My Brilliant Friends (Part 1/??)
They are cool, smart and creative and you should check out their work!
I’m blessed to have many brilliant friends and colleagues across many sectors and wanted to love on them and brag about a few of them so you too can experience their awesomeness. I’ll continue to share more of my brilliant friends and their work in future newsletters! (Also, it may be a shock to some of you: I did not enjoy the Elena Ferrante My Brilliant Friend series or tv show!)
Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed: I got to know Taz through Asian American community organizing and political work and her art and poetry! Check out her Wandering Ephemera newsletter, her art (I own the print below, Aunties with a Deadly Stare), and her poetry. She and I also share a love / hate relationship with holiday movies, but she’s actually writing her own to disrupt their white supremacy!
Tim Horvath: Over 30 years of friendship, Tim has always exposed me to alternate ways of thinking, reading, listening and experiencing the world. Tim is a writer and educator of young minds and has a perspective and voice has always been unique. Check out his novella Circulation and his short story collection Understories which won the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Work of Fiction
Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman: I met both Shanterra and Rosalind in DC in the late 1990s when we were all involved in the same non profit. Their 2022 book Courageous Discomfort: How to Have Important, Brave, Life-Changing Conversations about Race and Racism is a “handbook on how to have candid conversations around race and become a better advocate.” Shanterra is a speaker, advocate and author for young people as well as for the adults who want to support them. Rosalind is a speaker and author of many books focusing on how to support young people and supporting educators in being there in smarter and compassionate ways for their students.