dispatch 029 // "Who are you waiting for?" - Last chance!

Hi.

Feeling all the feels with the midterms just two weeks out.

Honestly at a loss for well-constructed sentences. Fragments and expletives, got those in spades!

Caveat: This newsletter is a bit messy, but it has lots of heart. And ache. And buried at the bottom an update on my Kickstarter #Quickstarter project. The campaign ends tomorrow, Wednesday Oct. 24th at 5p ET. Thank you to everyone who has pledged so far! And if you were thinking about it... there's still some time!

Now back to the ramble...

Hard to emotionally juggle feeling like I have all the privileges in the world (wealthy, white, American, roof over my head, healthy, male-presenting and, at least for now, an M on my IDs...) while also having my status thrust into question by some waste-of-energy effort to define male & female as immutable, genetically-validated categories. The world is burning up and we're going to argue about bathrooms?

Or as Elizabeth Kolbert more elegantly phrased:

And then today the bites of Trump proudly proclaiming his nationalist identity.

I guess now is NOT the time to talk about gender & race & national identity all being social constructs?

I have a whole side story I'd love to tell you about my Anthro degree from UVA and how metaphorically appropriate it is that the department quite infamously refuses to sit with the rest of the college and instead stays rooted in its 19th century Victorian Gothic building off to the side. I'm not trying to be a coastal elitist, or a Victorian Gothic know-it-all, but I do think that most of the shit we fight about is made up. Except the planet warming. That shit is real.

Anyhow. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here. But I also think we all need to be preaching, and listening, more. Lean in & show up like we never have before.

As I stood out in the very, very cold Washington Square Park Sunday night letting it sink in that this fucking administration could actually invalidate my passport, I thought about all the people it has already invalidated. The families getting separated. The ICE raids. The travel bans. And then the fact that even if these idiots do revise a bunch of governmental descriptions I'd probably still be better off than so many others. There's so much work to do.

It has been healing to have an art project to focus on. That the theme ended up bringing so much additional meaning to this political moment feels like an unintentional blessing.

"Who are you waiting for?" is the question my kid whispered into my ear at brunch on Sunday morning.
"Who are you waiting for?" is the question I asked myself for a decade before transitioning.
"Who are you waiting for?" is the question I ask myself to stay motivated on this (and other) projects.
"Who are you waiting for?" is the question Martin Niemöller was asking when he wrote:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

"Who are you waiting for?" is the question I am asking you to ask yourself every day.

There are 14 days left to the midterms.

And then we have to get some sleep and start over. Because the entire world needs us privileged Americans to change our own government. We are the Justice League. (And just to be clear, I'm a Green Lantern.)

---

Now, ART!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the love and support on this project.

I've spent every day this month researching, painting, sketching, and designing for the poster. Today I went out and bought a small, adorable printer so that I could tape up some concepts. Feels good to fill the walls with weeks of work.

Last week I connected up with an incredible printer, Authorized to Work in the US, who has a Risograph machine here in Brooklyn. One of my goals was to find someone local and willing to collaborate so that I could be a part of the physical printing process. Grateful to have found the perfect partner in Cem. His beautiful work is both political & whimsical. And Cem makes it a part of his practice to support other artists. AND cycles around selling art on his Riso Bike. Check out his "News of the Month Club" which makes art based the headlines. And follow @authorizedtowork.

We're meeting up Thursday morning to make the prints. Hoping to do a little live broadcast from his studio, will let you know.

As mentioned at the top, there's still time to pledge for a poster and/or one of these fantastic hot pink keytags. Campaign ends Wed Oct 24th 5p ET.

Big, mad love to all of you.

- kyle

PS Need a little optimism & inspiration? Three podcasts that did it for me this week:

- Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity, magic, grief, love... all the things. Brand new The TED Interview.
- LA Mayor Eric Garcetti makes so much sense talking to Kara Swisher on Recode Decode. I'm excited about his presidential candidacy. (Also, he's fun on insta!)
- Nina Jacobson is an unbelievably gifted (and wildly successful) Hollywood producer. Listen to her talk about her "failure resume" with Alex Blumberg on Gimlet's new Without Fail.

peace <3