Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Vol 5, Res 3: 211.org and BHM with Rachel Cargle
This is a public issue of Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice. Feel free to share it!
Hi Friends! Life has been nonstop the past week. My day job is incredibly busy. We released a new episode of our podcast. I joined a new writing group, which is a silent writing group that meets over Zoom once a week. For those keeping score, I still don’t have my own vehicle. It’s still at the mechanic, waiting for backordered parts. By about 8:30 pm every night I’m so tired I could cry. I'm listening to a podcast series for work that is tearing me wide open (I'll probably share it once I'm done with it). I'm still kickin' and I hope you are too. I am, however, forcing myself to do 10-15 minutes of piano-learning every day after dinner and look what I got earlier this week:
It’s resource week so let’s get to it!
Resource 1: 211.org
In the United States, 211 is the telephone number for information and referrals to social services and other assistance. I have not called the number and I can’t speak to how helpful the folks on the other ends of the line are; however, 211.org is the associated website and you can search for your “local 211” by zip code. When you get to the page for your local area, you can find tons of resources for health and human services in your area. There is a range of services like job preparation and training, food assistance, emergency housing, utility assistance, parenting support, and more. Of course, it is limited to what is available in your area but it’s a handy resource to know about instead of searching for all these things individually.
Resource 2: #DoTheWork for Black History Month with Rachel Cargle
As she has done in the past, Rachel Cargle is not going to use her platform to teach for Black History Month. As she explains here, each day she will post a prompt on her Instagram page for people to do our own Googling, researching, and reading, and not depending fully on the free labor of Black women to educate ourselves. Most everyone has the capacity to do some learning on their own and as a Black person, I appreciate Rachel Cargle refusing to spoon-feed those who are already benefiting from white privilege.
Recent & Current Reads
Inclusion of a book in this section is not necessarily a recommendation and these books won’t necessarily be added to my Bookshop.
Recently Read:
Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay
Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You by A'Ja Wilson
Currently Reading:
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams (Yes, I am still working on this)
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (out 2/27)
A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining by Rachel E. Cargle
That’s it for this week! You can shop many books I’ve mentioned in this newsletter at my affiliate shop, The Infophile’s Bookshop, and support independent bookstores. In fact, any Bookshop, Amazon, or Etsy links in this newsletter are affiliate links so if you shop through those, it helps support my work. Or you can leave me a tip on Ko-fi, Paypal, or Venmo.
If you want to send me some snail mail, you can find me at P.O. Box 21481, Oakland, CA 94620-1481.
You can find our podcast, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts.