September 28, 2025

an attempt at fashioning / something pretty

Some causes worth supporting:

• local food banks. Give money.

• local libraries. Give money, get a library card, show up to events.

• local media organizations. Give money, subscribe to and open their newsletters, attend their events, send a supportive note to a journalist whose reporting you appreciate.

• local community-based groups. Ask them what they need.

• the friends and family who are important to you. Be present.

Attribution

dear reader, with our heels digging into the good 
mud at a swamp’s edge, you might tell me something 
about the dandelion & how it is not a flower itself 
but a plant made up of several small flowers at its crown 
& lord knows I have been called by what I look like 
more than I have been called by what I actually am & 
I wish to return the favor for the purpose of this 
exercise. which, too, is an attempt at fashioning 
something pretty out of seeds refusing to make anything 
worthwhile of their burial.
— from How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This by Hanif Abdurraqib