☀️"Sew a new sun."
Lost & Found: 4
For the month of June all profits from sales of Tart Issue 1 ($15) and the PDF version ($10) will go to Flatbush United Mutual Aid. To find a mutual aid project near you, click here.
This is our last newsletter for the theme of Lost & Found. When we chose this past month’s theme, we had no idea just how much would be lost in the coming weeks: lives, hope, and trust — to name a few. But the focus must continuously switch to what we have found, what can be found: community, support, passion, anger, love. It is in times like these, no matter how horrific and needless and utterly soul-crushing, we find each other and find ourselves.
This week, we are highlighting a poem by Faith Destiny Cummings, a Brooklynite and recent high school graduate. She tells a story we have all seen and experienced. One that is heartbreaking and yet unavoidable, and one that epitomizes how things that are a part of us can sometimes leave us, but eventually come back. Faith is my (Katy here) mentee at Girls Write Now. She has taught me so much about life and what is important. How two people who are incredibly different can become sincerely close. And how damn old I am.
We’re also taking a look at Service Animal’s (real name Joshua Powell) new EP. A collection of guitar-driven, ethereal works that are perfect to play during some meditative soul searching or a nice walk through the neighborhood. Or, quite frankly, blasted through bass-heavy speakers. He has also curated a playlist of some of his favorite songs just for Tart. Joshua is also my partner (Katy here, again)… But I swear I’m not trying to make this about me, I just know amazing people. I’m lucky.
Keep scrolling for a list of resources we hope will be helpful in the coming days, weeks, and months.
RESOURCES
Articles
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus (collection of articles on JSTOR)
"The Radical Origins of Free Breakfast for Children" by Arielle Milkman for Eater. (Read if you're curious about the history of mutual aid)
"Why the Sudden Popularity of Bail Funds Matters" by Hannah Giorgis for The Atlantic. (Find a bail fund for Black Lives Matter protesters in your area here.)
Free eBooks
Social Media Resources
From cultural worker Devyn Springer / @HalfAtlanta: Extremely long thread of compiled political reading materials, from "Explaining Gender Violence in a Neoliberal Era" to "Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerilla." Their Patreon is here.
From Minneapolis-based organizing group MPD-150: A zine answering FAQs about police abolition
snuggles
By Faith Destiny Cummings
the belief that a stuffed bear is made for you is ludicrous but beautiful for a child.
girly hung onto the tattered ear of her snuggles as she ran through the park,
dragging her baby blue bear through the dirty mud, over the sandbox and grass.
snuggles smiled — the rigid stitching didn’t allow for much else.
snuggles had been forced into happiness,
passed from child to child or from child to trash —
he was naive of course, to believe it was just, but that’s bliss for a bear.
as girly got older, her outpouring of love poured no longer.
snuggles devolved from her world to her pluto — not a planet,
just another star in her solar system.
boyfriend was the recipient of her love now; her sun, her moon.
she orbited around her one and only.
snuggles was thrown in a corner whenever the new sun was present
girly wanted to seem more adult, and less childlike. only the best for boyfriend, her everything.
snuggles was tossed to waste away in the corner — but was still sporting a smile.
although snuggles was discarded, eventually he always returned back to his proper place in the center of girly’s bed among the warm pillows —
until one day snuggles was stranded in the wasteland between girly’s dresser and hamper.
he could still hear and see everything.
her interest in shakespeare changed to interest in boyfriend.
her interest in boy bands changed to interest in her boyfriend.
her interest in conspiracy theories changed to interest in boyfriend.
her interest in—
girly was drowning in a pool of boyfriend.
snuggles watched boyfriend smile into her temple.
snuggles watched girly say “i love you.”
boyfriend would kiss her hand and her mouth. not an “i love you” uttered from his lips.
worry couldn’t unstitch snuggles’ smile.
one rainy afternoon, girly’s sun fell out the sky and shattered;
the light in her world sank into a black hole — no constellations in sight.
her sun was gone, and what now?
she sat against the wall, a conundrum before her. but pluto surfaced.
as she picked up the bear from between the space,
his smile from cheek to cheek was warm and familiar:
a reminder that the sun can fall out of the sky.
she chose to stabilize the solar system — to sew a new sun into the sky.
girly’s old posters of one direction and mindless behavior came back out.
the vamps, 5sos, backstreet boys, n*sync, new edition and b2k graced her walls again.
she was up late watching theorists, a midsummer night’s dream lay on its spine nearby — snuggles was on her shelf, smile still stitched on.
in Absentia (13)
By Service Animal
Above the earth, there is a gateway to heaven
Above the earth, there is a fountain.
On the brink of your infinite joy,
You slip.
You fall
And fall
And fall
And fall.
To your brand new body.
“We love you.”
Service Animal’s album can be streamed on bandcamp (above) and on Soundcloud. You can download it for free or name your price. Enjoy the following playlist curated by the artist: Tart x Service Animal. It’s got a little bit of everythang.
About the Artists
Faith Destiny Cummings is a seventeen-year-old spunky poet with a passion for most things involving the arts. She will be attending Brooklyn College in the fall, and hopes to pursue a career in writing or law (or both). You can follow her on Instagram @poisedpolaroid.
Joshua Powell (aka Service Animal) is a musician living in Brooklyn by way of St. Croix, USVI. He is a founding member of the St. Croix music collective WYSF (Whenever You See Fit). You can follow him on Instagram @dionysia_wysf.