5 Gifts from Women
In March, I sought creations for and by women. I slowed down just enough to notice what mirrored my spirit and challenged me to go further. I’ve compiled a short list for your inspiration:
Reading
In 2020, Alice Walker shared something in a private Zoom Q&A that watered my soul. She described the feeling of completing her seminal work, The Color Purple, as a transcendental experience. As if the ancestor smiled upon her to deliver their message: a tale of Black girl and womanhood so clear and so deep that you could fall in. If you haven’t read The Color Purple, let this serve as your reminder. Until then, I offer you In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens (1972), another portal across time and space that feels like a beam from above.
Reflect:
What are your generational gifts? What comes naturally to you?
How are you a reflection of those who came before?
Where does your lineage end and you begin?
Watching
Slanted (2026)
In this modern racial horror, a first-generation Chinese girl undergoes permanent racial transformation to win the coveted prom queen title. The film seeks to express the psychological pain of indoctrination and the lengths we’ll go to belong. This spin on the classic “immigrant caught between two worlds” has an interesting premise. Slanted crawls toward body horror in its third act, underscoring the personal violence of racism and white supremacy. This is a worthy exploration of our desperate and violent attempts for safety and belonging under white supremacy. However, the pacing and skin-deep racial analysis left me hungry. I couldn’t help but wonder what racial horror films the director has seen. I wish they expanded the genre.
With a different direction, this film could include the existing East Asian proximity to whiteness (this, of course, is stratified by class) and what East Asian communities in the US are already doing to conform to white standards of beauty; perhaps the truth is more horrifying.
If you know me, you know what I recommend. Before you watch “Slanted,” take a gander at The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans by Claire Jean Kim.
Listening
When I need energy, I return to this Santigold song!
Don’t look ahead, there’s stormy weather
Another roadblock in our way
But if we go, we go together
Our hands are tied here if we stay
Oh, we said our dreams will carry us
And if they don’t fly, we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh, how to win what they all lost
Oh-ah, oh-ah
We know now we want more
Oh-ah, oh-ah
A life worth fighting for
Oh-ah, oh-ah
We know now we want more
Oh-ah, oh-ah
A life worth fighting for
So let them say we can’t do better
Lay out the rules that we can’t break
They wanna sit and watch you wither
Their legacy’s too hard to take
Following
Jen Randle @jmareerandle on IG
Jen crafts a kaleidoscope of poetry, archival images, proverbs, and musings on intrinsic wayfinding, her guide to interdependence and autonomy. I love giggling, tearing up, and side-eyeing alongside her. Find a piece of yourself in each slide via Instagram stories.
If you enjoyed this collection, I invite you to share it with someone else.
Keep Going,
KM
