Monday Matter: Sexfluencers, the innocent and surviving suicide

Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup

Every Monday, we send subscribers and gift recipients of immigrant mental health and storytelling newsletter Foreign Bodies stories we recently inhaled and adored. This is also a chance to do some housekeeping and give shout-outs and all that jazz. Roundups are usually written by Fiza and edited by Farah.

First things first

A little housekeeping

Something I wrote…

For Bustle, I joined 15 other writers for the publication’s new Suburbs Series highlighting “the great relocation” from cities to suburbs. I reported on how longtime progressive activists and new activists in more conservative suburban towns can still get the ball rolling by finding community among likeminded change makers and becoming engaging members of their new neighborhood.

A musical start to your Mondays 🎧

One song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share

This week’s recommendation comes from my old friend Jayna H., who remembers their father telling them about Souad Massi, an Algerian Berber singer, songwriter and guitarist. Massi began her musical career with the Kabyle political rock band Atakor, which, according to Wikipedia, were influenced by Led Zeppelin and U2. But after receiving multiple death threats over the band’s lyrics, Massi left the country. She eventually signed with Island Records from Paris, France, where she currently lives. Beloved for her folk rock rhythms and “golden voice,” Massi is a lifelong student of the arts, and even studied Arabo-Andalousian classical music and music theory.

Resource(s) of the week

Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)

• BORDER/LINES: a weekly newsletter by Felipe De La Hoz and Gaby Del Valle designed to get you up to speed on the big developments in immigration policy

• *A Room For Writing: A weekly virtual safe space for writing alongside community from One Minute Press held every Saturday at 12 p.m. EST. Zoom Meeting ID: 965 4290 8019/Password: 703092.

• *Rebellious Magazine is on the hunt for pitches of personal essays on the theme of “sexual health and reproductive justice” as well as timely news coverage and profiles of impactful community work through Dec. 1. Rate: $250 for 750 words; $350 for 1,000 words. Pitch guide available here. Send directly to info@rebelliousmagazine.com with subject line “Attn: Submission.” (via Study Hall’s Opportunities newsletter)

Read this!

Personal stories I’m loving

• How Do We Survive Suicide? (Arianna Rebolini, Catapult): TW: Suicide. “While Jordan was hospitalized, I was deep in Sylvia Plath’s journals and letters, looking for evidence of what went wrong, what failed her. But mostly what I found was a person desperate to write her way out of fear. Attempts to communicate depression and suicidal thinking—to others but also, perhaps more significantly, to oneself—are paradoxically both powerful and insufficient.” I had to take a few days to read and return to this piece because it felt painfully close to home. But it is brilliantly, hauntingly written and woven, and I just have to recommend it for anyone who feels able to stomach a story about the continuous survival of suicidal ideation. Read here.