV presidency is being crushed by reality, and Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes.

22. Wellness Fanatics Are Butt-chugging Sunlight In Order To Acquire Energy. In related news, How Whiteness Killed the Body Positive Movement.

23. Helpful Rebuttals For Racist Talking Points (Google doc), a reference guide for having hard conversations.

24. An Overdue Debt — Why It’s Finally Time To Pay Reparations To Black Americans. In related news,

25. Street art: Jim Bachor’s pothole mosaics. “Chicago artist Jim Bachor is on a mission: patching up his city’s broken pavement by filling potholes with colorful works of art — mosaics that turn eyesores and traffic hazards into things of beauty. And with his mosaics now being laid in other cities, Bachor is taking his artwork on the road.”

26. Watch Tourmaline’s Film About About the Life of a Black Trans Woman in 1800s New York.

27. Book news: 38 Great Books To Read This Summer, Recommended By Our Favorite Indie Booksellers, and The need to read black literature that’s not just about black struggle, and 11 Books by Black Authors That You Can Preorder, and Overwhelmed With Orders, Some Black-Owned Bookstores Ask for Patience on The New York Times.

28. Rich people, please stop killing the planet.

29. Vegan Influencer Tabitha Brown Gets Own Show on Ellen’s Network.

30. Colorado Gov. Appoints Special Prosecutor To Reopen Probe Of Elijah McClain Death. In related news, Suspects in Ahmaud Arbery’s Killing Are Indicted on Murder Charges, and Elijah McClain died after a police encounter a year ago. Why are we only hearing about it now?, and Louisville Police Fire Brett Hankison, Officer in Breonna Taylor Shooting.

31. I’m A History Teacher, And I Didn’t Learn About The Tulsa Massacre Or Juneteenth In College.

32. Bill Cosby’s Wife “Very Pleased” With Her Husband’s Appeal And She Accuses #MeToo Of Being Racist.

33. We Condemn All Institutional Racism Except Our Own on McSweeney’s.

34. Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams star as Icelandic Eurovision hopefuls in the comedy of the summer.

35. John Lewis, congressman and civil-rights legend, will never lose hope. I love this man so dearly, respect him so deeply.

36. It’s a Wonderful Time to Be Leslie Jordan on The New York Times. “The sitcom actor, known for roles in ‘Will & Grace’ and ‘Murphy Brown,’ wanted attention his whole life. Naturally, he discovered Instagram.”

37. Kathryn Dungy: Dear white friends.

38. Now is the Time for the Washington NFL Team to Drop Its Racist Name.

39. 9 dog breeds at higher risk of heatstroke, “Plus, here’s what you can do to cool your pup down.” 80+ degrees is too hot for most dogs to exercise and the pavement is too hot to walk on. Please go out early or leave them home.

40. Seattle Black man films hysterical ‘Karen’ who falsely claims she is being attacked. In related white fragility news, New video shows a racist white California man REFUSING to let a Hispanic man into his OWN HOME before punching an innocent bystander.

41. She woke up from a surgery with her hair perfectly braided. Her black male doctor had done it. “The experience drove home the importance of having black doctors.”

42. 40 Times People Did Exactly What They Were Asked To But The Results Were Hilarious.

43. Wife Documents Husband’s Hilarious Attempts To Make The Bed After Doing It Herself For 45 Years.

44. Woman Hilariously Documents Her Attempt To Take Care Of The Cat Who Wouldn’t Stop Visiting Her.

45. What Makes Some People More Resilient Than Others on The New York Times. “The very earliest days of our lives, and our closest relationships, can offer clues about how we cope with adversity.”

46. The Radical Quilting of Rosie Lee Tompkins on The New York Times. “A triumphal retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum confirms her standing as one of the great American artists — transcending craft, challenging painting and reshaping the canon.”

47. Video Of Dancing Baby Named Brave Will Make Your Day.

48. March, March, a new song from The Chicks, (video). “‘If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.’ – unknown. Use your VOICE. Use your VOTE.”