8 Tiny Escapades From My Week
aka offline adventures big & small
One of my main inspirations for leaving Instagram is Lee Tilghman and her page Offline Time. She delves into life post-influencer, as in post walking away from influencer life despite lots of big numbers (pay/followers/presumably dopamine hits) being at play. My favourite part of her page is her “10 Offline Things I Did This Week” series. I love it because it still exudes “very online” behaviour, sharing at length what you did with people on the internet is very much late-2000s blogger energy. Without exposing my teen blog that still resides on the internet, 15-year-old me similarly wrote on the internet, sharing all of my tiny escapades (future band name?). Over a decade later, I’m still escapading, I still like to share things online, but fortunately, I’m so over Cath Kidston kitsch. Taking a leaf out of Lee’s book (aka copying), here are my offline scoops.
8 Tiny Escapades (aka offline adventures big or small) From My Week:
Watched ‘Poor Things’ – I went to the cinema with a friend to watch ‘Poor Things’. I accepted the invitation only knowing that there was some hype around the film and having seen Emma Stone and Willem Defoe on Graham Norton a week prior (again, I love cable TV). Yesterday, a friend asked me about the film and all I could say was it was a fantastical dystopia set in a world created by Wes Anderson’s moody cousin. I do, however, have great reservations about the use of the Black characters as emotional emancipators — the tropes are endless and uninspiring.
Switched to mushroom coffee – I’m still trialling different brands so there’s no solid conclusion yet. I also stumbled upon a free Nespresso machine last week so maybe this alternative coffee experiment will become a dud? Let’s see.
Went to a sound bath – I was fortunate enough to spend an evening lying flat on a faux fur hide atop a yoga mat in a room filled with Palo Santo, willing bodies and the sweetest, most soothing sounds. The event was a random recommendation in an email from Eventbrite (maybe I won’t unsubscribe). To my delight and surprise, the event page revealed to me that the host of the sound bath was actually someone I’d met at the end of summer. After swapping details, I had promised I’d go to one of her shows, however, leaving IG meant losing contact with a lot of people; when the event popped up in my inbox I was happy to have the chance to follow through with my word. Weirdly, I also wound up running into her again yesterday and it was really nice to be able to tell her about the state of my inner world post-sound bath.
Salsa – I’ve been taking Salsa classes, queer Salsa classes. This year I switched to Cuban Salsa which is very big on sensuality. There’s a level of embodiment that I felt called to offer, a sexual energy that I hadn’t tapped into in my former Salsa classes, more importantly, it was not the energy I thought I’d have to channel on a random weeknight in a studio space beneath a queer bookshop, but, it’s good to know I can when necessary.
Reading June Jordan – Still incapable of slipping into meditation like I used to, I decided rather than force something that wasn’t coming, I’d sit in meditation with the words of one of my favourite writers/minds, June Jordan. Every morning, somewhere between 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM, I find an untouched poem and read, mull over, read again, and sometimes take notes. June Jordan is a love poet, she writes about love for herself, for the world, her people, my people. Jordan’s writing is tender and technical, often forcing me to work backwards with it, to assess its visceral impact and pinpoint the source of what unfurled within me.
No words for how much I love this poem 
the temporary is the sacred!! Sprained my wrist – It hurts :(
Another trip to the cinema – This time to watch ‘The Kitchen’. I got to be a +1 to a special screening of the film followed by a Q&A with the film’s co-director, producers and casting director. It was spectacular. Dark yet vibrant and weirdly aligned with ‘Parable of the Sower’ which I’m reading at the moment, so a lot of food for thought. Good show! Highly recommend!
A trip to Autograph Gallery - Technically, I haven’t been yet. Later today, my friend and I will be taking in the work of two incredible Black Photographers, Armet Francis and Hélène Amouzou. The run of the current exhibitions ends tomorrow, so I’m very glad to see the shows in the nick of time.
hbu, wuu2? lmk...fr
text/email/smoke signals, just lmk.
Listen to: SHALLOW (PPL SWIM IN SHALLOW WATER) by Saya Gray
lovely read thank u for sharing luv