I am back with the long-awaited Forest of Knowledge. For those who are new here, every season I share books, podcasts, music, and movies that I am currently using in my research, or that have particularly impacted my thoughts and reflections in the last months. If you like this kind of stuff, don’t forget that under every essay there is an Inspiration Station, where I share two or three discoveries from my week.
Winter is a time to retire into the cosiness of our inner landscapes, a time to look within, not make many efforts, and slow down. For me, it is also the best time to absorb some sensuous knowledge!
The other day, a friend asked me why I put so much effort into recommending things to my readers. I told him that my aim is that this newsletter becomes a space where readers can come in and take what they need in the moment, where they can engage with different senses (you will know what I mean if you are already subscribed). A sort of all-senses knowledge library for people who want to decondition from systemic issues from a place rooted in tenderness and poeticism.
If you have missed the previous Forest of Knowledge editions, here they are:
Now, on to the recommendations!
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
This book is a dedication and honour to the woman’s body. Both in what it is capable of doing, the pain it can endure, and the constant attack it is under, by society and then by ourselves. Beautifully written, and witty in the way it deals with this very complex topic, this is a must-read.
In The Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai
Every scene of this movie could be a painting. A tender story between two strangers who cross paths in a sleepy Hong Kong in 1962. Melancholic, swooning, it is a testament to how connected we actually are, and how easily a moment can turn into a love song. The soundtrack by Shigeru Umebayashi is to die for.
House A by Jennifer S Cheng
This poetry collection takes us through the meanderings of the homebuilding of an immigrant Chinese family. Chen is able to portray diasporic longing in an incredibly graceful way, showing how it can persist throughout a lifetime almost as a tender companion. The letters to Mao made me very emotional, the way Chen deals with this complex experience with the delicacy and tenderness of a child, letting us into her memory is just incredible.
Spells, 21st Century Occult Poetry by Sarah Shin and Rebecca Tamas
I found this book as I roamed a local book shop and began to read it on the sofa there. By page 5 I was captured, I love how the editors have managed to convey the idea of words as spells. It speaks of witches and women’s bodies, of persecution and magic, of fantasy and beauty. “The collection brings thirty-six contemporary voices exploring the territory where justice, selfhood, and the imagination meet the transformative power of the occult”. The book breaks and remakes the world.
When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone
Dense and necessary, this book explores the ancient worship of the Great Goddess and the suppression of women’s rites. Stone brings us back in time to give her own version of history before patriarchy suppressed our rights and culture. I think we often tend to forget that women made culture to, and that with our erasure so was all this incredible knowledge lost. A fundamental read for those interested in this kind of topic.
Pertinent to my recent piece about anger, this essay by Audre Lorde accompanied my research in those days (as did my body). As with all of Lorde’s work, it is great.
The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity by James is one of those pieces of work you have to read/listen to at least twice because it keeps on giving. Baldwin’s writing is layered yet incredibly graspable and simple. This is an ode to poets “The poets (by which I mean all artists) are finally the only people who know the truth about us. Soldiers don’t. Statesmen don’t. Priests don’t. Union leaders don’t. Only poets.” he says.
By The Light of My Father’s Smile by Alice Walker
This book feels like a full moon and a new moon at the same time. I read it in a moment of my life in which I needed comfort and truth, and Walker delivers both with incredible tenderness. A family goes to the remote sierras of Mexico and lives among indigenous people called the Mundo. One of my favourite quotes “There was a saying among the Mundo: It takes only one lie to unravel the world. And when our father, wearing his preacher’s hat, said God had said man had dominion over all the earth, the Mundo men had declared this could not possibly be true. Perhaps, they had said, stroking their bearded chins, it is the one lie that has unraveled your world.”
South African artist William Kentridge’s Ted Talk is one of the most original Ted talks I have ever seen. He brings performance art, politics, and the artist’s process all together. It has its flaws, but I think it shows how to trust your creative ideas as an artist and bring them to the world without fear.
I cannot deal with the extraordinary talent of aja monet - beautiful beautiful poetry and work. Reading the whole process behind the making of this album, a liberation process, made the listening even better.
This was it, I would love to know your thoughts, on how you engage with the content and how it lands. I love it when you write me your thoughts and share your process in engaging with this work.
Sending you all mucho amor,
V