Last Day Digest: August

August has served to be a huge month of transitions on my end, with a cross country move, a new job, the finish of my dissertation, on top of the continued heaviness of Covid-19, the failure of institutions in Covid-19 prevention, and of course, the continued violence against Black folx in America. This month's digest is shorter and I contemplated whether to even share, but figured I'd share nonetheless . 

Note: As always, the posts here are things I have found to be thought-provoking and compelling, but by no means are endorsements of the authors, organizations, and ideas. Also they are posted in no particular order.
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Surge Capacity |  A friend of mine shared this article by Tara Haelle about "surge capacity." The idea behind it is the constant adaptation we are enduring. I appreciated this line and this reflection: "How do you adjust to an ever-changing situation where the ‘new normal’ is indefinite uncertainty?"

Chadwick Boseman Reflecting on Cancer Patients |  I'm sure I'm not the only one devastated with the passing of Chadwick Boseman. And this interview where Boseman is emotional about two terminally ill boys who were waiting for Black Panther's premiere hits different now. 

Grieving People We Never Met | Relatedly, while this article was regarding Kobe Bryant's death, I appreciate reading about grief, and especially the grief we carry with folx we never met.

Whose Land are We On | This is a searchable map to learn the indigenous land we are currently on. As I incorporated a land acknowledgment in my syllabus (for the first time), I've appreciated learning more and having resources like this. 

Time Traveling with Words | Merriam Webster has a neat feature where you can discover when a word was first used in print. I enjoyed being able to scroll and see what the words were first used each year.

Writing and Disrupting Priorities with Elizabeth Acevedo | I recently learned about "88 Cups of Tea" - a podcast by Yin Chang. This episode is with Elizabeth Acevedo, whose book "With the Fire on High" I adore (which I wrote about it here). The episode is such a timely listen about rethinking our priorities, especially as it comes to writing.