Hi Friends!
I’m Patricia. I’m Black, Asian, and queer. I’ve had a lifetime of answering questions in various settings. I was a sex educator & dating expert for years. I have a Master’s of Library and Information Science. I talk a lot about books but my degree can be summed up in three things: being able to find information, being able to tell valid information from bullshit, and making information accessible.
I also do a lot of emotional and intellectual labor around giving allies information and resources about race, LGBTQIA things, intersectional feminism, mental illness (I’m a member of the clinical depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder club), and that’s just the stuff from a first-hand perspective.
I also read a lot of self-help/self-improvement books and I’m repeatedly disappointed. They rarely feel applicable. I don’t feel like a badass when depression makes it so I don’t even want to be out of bed. I don’t want to win friends and influence people when I have social anxiety that keeps me in hiding. “Leaning in” doesn’t always work when you’re a woman of color and nor can I manifest things out of thin air.
So, I’ve started this newsletter. There’s not a lot of self-improvement for me, so I gotta make my own thing. I also want allies to stop bothering their one Black or queer or depressed friend and asking them to do emotional labor for free. At best, I want to be a resource people can use and recommend. At least, I hope to share some laughs, some thoughts, and lots of encouragement and resource recommendations of my own.
We’re all in this together.
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.