get you some business.
thoughts on worrying about yourself + reads & vibes for your weekend.
happy friday my friend! how are you? hope you’re well. let’s jump right in!
thoughts at large.
I think we would all do better if we knew less about each other. Not in a rude way but - we are chronic oversharers. Sometimes that can bring positive results - we find community in transparency, and that’s helpful. More often than not though, we know too much about each other’s personal lives, and invite ourselves into conversations that have nothing to do with us.
I saw this play out this week via conversations about Ciara’s outfit at the Vanity Fair party post the Oscars. The picture, for reference, is below.
I mean - she didn’t leave much for the imagination but this is CIARA! This is what she does. Plus, this was on theme for the party.
The comments were going crazy, though - the conversation went from opinions about the fashion to judgments of her faith walked and commentary about not being able to turn a “h*e into a housewife”. I thought that was the funniest part because her husband was by her side the whole night. Do you think if he wasn’t okay with that he would be standing by her side? Let’s be for real. It may not work for you, but - that’s you. Just a reminder - we don’t know these people, and social media has created a false sense of proximity that we should really address - and it’s not just with celebrities. We can see someone on social media and think we know what’s going on in their lives when in actuality, we only see a small portion of what they’re choosing to share with us. Social media posts do not mean you know someone!
One of the phrases that I’ve adopted, that I wish more people would hop on board with is this: “Not my story, not my life.” When I get too caught up in what’s going on in someone else’s life/story - I will literally say that out loud to remind myself to focus on my own race. It’s super easy to fall into the trap of talking about or writing “think pieces” about something that happened to someone else. We have to know that unless we’re in it, we don’t and won’t ever know the whole story!
Let’s just talk about what we know about. We’ll all be better for it!
reads + vibes.
SWARM - a show loosely based on the STAN culture around artists like Beyonce & Nicki Minaj, is now available on Prime Video. It stars Dominique Fishback, Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris. I’ll be checking it out this weekend.
Queen’s Court - If you watched Taye Diggs’ dating show “Back in the Groove” you will understand the concept behind the new show on Peacock called “Queen’s Court”. Produced by Will Packer and hosted by Rodney & Holly Robinson Peete - the show follows Evelyn Lozada, Tamar Braxton & Nivea in their quest to find love. I’ve watched a few episodes and it’s been fun. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Instead of dropping new songs in here on a weekly basis, I decided - why don’t I just make a playlist that gets updated weekly? The Update Weekly Playlist is here, and it’s curated with the fire songs that I’m checking out on a weekly basis. This week I’ll call out a pack of remixes from Alex Vaughn, who pulled in assists from Muni Long, Summer Walker & Ari Lennox, + new music from Usher, 6Lack, Jidenna, Elhae & Mac Ayres. Save it on your streamer using these links. - Spotify | Apple Music
That’s all for this week! Love you, mean it! Oh and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
