I thought this 2016 thing was weird, but then I looked & was like man, I was surrounded by so many great people that year! (mostly @kro421 & @garyyounge & @boopsie_b ) how lucky am I? ❤️❤️❤️
Couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my 50th birthday than getting nosebleed seats to watch @thisispattismith with family & friends celebrate the 50th anniversary of her masterpiece, HORSES. Because she always brings me back to my true self.
I think the first time I saw her live was in the early-90s in Milan, then again in Berlin, in the late 90s, when she called her son Jackson (who was just a bashful teenager) onstage to perform smoke on the water, then in NYC in the 2000s both at the Village Vanguard & at the Knitting Factory. And last weekend at the Beacon Theater with the same roadie with black hair & a limp, she still spits onstage like a baseball player (though now she cleans it up with a towel) & Jackson, now a fully grown adult. She is still exactly herself, singing about Gaza & Ukraine, about the stolen land we live on, about power and love and poetry, about showing up for our neighbors, as she always has.
So good to be reminded of the times she showed up for me with her music & then IRL, when I asked her three times to support three of my authors & she showed up for them each time—with an intro, a blurb, an IG post, because she cares about social justice & about emerging writers.
Swipe through for snippets of song & to see who I still want to be when I grow up.
Grateful for Patti, then & now & forever. 🖤
Here’s my ode to my friend Jason, the best drug and homeless counselor I ever knew, and a fantastic human being. I’ve been heartbroken since his death. All peace and love to his family and friends:
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TFW you turn 50 & everyone in the room has the same retro phone case… 📼
Here’s to 25 years in America 😱
To precious friendships that have lasted decades ❤️
To countless chaotic parties past & future 🎈
To connecting people who make good trouble 👯♂️👯
To more of the same for the next 50!! 🎉🎉🎉
So happy to be part of @litquake 2025, especially on this panel! Please join me and Jeanne Carstensen, Shoshana Walter and Angela Garcia for a conversation about fostering empathy through nonfiction on Sunday, October 12, at 2:30 pm. in San Francisco at the CA College of the Arts
To be clear, “Bella ciao” was originally a protest song written by the mondine, women who worked the rice fields in northern Italy. It describes the hardship & cruel labor conditions of agricultural workers. Later, during the resistance, partisans changed the lyrics to describe fascist oppression & the desire to fight it till the last breath. This is the version that was popularized. But it was a labor song first. And when Italians sing it, it’s with the gravitas due when honoring labor, history, memory and sacrifice, of the workers & of the partisans.
#bellaciao 🇮🇹
