Black History, Dracula, and Resistance
We survived January somehow...
I want you to take a breath. A real breath. Draw in the air around you until it goes past your chest, down your legs, and into your feet. Close your eyes and just try to feel the minute sensations dancing across your skin—the nearly imperceptible movements of the air. Recognize that in this moment you may not be able to see the light, but it’s still all around you. Even though you don’t see change, nothing is the same as it was even a second ago.
Things aren’t okay, but they can be okay in this moment.
Last month wasn’t easy for anyone who cares about others, and it’s easy to fall into despair. Politically, it feels like the only time we’ve had hope in the last 25 years was when Obama was running for president, and he ended up being the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to bomb another Nobel Peace Prize winner, so yeah, not a great look.
I wasn’t really sure what I was going to write this week. What do you say? I don’t want to join the chorus of people catastrophizing, even though it might be cathartic for you, the reader, because that’s not really where I’m at. I also don’t want to hit you with, “We’ll persevere as long as we believe in the power of friendship” optimism that’s going around, because that doesn’t feel right either. So where does that leave us?
Here. We’re here. We made it this far and we still have voices and actions. There are people all over your feeds sharing resources about immigrant rights, discussing where you can get proper reproductive care, marching in the street, and doing everything they can in front of their computer screens. There are other, worse people that will tell you these actions mean very little. I’m here to tell you that they mean everything.
All we have are our voices. All we can do is push back. It doesn’t matter where you do it from. There are disabled activists that move mountains every day from home, building up the people on the street and doing essential organizing and advocating. That can be you. That must be you. Find your avenue and walk that path. The neo-liberal “opposition party” is posing no opposition. It’s time to let them go. There is no one fighting for us except us.
It is easy to despair but it’s also easy to get angry. Despair is sedentary, while rage is action. Your rage is sacred. Your rage is powerful. Your rage is promised. A pen, a handmade sign, a can of spray paint, a brick; it’s time to pick up your weapon and learn about what the people have done in the past when their very existence was threatened. People in the global south are taking those very actions as we speak—usually against the bloodthirsty mechanisms our very country has set in motion. It’s no longer enough to say, “US foreign policy is just something we have to accept” because now those policies are coming home, just as activists have always said they would.
History has taught us much, but what we need to remember about that history is that when these kinds of powers take over, they always meet their end.
Start reading, start exercising, and focus your anger. We will warm ourselves by their funeral pyres.
It’s Black History Month, Regardless of What the Government Says
It’s Black History Month, and since it’s Black History Month, you should actually engage with Black history and not just share the same four quotes on your Instagram story that you share every year. There is so much that can be learned from the Black revolutionaries of yesteryear and today, yet so many people are content to read Sparknote biographies of MLK and Rosa Parks and call it done. You stop just short of the part where they talk about how the white moderates are incredibly dangerous, and you stop just short of the chapters that tell you that you will experience discomfort in order to move us all forward. You go out of your way to avoid examining your place in this broken system, leaving that system in place and unchanged. It has to stop.
My Recommended Revolutionary Reading List:
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur was a Black Panther, a member of the Black Liberation Army, and a Communist. She was also the first woman to be added to the FBI's most wanted list after she escaped prison in 1984 and fled to Cuba for asylum. She’d been unjustly convicted of the murder of a state trooper. This book is written by her and does a great job of detailing the goals and techniques used by Black revolutionaries in the 60’s and 70’s. If any of the words I used to describe her make you feel negatively toward her, then you need to read this book more than most. Ditch the propaganda and learn something. I bought this book for my mother after finding out that she believed the Black Panthers were terrorists her whole life. She changed her mind after reading Assata.
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton
The founder of the Black Panther Party also put his life to the page and it is a fascinating read. This book does more than recall his actions in creating and leading the revolutionary group, it discusses the struggles of his youth; as a Black boy left behind by an educational system that wasn’t meant for him. The feelings of inferiority that were forced on him by life in this country. The dark paths he once walked because being a success in a poor Black community meant something different. It shows you what life is like when the system holds your head underwater.
Revolutionary Suicide is a guidebook. It’s a redemption story. It’s a lesson in empathy and struggle. It’s about wanting yourself and others to live and thrive to such a degree that you’re okay with dying.
Buy it here or Here
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y Davis
Even if you know nothing about Black activists or Black history, you know the name Angela Davis. For decades she’s been on the front lines preaching Black revolutionary ideals, and it really says a lot that the content of her talks and writings hasn’t drastically changed since the 60’s and 70’s. All the problems are the same problems, and this book does a lot to tie our current political landscape to the past.
As stated on the Haymarket Books website, “In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.”
If you’re unable to see the connections between the police lynchings of unarmed Black people and the horrific and bloody apartheid being inflicted on the people of Palestine by the settler state of Israel, consider picking this book up.
Remember that if you can’t afford to buy books right now, you can still get a library card and support your local library. They do a lot of important work in libraries, and they’re almost certainly going to come under siege in the next few years.
