1. April is National Poetry Month. Poets.org has some really great resources for celebrating this month, or to simply get more poetry into your life. Some of my current favorite poems are Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón and Meeting the Buddha by Craig van Rooyen.

2. Advice To Writers. This series continues to be really good.

3. How Shrill Made Its Dream ‘Fat Babe Pool Party’ a Reality “I almost cried because it was so beautiful.” And if you’ve been following the controversy around this episode, you might be interested in this “sorry, not sorry” apology from Virgie Tovar.

4. How a Popular Decolonizing Yoga Summit Became a Colonizing One.

5. Gather – Art, Friends and Road Trip | Performative Documentary. “As four art instructors set out on a cross-country trip to teach workshops, they discover stark truths about themselves and their friendships. GATHER blurs the lines between documentary film and fiction, as individuals – appearing as themselves – use stories loosely based on real life events to create an intimate portrait of adult friendship. This bold experiment in narrative realism invites us to examine the heart-wrenching, invisible kind of loss that’s surely touched all of our lives–the moment right before everything shifts and threatens the longevity of a cherished friendship. GATHER is both a penetrating look at what holds us back from reaching out and connecting with one another and a beautiful reminder of what’s possible when we do.”

6. Be a Librarian to Your Readers: An Interview with Austin Kleon. Also from Austin Kleon, The page is a place.

7. Project 1, 2, 3: A Daily Creativity Journal for Expressing Yourself in Lists of Three by Paris Rosenthal, Amy Krouse Rosenthal‘s daughter.

8. April Love 2019, another great Instagram photo challenge from Susannah Conway.

9. From a Viral Tweet to a Dedicated Community: “Fatventure Mag” Celebrates Joyful Movement beyond the Bounds of Diet Culture. “Samantha Puc and Alice Lesperance founded ‘Fatventure’ to celebrate fat folks who ‘love joyful movement, but don’t love toxic diet culture.’ The second issue will expand that concept to the theme of home and belonging.”

10. Top 10 Reasons Why INFJs Are Walking Paradoxes.

11. Guy Biking Across The World Picks Up A Stray Kitten. (video)

12. Find the Poem: the full trailer. (video) “Getting close to finishing this project with 30 of the country’s most awesome poets giving their insight on writing, performance, business and everything else that makes up this world we call ‘spoken word poetry.'”

13. “You want to tell people that their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist?” (video) “Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave an impassioned speech during a committee hearing in response to Republicans push-back on her climate change policy, the Green New Deal.” She gives me such hope that we might be able to turn this around.

14. Them: A Fake Yet Relevant Film About the White Men Pissed at Jordan Peele for Saying He Won’t Make a Film Starring a ‘White Dude.’

15. Black Farmers to buy from instead of Whole Foods.

16. Intricate Golden Labyrinths Created From Fallen Leaves of a Gingko Tree.

17. This Woman Was Fat-Shamed While Running A Marathon. (video). “Latoya Shauntay Snell (Running Fat Chef) has experienced fat-shaming her whole life — by friends, family and doctors, and even by spectators watching her as she ran the New York City Marathon. Latoya’s response? ‘Fat-shaming can go f**k itself.'”

18. Dancing family. (video) “My wife is Pakistani & loves to watch hip hop dance. She asked me to dance to music from her culture…so last Sunday I got our 3 children together to perform to a song that I felt represented apart of my culture(hip hop) & her culture as well….We love you mom!!!”

19. Instead of hiding rips and tears, the visible mending movement turns them into art. “Born from the Japanese art of sashiko, visible mending enables crafters to eschew fast fashion and make mistakes beautiful.”

20. Little girl believes she’s hula hooping all by herself, but she’s actually got some help. (video)

21. Yoga, Race, and Culture by Dianne Bondy.

22. In Praise of bell hooks from The New York Times.

23. “Gentleman Jack”: 9 Facts About Lesbian Legend Anne Lister to Know Before HBO’s Miniseries.

24. A Dad Painted His Daughter as Mona Lisa and Her Reaction is Priceless.

25. Woman Gives Birth To Twins 1 Month After Giving Birth To Baby Boy. Surprise!

26. Japanese Illustrator Imagines A World Where Humans Live Among Giant Animals. I love these, but let’s be honest: cats that big would totally murder us all.

27. African Elephants Are Evolving Without Tusks Due To Extreme Poaching On The Continent.

28. 19-Year-Old Omarian Banks Shot After Knocking on Wrong Door.

