I think this is my first real newsletter
Things To Be Aware Of and questions for you (ie, should I have a signup to work with people on their poetry?) and the funniest shop in Iraq and seriously answering my queries would be dope
First: the Things To Be Aware Of and my Questions on Content
It occurred to me that having my miscellany section named “Maia writes” is probably confusing; it is now called “Maia says other shit sometimes”
I just realized that a few of the paintings I’ve used for my posts are for sale on my Etsy shop (and possibly some photos, but I don’t recall) along with commissions
If you’re a recent subscriber and interested in sharing some feedback, well, you’re welcome to just DM me, but you can also let me know if you want me to send you a survey that’s mostly about my posting schedule, but also some on topics, because I am struggling a bit with inspiration right now, so I’m cool with a bit of direction
I am more than happy to give anyone feedback or critiques on their poetry. Things:
I believe in Doing Poetry Right, so I have to be in the right headspace to do your work justice, and that can sometimes take over a week
Right now I have four or five people I am thrilled want my opinion, and but any more would be a bit overwhelming as I want to do a good job for everyone. Which naturally means I simply haven’t gotten back to anyone! (I’m so sorry you guys)
Thus I’m going to try to figure out a way to create a sign-up for anyone who’s interested. Anyone who knows how to do that, let me know?
Seriously consider filling out my survey. It’s 9 questions that are mostly multiple choice. It actually helps me see what people want to read which helps me know what to submit to journals etc, which, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m terrible at
Like, is it weird that I’m sending this additional email? Is this just too many emails? (Again, you can say this on the survey) Or is this a normal thing for people to share?
Any questions or suggestions? Comment or DM. Just random shit? Do the same
I’m pretty sure this is a newsletter. It might not be. So I’m pondering what are other tangible topics to write about
Would a story from my time in Iraqi Kurdistan be good (because I just wound up going off a bit in the third part) (and I don’t mean begging for donations to the NGO I volunteer with, I mean like something I did?)
Would the story I actually know well of how one of my grandmothers’ escaped be a good post, or overdone at this point? (I will say, based on the way it’s been recorded, thank god we have pretty genes in my family and that some men can be very easily distracted)
Is it super weird to just have esoteric, intangible things as well? Because I am definitely going to do that either way
Rants about whatever thing is seriously bothering me (ie, expect something on “pretty”)
Once I get past my mini-writer’s block, there will be a post on four places I recommend submitting to, and I would love for everyone to add their own suggestions in the comments, so contemplate!
I will respond to everyone who comments or messages. It may take me literally a month, but it will fucking happen. I think several of you can attest to that, so just know that, it’s just having way too much going on right now (and apparently for a long-ass time now), and I’m not ignoring you if I’m responding to comments and not messages; it just takes way fewer spoons
Second: Jewish stuff— for my points to make sense, they needed more explanation than I anticipated
Seriously, I do want to continue my Jews-are-normal-people-please-fight-antisemitism-because-it’s-real-bad-right-now series and do not know what to write about next, so if something occurs to you I super appreciate it. I’m aware it may not be one of the super popular things I write, but it’s the only thing about which I will explicitly say: please read this stuff. So far just the one. But the next one that will happen, too
Fucking hell, because I’ve learned this too many times, I will start with: I know Israel is committing genocide, I do not support it, I have always supported the existence of a Palestinian state, I still remember that Hamas is in fact a terrorist group, killing civilians on either side is bad because it’s always bad, guys. So don’t make any assumptions that I support any of those things, because if you’ve learned anything about me you should get that already, and being Jewish should not exclude me from the courtesy of not assuming I support the things the government, military, and extremists of Israel are doing
Also remember Trump, you guys. When he was president, did you want people to assume you supported like anything he did because you were American (this is obviously for the Americans)? Why think Israelis and the diaspora of Jews who have nothing to do with Israel are any different? Just consider that any time I don’t put this disclaimer (which is rare), and even when I have and people have skipped it, I get antisemitic shit. I literally have to tell people I’m a “good” Jew, because if I’m Jewish, I have to prove my basic human decency. That’s fucking bullshit
Honestly, do compare Netanyahu to Trump (wild simplification, but valid in my opinion)— a fucking crazy guy whose actions have literally just given the entire world permission to hate Jews openly now, instead of only alluding to stereotypes (which was obviously already bad, of course, but this is worse)
Learn the basic history of the creation of Israel, starting in the 1920s, and realize how much the west (UK and US) is to blame for the situation we’re currently in (not the genocide, but what led up to this boiling point, which, also, we should just remember did start with a terrorist attack, by a terrorist organization, which a horrifying number of people [mostly young] in the US are kind of supporting [according to the ADL, 42% of Americans either support Hamas or are fine with their family/friends supporting Hamas])
Check out how few countries would let more than a handful of Jews in, and remember that they had just been tortured and slaughtered for years and knew the rest of the world was aware, and didn’t stop it
And that in pretty much every country we’ve been in (turns out a lot of people aren’t aware of the Russian pogroms), we’ve been… let’s call it “discriminated against”
Recognize the position Jewish people were in after WWII when discussing their migration to Israel, and do not call them colonizers. That’s just inaccurate. Again, the west did that, and yes, Israel has done shitty things to various groups in the mideast since the start of their country and compare to like, so many other countries, and think about why it’s this one that people are thrilled to openly, actively hate
And then, as you’re learning this history, make sure you learn the reasons why the US and UK would want Israel there (super simplified version— why put a group of people who would be hated by all of their neighbors in an area you’ve never been able to get a solid enough foothold in? Hm, well then maybe that group will be forced to be your ally because they’ll be dependent on your protection against said surrounding countries who hate them and then you’ll have an entry into said region…)
If you’re Jewish in any way, even, like me, “culturally” and don’t believe in God, you are automatically hated and in real, physical danger, treated like you’re an Other, have varying levels of epigenetic trauma (my family has a shit ton because fucking everyone barely escaped getting killed for being Jewish), and shit I’m too tired to think of right now if people learn you’re Jewish. And it is random as hell who might be targeted.