Stuff I didn’t know about Dracula until after I read “Dracula”
Because we need a little levity in this newsletter…
The Mustache
Before Nosferatu came out, I had already been reading Dracula, so when reports came out that the titular vampire was sportin’ a fuzzy lip caterpillar, I wasn’t surprised in the least. One of the first things they say about Dracula is that he has a mustache. Did I know Dracula had a mustache? No, I did not. No adaptation of the classic novel that I’d ever seen included that aspect of the character, but sure enough, when Jonathan Harker rolls up to Castle D, he’s greeted by this 70s porn star creature of the night, and his ‘stache is bright white. I was so caught off guard by this that I had to reread those few pages several times because I thought maybe this guy was Count Dracula’s butler or something. Nope! Just a vampire with a mustache, which was the style at the time in that area, so he’s also trendy.
Straight Up BROMANTIC
The men in this book care for each other on such a real and visceral level that it makes you as a reader outright emotional. Their bond throughout this vampire trauma only gets stronger, and each time one of them is knocked back, another is right there to catch him. Van Helsing is not the Hugh Jackman version you might have in your mind. He’s a soft-spoken romantic who takes every conceivable opportunity to let the people around him know how much he values their friendship. Anytime anyone doubts themselves, he’s there with uplifting words and validating actions.
Dr Seward is a man who cares deeply for his patients and does whatever he can to ensure their continued health and survival. When he fails, he leans on those around him who are happy to bear the weight of his tragic circumstances.
Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood are a couple of wife guys, but not the annoying internet ones. The ones that actually love their wives. They don’t make it their whole personality, but they’re also unashamed to declare their love freely and openly. They love their wives more than their bros, but not by much.
Quincey Morris is a Texan who firmly believes that this vampire situation requires guns, and you know what? He’s absolutely right. They welcome the gun-toting Texan with open arms. Even when he fires into the bedroom window of Mina Harker trying to annihilate a giant bat, they brush it off even though it easily could have killed one of them. People make mistakes. Sometimes that means shooting your friend’s house. We’ve all been there. He’s part of the team. They literally defeat Dracula with the power of friendship and I think that’s beautiful. Dracula is for lover boiz.
It’s Basically a “Found Footage” Story
News to me! Like, I knew nothing about Dracula, it turns out. The entire book is told through journal entries, transcribed recordings, newspaper articles, and in one unfortunate case, the captain’s log of a ship at sea. I didn’t even know people were playing with this format back in 1897. This section isn’t that deep, I just didn’t know Bram Stoker got down like that.
Shoutout to my friend Jackson for introducing me to Dracula Daily, which is a newsletter that you can sign up for that will send you the entries and articles from Dracula in real time! It’s a cool way to read Dracula that goes right to your inbox, and since the story of Dracula takes place between May 3rd and November 7th, you still have time to subscribe and read Dracula as it happens in order.
They Call Dracula a Baby-Brained Moron
And they call him that kind of a lot. As far as I know, none of the adaptations feature our intrepid heroes calling Dracula a lil dumdum, which means it was left out intentionally because there’s no way it was an accidental oversight. The main reason I want to read this book a second time is to count how many times they call Dracula a “child-brain”.
It’s mainly Van Helsing calling him that, and what he means is that Dracula’s memory didn’t completely survive his death, so he’s had to start relearning a bunch of things since his undeath, and Van Helsing correctly draws the conclusion that this gives he and his an advantage over their vampire adversary.
It make sense, but after a while, I started laughing every time they said it. Part of me was saying, “Damn, leave him alone. Stop bullying this man.” He deserves it, but still. They drag his ass.
It’s Kind of a Heist Story as Well
What do all heist movies have? A team that’s gathered in the beginning? Check. Each member of that team has a specialty that helps them achieve their shared goal? Dracula has this. An elaborate plan to intercept a shipment? Got that too! Dracula doesn’t start as a heist story but quickly becomes one as we round the corner into the third act. It’s all to do with taking down Dracula’s safehouses (bypassing his security, anyone?), memorizing train routes in an effort to intercept ol’ baby-brain’s coffin, and precise positioning and timing. We love it when a plan comes together, and it does so in Dracula. Shit, they even have a sort of insider in the form of Mina Harker who can get into Dracula’s head and gather information. HEIST.
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Anyway, you should read Dracula. It starts a bit slow, but ultimately, it’s an engaging read. Sorry for any spoilers. It came out over 100 years ago.
YOUR WEEKLY MISSION
Create a self-portrait. Prove you existed. Take a photo and print it out, make a painting, write a song and record it. Just create something that represents you right here right now. Share it if you want or stuff it away in an attic where it’ll age for you, it doesn’t matter. Create tangible proof that you exist. Speaking of which…
SNAPSHOT OF THE WEEK
I’m doing a project where I take one self-portrait a month. It gives me an excuse to play with lighting and improve the ways I take portraits of others. I think this one came out pretty fun. Shout out to YouTube for having videos of old-school TV static.
Look dracula was out there doing his BEST he really said hey gurl I have a baby brain and a gross mustache but would you let me smash? Incredible stuff. Also that self portrait is sick, task accepted.