29. Confronting racism is not about the needs and feelings of white people by Ijeoma Oluo.

30. On eve of execution, Texas prisoner denied right to have Buddhist priest present while he dies.

31. Add a Blurred Background to Your Photo with PicMonkey.

32. This Native American reservation has been inundated with floods for two weeks, leaving 80,000 people without drinking water, (video) “and the help they desperately need has been slow to arrive.”

33. Lawyering While Black: Cop Detains Attorney in Courthouse, Accuses Him of Impersonating a Lawyer.

34. After Cyclone Idai, bodies litter Mozambique’s fields, and the true death toll may never be known. In related news, Death Toll For Cyclone Idai, Which Struck Mozambique, Zimbabwe And Malawi, Reaches 750.

35. 31 Must-Read Stories For Every Day Of Women’s History Month.

36. Facebook Announces New Policy to Ban White Nationalist Content on The New York Times.

37. Meet the 14-year-old who wants to be the Colombian Billy Elliot. (video) “Sometimes it helps me when I’m sad or angry. I dance and everything goes away.”

38. Boxer reincarnated as a cat? (video)

39. Russell Brand does Great British Bake Off. (video)

40. Why Do Narcissists Make Positive First Impressions?

41. This citizen stopped ICE from arresting 2 undocumented immigrants because he knew his rights. (video)

42. NASA Scraps First All-Female Spacewalk For Want Of A Medium-Size Spacesuit. Must be the same reason I can’t find a decent bra that fits.

43. Damon Young on the ‘Absurdity’ of Being Black on The New York Times. “The co-founder of the cultural criticism website Very Smart Brothas mines his experiences in a new memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker.”

44. Morgan Freeman converts his Mississippi ranch into a honeybee sanctuary.

45. Listen to this interview with Roxane Gay: ‘We have so much work still to do’, says feminist Roxane Gay. In related news, Roxane Gay was an oasis of calm on last night’s Q&A.

46. The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement.

1. Virgie Tovar is claiming that episode four of Shrill plagiarized her story. It’s not true. Read what Ijeoma Oluo had to say on Twitter about it. You can also find another version of the discussion on VT’s Facebook page, which included this very interesting clarification:

2. Can We Start & Never Stop Talking about Samantha Irby?

3. Here’s How You Can Help People Devastated by Cyclone Idai from The New York Times. In related news, a GoFundMe fundraiser: Cyclone Idai Zimbabwe Relief.

4. ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ Navigates The Challenges Of Existing While Black. “Damon Young says he’s spent much of his life waiting to be called by a name we won’t repeat, even though it appears in his new memoir — What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker — a lot. His essays are pointed, ruminative, often barbed and funny reflections on how the fact of his skin color has posed particular lifelong challenges, questions, and anxieties.”

5. ‘I Loved Myself for the First Time’: Women Prisoners Heal Trauma with Dance. “High percentages of incarcerated women suffer from untreated PTSD. One quickly expanding program is successfully using dance to help them move forward.”

6. 9-Year-Old Girl Was Detained at Border for 30 Hours Despite Being a U.S. Citizen from The New York Times. In related news, ‘A nightmare’: flight attendant with Daca status held after flying for work.

7. Jury Acquits White Former Police Officer In Fatal Shooting Of Unarmed Black Teen.

8. Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón. Because this,

Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

9. Good stuff from Seth Godin: How big is your unfillable hole? and The minimum viable audience.

10. Is the Guru Model Broken? from Lion’s Roar. “Pema Khandro Rinpoche, Lama Rod Owens, Lama Rigzin Drolma (Anne C. Klein), and Lobsang Rapgay discuss the guru model in the Tibetan tradition, in which the teacher is central to the path. From the Winter 2018 issue of Buddhadharma.” In related news, My Spiritual Teacher Committed Sexual Assault. And He Saved my Life. What Does that Mean Now?

11. The magical thinking of weight loss. “On major weight loss & praying at the altar of thinness.”

12. The Message of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths on Lion’s Roar. “The message of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths is that paying attention and seeing clearly lead to behaving impeccably in every moment, out of love, and on behalf of all beings.”

13. Cocteau Twins ~ Heaven Or Las Vegas ~ Full Album (video playlist). Austin Kleon’s newsletter this week reminded me how much I loved this album.

