8/1 Queer Agenda: Suddenly it's August!

This newsletter is 💦dripping💦 with sweat and tears

Aug 1, 2022

If this is your first newsletter, thank you for resting your eyes upon these words!!! This newsletter exists because you exist. Literally.

It’s that time of year again—at least in the Northern Hemisphere—when it’s hot as hell and there’s no relief. I find myself sitting in my New York City apartment, air conditioning blasting, doing work because I don’t. want. to. go. outside. And I’m one of the lucky ones: because of the ongoing pandemic, my workplace has gone hybrid for the foreseeable future. I have the privilege of feeling shitty in a climate-controlled space, close to restaurants and bars and parks and friends that I won’t be seeing because I refuse to succumb to the heat and humidity. All of this is a first-world problem, and I can’t stop feeling miserable. (Seasonal depression? Or just… regular depression??? 💦)

Maybe I’m getting older, and yes, we are still in a pandemic time-warp, but the days really drag and the months fly by. Somehow it’s August. Again. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

Anyway—all of that is to say, hello, again. Queer Agenda/Queeries is back, again! 💦💦

water droplets on green leaf — Back, and kinda dripping with sweat. (Photo by Mukil Menon on Unsplash)

The truth is that I applied for an art/architecture research grant with plans to expand Queeries’ scope and I didn’t get it. Which is fine—rejections will happen. Maybe some salty tears of frustration were shed 💦. But it got me thinking about research methodologies that don’t fit the norm, project outcomes and impacts that don’t check boxes in a rubric, and the beauty of inefficient planning. Organic, emergent growth. The ebb and flow of this not-so-regular newsletter, the shifts in momentum. This started as a way to connect with folks during the pandemic—what would it look like now, if 2022 had been its starting point?

We’re shifting into in-person things, and physical things to touch and fold and read, and perhaps videos and other so-called “content.” See below for the first couple of moves into different territory 💦💦

This is an invitation for folks in the New York City area: if the weather holds (fingers crossed the thunderstorms won’t arrive 💦), you are invited to an informal rendezvous at Riis Beach - the beach for queers! - on Friday, August 5th. We will be paying special attention and envisioning alternatives to the defunct and doomed Neponsit Hospital, which sits, abandoned and crumbling, behind the beach. Its demolition could threaten the future of Riis Beach. Please respond to this message if you are interested in going, or, if the weather does not hold, a later date. You can reply to this email, or ::::::::