Jul 22, 2020

OOO

By Jewel Wicker • Issue #5 • View online

We’re keeping things short in today’s newsletter because today marks the eighth anniversary of my accident. (I wrote about it here and I have no plans to do so again because it makes strangers and mere acquaintances feel like they can ask me invasive questions. Don’t be weird, y’all.) I’m excited to take some time off to eat tacos, celebrate how far I’ve come, and practice acceptance over the things I can’t change. Eleanor Rigby Wicker (my chihuahua) will be screening my calls and texts.

On a lighter note, one year ago today I couldn’t take the day off because I had to fly to Florida to write MY FIRST COVER STORY aka Teen Vogue’s Coco Gauff profile.

Just a little reminder that it’s OK to celebrate new, more joyful memories on hard days, too.

I’ve been working on some really exciting pieces so As Told To will return in two weeks with your usual dosage of entertainment and media musings.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO (AND WATCHING):

Unfinished: Deep South

This podcast looks into the unsolved lynching of farmer and World War I veteran Isadore Banks. The episodes so far have explored whether or not Banks’ success and land ownership played a role in his death.

Lianne La Havas, Lianne La Havas

Let Lianne’s voice split you open and put you back together, beloved. Her new album is easily one of this year’s strongest releases.

Lianne La Havas - Bittersweet | A COLORS SHOW

Jhené Aiko - “Above and Beyond”

I stand by my claim from earlier this year that Jhene has some of the best breakup songs from the current generation of R&B singers (see: “Triggered” “Comfort Inn Ending,” “Lyin King” and “My Mine,” “Remember,” “None of Your Concern” sans Big Sean 🥴🤡; Y’all overplayed “The Worst” so it does not make my list so sorry. )

Jhené Aiko - A&B (Audio)

A young Naya Rivera talking about being a child actress is sure to put a smile on your face in the midst of mourning her death.

Entertainment Tonight

@etnow

Take a look back at ET's very first interview with Naya Rivera when she was just 4-years-old. 💕
https://t.co/oiihxx0U2V https://t.co/CDfYChxUDT

6:12 PM - 13 Jul 2020

MUST-READ ARTICLES THAT HONOR JOHN LEWIS AND C.T. VIVIAN:

America Failed John Lewis and C.T. Vivian by Jamil Smith for Rolling Stone

Jamil Smith perfectly captured my complex feelings about recent reporting on Lewis and Vivian, and their heroism. “Why does this nation, which claims to be so free and so brave, continue to require such bravery to be free?”

C.T. Vivian, civil rights hero and intellectual, dead at 95 by Ernie Suggs for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

My former co-worker Ernie Suggs did an exceptional job with his reporting this week, including this thorough obit for C. T. Lewis.

John Lewis: Rooted Deep in Alabama Soil by Ernie Suggs and Tia Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ernie (alongside Tia Mitchell) also contributed to this touching, in-depth look at “the boy from Troy.”

The Right Way to Honor John Lewis: Restore and Extend the Voting Rights Act by Jeanne Theoharis for The Intercept

“Erecting statues (and changing bridge names) too often become the ends themselves.”

OTHER RECENT READS:

The Remarkable Rise of Lil Baby by Charles Holmes for Rolling Stone

It’s no secret that I’ve delighted in watching the rise of unlikely superstar Lil Baby. (S/o to Southwest Atlanta.) This week, he’s on the cover of Rolling Stone. We truly love to see it.

Portland Place couple who confronted protesters have a long history of not backing down by Jeremy Kohler for St. Louis Post-Dispatch

This article is an insightful, albeit maddening, look into the couple who went viral after pointing guns at protestors in Missouri.

Meet This Popular Essential Worker. And Give Her a Scratch Behind the Ear. by Gray Chapman for New York Times

Of all my freelance friends, I am, perhaps, the most enviable of Gray Chapman’s portfolio. Not only is she an excellent journalist, but she remains the only writer who can get me to excitedly click on an article about pet rats and poop.

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

I discovered this book thanks to NPR’s Code Switch and it did not disappoint. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio tells the story of the workers who helped clean up Ground Zero after 9/11, the families often forgotten in the discussions about Flint’s water crisis, the people who rely on botánicas when access to the US healthcare system is often out of reach and more.

White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism by Kevin M. Kruse

If you were fascinated (read: appalled) by the story of “Atlanta’s ‘Berlin Wall,’” I recommend giving this book a read. Through an Atlanta lens, Kevin M. Kruse shows how white supremacists and segregationists “helped give birth to the modern conservative movement.”

I think this book’s chapter on sit-ins in Atlanta is especially relevant right now. As we fondly remember two civil rights activists, let us not forget the scrutiny such activism initially received.

Did you enjoy this issue?

By Jewel Wicker

Entertainment & culture 👩🏾‍💻: @Billboard, @AtlantaMagazine, @GQMagazine, @NBCBLK, @NPRMusic, @TeenVogue, @Spotify, etc. | https://t.co/NVp2ta7WsA

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