Welcome to Waves

start sipping

Hello beautiful people, 

I am really excited to be writing this first letter.

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Before we begin, I want to tell you that each newsletter is accompanied by an (optional) ritual you can do to make the read more intentional and present- more about this later. 

The ritual today is simple: Make lemongrass and liquorice tea (½ teaspoon each)-or any citrusy tea you love-, and brew for 10 minutes.  If you like reading with music, this playlist has accompanied me this week, it was made for aliens and it made me believe in humans again. 

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A year ago I wrote a piece for Atmos Magazine about political sisterhood and underground fungal networks; the whole thing came to me in a dream (a story for another time). The central point of the article was that underground networks of nurture are what keep communities alive and that this behaviour can be seen both in the political sisterhood that women extend to each other in oppressive situations - such as lack of access to abortion- as well as mycelial networks under forests where trees literally keep each other alive by communicating. 

This is what I want this newsletter to be, an underground network of nurture rooted in radical love.

Welcome ✨

Here, we are allowed to breathe, think, rest, to live joyfully and beautifully whilst still being aware of the systemic oppressions that inhabit our bodies and our environments.  Here, we use poetry, art and cultural criticism to observe the systems that oppress us and colonise our minds and bodies. Here, we decolonise and decondition joyfully and beautifully.

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Antidote: a medicine taken or given to counteract a particular poison/ something that counteracts an unpleasant feeling or situation.

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My intention is to create a space where we can learn to access poetic antidotes to systemic issues on a daily basis. Think pleasure, slowness, righteous rage, ritual. We will learn to spot them also by looking at writers, scholars, or artists who lived by them, who have taught revolution through poetic, beauty and joy - some names include bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Albert Camus, and James Baldwin.

I will share everything from conversations with people who understand the world as a multitudinous ecosystem- astrologers, writers, musicians, activists, shamans, sisters- to stories about mythology and feminism, ecology, radical love, writing advice and opportunities, and so much more.  I will share reading reviews and music recommendations. 

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The rituals for each newsletter are simple and optional, whether it is drinking a specific tea curated for the content of the writing, listening to a specific track, or a particular smell to fill the room. I find ritual to be a grounding and erotic practice that helps connect to the self, to listen to my body, my cycles and most of all my intuition. Sort of a F**k you to grind culture, and invitation to SLOW DOWN. Both are revolutionary acts - or poetic antidotes -  in a world that pushes a fast-paced distraction-heavy life on us. 

Waves will have some free articles, and others will be behind a paywall. So, if you like this work please consider contributing, there are days of work behind each one of these seeds. 

For the future, I imagine having enough budget to get others to write unique pieces for Waves and have beautiful collaborations with artists and creatives. Let’s see!

Next up: an essay about dreams as revolutionary tools, one about the brief history of the clitoris, and a reflection on rage as righteous. Go explore here.

Stay tuned. 

Thank you for being here,

Much love, 

V