#0014 Weather is Sweet

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Ooooo Ladies (and the few gents) have you been experiencing the summer sun where you are?! I feel like our winter has been four years long and in these last couple of days we’re finally getting the summer we deserve! We can finally trust them who are out and about in the shorts and sliders with socks! They are finally, CORRECT!

I think I underestimated how vital Vitamin D (I’m still talking sun….) is for our psyche and I am back feeling good good good, I feel good yes wonderful good. IYKYK.

In other news, have you seen the recent TikTok trend re: The Black Wife effect? I have seen various talking points about how it’s double standards, how Black women hate seeing Black men with white women or how white men shouldn’t expect The Black Wife effect as ‘a service’ Black women offer. Honestly, my brain doesn’t want to compute all the thinkpieces around it because there is a lot of real s*** going on in the world which deserves our debate and our voice.

I can't lie this trend did sweet me! Some of the ‘glow-ups’ are just stunning! Swag comes in, it feels like every one of them suddenly grows a beard, they suddenly start seducing every camera with their eyes and I bet some have begun hitting the jollof hard. It has made me smile no end, mainly because I love us!

Juan recommends

Summer days deserve a day trip and here’s a couple of things you might want to see in the coming weeks.

Now for transparency I am working on both these projects but I wouldn’t take on anything I didn’t love so know I would recommend it wholeheartedly with my full chest (if you know me you know that's a lot).

BLACK JOY! Up Close and Personal at the Hastings Gallery and Art Museum -

Runs until Sunday 25 August 2024

Paying tribute to our happiness and curated by Lorna Hamilton-Brown RCA MBE, 'BLACK JOY! Up Close and Personal' exhibition showcases the creativity of over 40 talented Black artists from the South East of England through artworks spanning a range of mediums, from painting and fashion to textiles, sculpture, collage, photography and video.

The Great Privation: How To Flip Ten Cents into a Dollat at Theatre503 -

Runs until Saturday 1 June 2024

A play with the exploitation of Black bodies for medical science at its heart, The Great Privation tells the story where in early 1800’s Pennsylvania, a mother and daughter keep vigil at a grave. Today, at a Summer Camp on the same grounds, a new, yet not entirely different mother and daughter navigate a new, yet not entirely different landscape.

Alongside them, two distinct male figures move in and out of both sets of lives, threatening to unearth dark truths – or to help create them. As timelines collide and secrets and lives become buried and revealed, a reckoning comes calling to them all: the roots to our ancestors are not as long as we may think.

Meme of the Week

Until Monday Loved Ones,

I chose this week's book as its curator Elliot Rae launched a campaign recently called Parenting Out Loud. It's focus is on making men who are parents more visible within the workplace and challenging stereotypes. In the last couple of years there's been nothing more fascinating to me than hearing men's experiences on life particularly as the mother of two boys. As I write this my eldest and his dad have just come back from a men's circle allowing the space to share things that matter to them. It's so beautiful to know that is something the two of them can share and embraces the truth that men should be able to express their feelings. Men generally need more safe spaces to talk not only to us but each other. I want both my boys to have that and Elliot has been doing this important work for quite some time.

Here's the synopsis

DAD is a deeply moving and inspiring collection of stories that represent the diversity of modern fatherhood and seeks to start a conversation that challenges the traditions associated with masculinity.

Including 20 powerful and defiant stories about postnatal depression, becoming a new dad during the pandemic, miscarriage, widowhood, stillbirth, co-parenting, childbirth trauma, work-life balance, new dads at work, shared parental leave, being a stay-at-home dad, gay fatherhood and surrogacy, being a stepdad, black fatherhood, raising a child of dual heritage, being a single dad, faith and fatherhood, raising a child with autism, gender stereotypes and more. This is a ground-breaking book.