sunday seven

 
hello fine people on this fine sunday evening. here are seven instagram feeds that crack my world open on the daily:

1. everyday everywhere 
2. everyday black america 
3. everyday latin america 
4. everyday africa  
5. everyday asia
6. everydaymiddleeast
7. everyday migration

there are at least sixteen to seventeen additional everyday instagram accounts from all over and I follow as many as I can find. they connect me to the world daily, broaden my scope profoundly and bring me immeasurable joy. 

white people, we can make sure the folks we follow on social media come from all walks of life. we can. 

in the interest of dismantling white supremacy, I realize this is a fairly small action. and lord knows instagram is not the answer. but making conscious decisions to follow a wide variety of voices, get to know new folks with different experiences, fill our feeds with new stories and diverse perspectives daily, is. it absolutely should not stop here but friends, it's a good place to start.

roll on, roll on

(one)


(two)

(one): taken with the holga (while riding a bike!) in new orleans, september 2014. saw that cloud of white hair, that blue polka-dotted dress, pointed that plastic camera and said a prayer. so many of my photographs are prayers. both before I hit the shutter and after. 

(two): taken with the holga (while standing on a concrete table) in panama city beach, florida, november 2015. I said a prayer while I shot this one too. though mostly because that concrete table I was standing on boasted a sizable, ominous crack. 

both were submissions to roll film week back in july over on flickr. flickr, ye olde harbinger of ubiquitous internet photograph sharing. I hold onto it as tightly (and unapologetically) as I do blogspot and goodreads.

we can

white people, 

we can read books.

we can educate ourselves.

we can give money to the good fight.

we can give our efforts to the good fight.

we can show up, march, protest, counter-protest.

we can talk to our kids.

we can talk to our parents.

we can have that one really difficult conversation with that friend, that family member.

we can have it again and again, until there's no question where we stand.

we can let them go, if we need to.

we can write letters, we can write one every day.

we can make phone calls, we can make one every day.

we can support local businesses owned by people of color.

we can make sure the folks we follow on social media come from all walks of life.

we can be quiet and listen, really listen. 

we can confront our ugly parts, the ones that are hard to look at.

we can acknowledge that we cannot change what we refuse to see.
we can change what we see.

we can take small steps.
we can take giant ones.

we can do something, every day.

we can show up, every day.

we can, we can, we can.

we can be better, we can do better. this is an understatement. 

you're overwhelmed, I know it, I am too. but white supremacy is a cancer, hundreds of years old, about to swallow this country whole. so, we can wallow in our overwhelm and outrage or we can get to work. 

I'll be here as much as I can with resources: ways to get involved, places to donate time and money, book lists, podcasts, documentaries, people to follow on twitter and instagram, personal stories. this is an action: I commit to show up. and I hope you will too.