A reminder to not use the term Judeo-Christian, because it’s a stupid term that doesn’t mean anything in reality. The religions have so little in common it almost always just means Christian, and it implies that Judaism is anywhere near as widespread as Christianity or Islam, the two religions it’s typically grouped with, and not .2% of the world’s population
Incidentally, one way to respond to Jewish conspiracy theories about us controlling the world somehow is to remind people that out of 8 billion people, we are fewer than sixteen million
Honestly, just sharing, my feelings about antisemitism are not just because of my own Judaism, but more the same reason I fight for the Yazidi— because I can’t stand this sort of injustice?
And yes, antisemitism will continue to come up again, because if I have to constantly endure low key antisemitic remarks (to high key death threats or near misses), ie recently seeing a journal that said Israelis were not allowed to submit, as if one can control being Israeli, or having left a community center where my mother and I used the gym two hours before a shooter showed up and did his thing, then yep, I’m going to keep showing everyone else a sliver of how bad it is, so they get why we need people who aren’t Jewish to speak up for us
I would also just like to compare last year’s Target Christmas (one section, not the entirety) and Hanukkah (yes, all of it— please note they value a menorah at $5) (I do like the dinosaur) sections for those “War on Christmas” crazies (and report from a friend who works at Target that they started putting up the Christmas stuff like a few weeks ago this year)— this is no way upsets me, to be clear, I just think it’s kind of hilarious the ways corporations try to show that they support “diversity” or “minorities”:
(Oh, and Batman is kinda super appropriate I now realize, because out of the three truly American art forms (jazz, graffiti, and comics), Jews started comics)
Third: people I adore
Shoutouts to people who are awesome writers and majorly supportive here in case you missed my note because I feel like that algorithm has gotten weird, by which I mean I thought it was me and someone told me that:
, , , , , , , , , , , and newcomer and christ I’m sorry if I’m forgetting someone blame the insomnia please it really does make your brain work less wellDo not give me any insomnia tips please. It’s genetic, it’s been true for me since I was about 3, I have definitely heard it before. The only new tip I ever heard was at a Taylor Tomlinson show, in which I learned that she asks for weird sleeping tips at her shows, and someone once told her to lie on a tiled floor for ten minutes. Didn’t work for me, but unless it’s that out there, I am already aware
Everyone I’ve mentioned and more are amazing and part of my community and I recommend you guys check each other out and make it a real spider diagram
Fourth: pondering and micro-moments
I really never know how to end things. So. I’m just going to share a Thing. This is an actual place that existed and never appeared to be open about a block away from where I was living in Kurdistan. I wish for an explanation.
Please leave any guesses in the comments.
I will acknowledge a few taxi drivers I chatted with (completely ignoring the rule about women taking taxis alone) were in favor of Trump because the only policies of his they knew were providing some money to the mideast. Which, fair.
But is it positive? Negative? Why is he connected to fish? I’m vegetarian so I wasn’t paying attention to how common a dish fish was. Just from a brief search it seems trout is common in the Tigris but pollution is making this less and less accessible (of course— I mean think about how much oil comes from fields in Iraq yet we completely lost power about 30% of the time. Which did make the moon almost too bright— when I went out to the desert, it was unbelievably beautiful. Same when camping with the Bedouin in Jordan. [Sorry, I got over excited on a tangent]).
Just kind of hilarious. Also wonder if this place existed with this same name before Trump was president.
And incidentally I was indeed there at a time that I was worried I would be stopped by the Muslim country ban, because fucking Trump (I mean also ISIS, I am aware of that; ISIS was still very much a problem that people were actually paying attention to). Everyone would have helped me if I got stuck, let me live with them, harass people at the embassy to try to get me to Turkey or something— I would have been fine, ultimately, but god am I glad not to have dealt with that. The only actually scary bureaucratic part was having to leave my passport at the embassy to get my visa extended. I chose to just not think about it.
And I am definitely on some security lists now (especially since I visited a friend in Mexico about a month after I got back).
Wow. That was way more than I expected to write. I really hope I’m not forgetting anything super obvious I needed to share, which was the original point…
I will tie this off by saying, thank you, so much, everyone who is here with me. My writing comes from me, like the real me, and it means so much that people find that worth caring about. You all seriously rock.
I don't know about anyone else, but I could use some education on Judaism in the first place. Like the different kinds of racial and religious groups, how stereotypes arose, and so forth. I've never to my knowledge met any offline but it's entirely possible they don't tell people they're not very close to.
Like I know more about various antisemites than Jewish people. I know term Ashkenzai but not the definition. I know some of the history but little of the traditions beyond Hanukkah, menorahs, and dreidels. And what I do know might be more stereotypes.
I've heard of (and a lot of support for) a "two-state solution" but that means no more to me than "taco piñata pasta."
I adore you too , thanks for the adoration :)