"so many icons" b/w "hot commie summer"

Friday Seven // 0009

Hello and a brief introduction: this is a newsletter called "Friday Seven," written by me, Melissa Gira Grant, journalist and author, to record seven things that are still on my mind as the week runs down. Welcome/back. I'm currently at work on a new book, called A Woman Is Against the Law, which will be published by Little, Brown. I'm also a staff writer at The New Republic, where I've spent the past five years reporting on all that is under attack (again), which is not really a "beat," but is how it looks to me. You can find me most often on Bluesky.

Got my copy this week of The Portable Feminist Reader*, containing an essay from me called "Happy Hookers"—which was more or less the pitch for my previous book, Playing the Whore. Very surreal/exciting to have that anthologized alongside so many icons who also shaped me, such as Gayle Rubin, Audre Lorde, Donna Haraway, Kate Bornstein, and Ellen Willis. (And two more who feature heavily in the new book, who you will have to guess then.)

// 1. Well, fuck. The Supreme Court term is over. And the story I wrote this week on Skmretti, in part to respond to one bad NYT story scapegoating trans people for even bringing this case, was published the same day as another such bad story……….

// 2. I got my nasturtiums in the garden this morning before the heat hit 90 again in New York. "Hot commie summer" in NYC.

// 3. The first (and still my favorite) take on Zohran Mamdani's New York mayoral primary win this week came from Spencer Ackerman (which I read at about 4AM before going to bed on Wednesday after filing my Skrmetti piece.)

// 4. Mahmoud Khalil returned to New York.

// 5. Eardrum Buzz Radio ("post genre music for introverts and other music fans"), programed by humans from Southern California, has been my work companion all week.

// 6. The untrue statement that "Bees can be present in desktop computers built after the mid-2000s, but only at a microscopic level."

// 7. Read This When Things Fall Apart, edited by Kelly Hayes (out in November from AK Press*) also arrived this week. Some incredibly sharp and creative minds have contributed letters here, including "If You Are Organizing Outside the Law" (Brit "Red" Schulte), "If You're Hurting and Want to Find Your People" (Ash Williams), "If You Want to Defeat Fascism" (Shane Burley), and "If You Are Panicking About Collapse" (Chris Begley), and many more.

Thanks for reading. You are still here.

* As a Bookshop.org affiliate, I receive a small commission on books you purchase via my links or my bookshop. (Including a very preliminary pre-order link for my new book.)