14. Thanks, a poem by W.S. Merwin. In related news, Poet W.S. Merwin, Who Was Inspired By Conservation, Dies At 91.

15. Women’s Tennis Association Rules Serena Williams Can Wear All The Catsuits She Damn Well Pleases.

16. Hundreds of US cities are killing or scaling back their recycling programs. “China stopped importing trash from other countries. Now, many cities in the US are facing a recycling crisis.”

17. Drag queen story time organisers quit over Christian death threats.

18. Gregg Breinberg (PS22 Chorus Director) on Facebook. The videos of his kids singing are the best.

19. 20 Must-Listen To Black Women Podcasts for 2019.

20. Knowing the Right Time to Say Goodbye to a Pet on The New York Times. “End-of-life decisions for animals are difficult. A veterinarian has developed a scale to help clear up the confusion.” In related news, Study Shows That Losing A Dog Can Be As Hard As Losing A Loved One.

21. Just like we can destroy our planet, we can also choose to restore it, (video), “And that is what this Brazilian couple did!”

22. The Do-Nothing Farmer’s Guide to a Perfect Harvest on Lion’s Roar.

23. ‘What we’re witnessing around the world is the death rattle of white supremacy.’ (video) “This Muslim journalist is warning Americans against ‘white ISIS,’ a ‘racist’ president, and the rising global ideology of hate.”

24. Buddhism Is Not a Treatment for Mental Illness on Lion’s Roar. “A new article in The Atlantic says more Americans with mental illness are turning to Buddhism for mental health treatment. Experts might advise otherwise.”

25. Parkland shooting survivor Sydney Aiello takes her own life. In related heartbreaking news, Leaders react and take steps after second tragedy at Parkland and Sandy Hook Victim’s Father Dies in Apparent Suicide in Newtown on The New York Times. Please don’t give up. Please don’t give up. Please don’t give up. Please don’t. Please.

26. FL Senate gives right to grow veggies in the front yard a green thumbs up.

26. New Zealand reformed its gun laws less than a week after a mass shooting. (video) “This gun reform advocate is wondering why the U.S. hasn’t done the same.” Nobody is trying to “take your guns,” just the ones there is no reason to ever have unless you are planning to murder large numbers of people quickly.

27. Rick Steves Wants to Save the World, One Vacation at a Time.

28. A Virginia Police Officer Serving a Majority Minority High School Has Been Identified as a White Nationalist.

29. Ahead of C2E2, a look at Chicago’s new wealth of black female comic book talent.

30. 6 Reasons Why Introverts And Pets Are Perfect For Each Other. #6 is the story of my life.

31. If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A. Not sure why we have to keep repeating this, but there you go.

32. Peloton is being sued for using music without permission in its video fitness classes.

33. CBD-infused jelly beans are *finally* here. (video)

34. The shopping mall where everything is recycled.

35. ‘Lady Liberty’ Patricia Okoumou Will Not Go to Prison for July 4th Protest.

36. 12 Things People Do That Actually Mean ‘I’m a Highly Sensitive Person.’

37. The Referee Who Forced A Black Wrestler To Cut His Locs Is Suing For Emotional Distress. Nope. Just, no.

38. St. Louis Store Asks Whether New Zealand Mosque Shooting Was Tragic or ‘Fucking Great.’

39. The Trap House-Busting Vigilante of Pine Ridge Reservation. “After Julie ‘Mama Julz’ Richards’s own family was nearly destroyed by addiction, fighting back against meth became a personal crusade.”

40. This 60-year-old single father has adopted 7 boys, after growing up in a foster home himself. (video)

41. 5 Powerful Reality Checks For Survivors Of Narcissistic Abuse.

42. Roxane Gay on the importance of taking up space and being heard.

43. Auntie Maxine on Mueller Report: ‘This Is Not the End of Anything’.

44. ‘A State of Emergency’: Native Americans Stranded for Days by Flooding.

45. FAT!SO?, “FAT!SO? has been a ‘zine, a website, a book, and it’s always an attitude. This is the online version.”

46. 11 Books By Phenomenal Black Women That Should Be Required Reading For Everyone.

47. This 19-year-old delivery driver was tackled to the pavement and arrested by plainclothes police because he parked his scooter in the wrong place. (video)

48. Hundreds of businesses have bought these genius gender neutral bathroom signs. (video)

49. A rare Tengmalm’s owl is seen in Shetland, “in what is believed to be the first sighting in 100 years.”