Meredith

Image by Leslie Feinberg.

Image by Leslie Feinberg.

This week saw the passing of the author, activist, and revolutionary communist Leslie Feinberg. In addition to authoring the life-changingly incredible novel Stone Butch Blues (and many other texts on queer and trans life), ze was a managing editor of Workers World newspaper, in which ze maintained a longstanding column about queer history. Feinberg also worked tirelessly as a human rights advocate from the 1970s onward, educating and organizing against oppression and human rights violations in hir community and beyond. Hir tireless pursuit of a free and just world will continue to inspire millions in the years to come.

November 20 was the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day set aside to honor those who have lost their lives as a result of transphobic violence and to acknowledge and consider how those losses affect queer and trans communities around the globe. are at a far greater risk of murder and suicide than the general population, but when considering what it means to lose one’s life to transphobia, one must also take into account the disproportionate rate of homelessness among trans youths, the very real consequences of losing jobs or housing situations, targeting by law enforcement and the prison-industrial complex, and being unable to get access to (or being denied) adequate medical care.

In the last year, there have been 226 reported deaths in over 20 countries, with an overwhelming majority being trans women of color. This is an incredibly important truth that often gets glossed over, even in the trans community, which is a harmful form of erasure that can only be stopped by active unlearning on an individual level. It’s imperative even in times of reflection and remembrance to consider what we can do going forward to repudiate the systems that have already taken so many lives in order to prevent them from claiming more.

Image via Gawker.

Image via Gawker.

Fun fact: My father was a TV news reporter for most of my childhood. He had a closet of tailored suits, ironed dress shirts, and every color tie under the sun. It was his uniform, day in and day out, and aside from the ironing, it was effortless. The women at his station weren’t so lucky. They were often subjected to phone calls and emails critiquing their hairstyles and message board threads about outfits, and it was common knowledge that female broadcast journalists were constantly having their appearance monitored by the viewing public.

Karl Stefanovic, a male newscaster in Australia, took notice of this cruel dichotomy. Stefanonic quietly decided to wear the same suit every day for a year, so as to draw attention to the constant, unfair criticism his female co-anchor received about her appearance. And, SURPRISE… not! Nobody gave a damn about his suit, or even noticed. Cool, and sort of gross, of him to point it out that way.
Brittany

Image via Jezebel.

Image via Jezebel.

Drake’s the type of dude who seems like he genuinely appreciates and loves mother-like figures, so the writer Jia Tolentino’s interview with Drizzy’s vocal coach, Dionne Osborne, comes off especially cute. Osborne details the loving and honest work relationship between her and one Mr. Aubrey Graham. Osborne imparts little tidbits of Drake trivia, discussing his love of sweet tea, his kind disposition, and his willingness to take direction. The conversation is hella interesting and Osborne makes some super important points on how rappers should engage with vocal training in the same way pop singers do. My absolute favorite part is when she answers the question on the coolest tour stop she’s visited:

One time we started a tour in Düsseldorf, Germany—I can’t remember the name of the facility right now, but it’s where Hitler used to hold his youth rallies. The original balconies are still there, and the second balcony on the right was literally where Hitler stood, and the Allies dropped the bomb straight through the roof, and the bomb did not explode.

I looked at Drake and was like, “You, as a black Jewish man, are standing on this stage right now.” I was like, how cool is this—it’s the ultimate finger to everything Hitler stood for. And Drake gets it. He’s somebody that wants to make his mark.

Can I hire her as my life coach?!

Photo by Sara Krulwich for the New York Times.

Photo by Sara Krulwich for the New York Times.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s creator and original star John Cameron Mitchell is going to reprise his role in the Broadway revival AND I AM FLIPPING OUT ABOUT IT. Neil Patrick Harris opened the new run and was followed up by Andrew Rannells and now Michael C. Hall. For superfans of the off-Broadway show turned cult favorite movie musical, this is news to be totally stoked on and a run to not be missed!
Nova

Image via MTV.

Image via MTV.

On Monday AM, I spied a photo of Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson’s wedding, where the couple was dressed in cream and white and riding all-white bicycles, in my Twitter timeline and I had to drop everything! Theirs must be the most gorgeous and original wedding I have ever seen. Solange made a striking bride in her minimalist, caped cream pantsuit AND dress. Tumblr and Twitter were graced with photo after flawless photo of Solange (and her majestic afro) in the company of her husband, her sister King Bey, and their mama Tina Knowles looking regal. This wedding made my week!

Photo by Nathaniel Wood for the New York Times.

Photo by Nathaniel Wood for the New York Times.

Willow and Jaden Smith are so cool! What I love about them: their fierce spirits, and how committed they are to learning about the world and interpreting life according to their own unique perspectives. The fact that they’re in the spotlight means that they get called “weird” a lot, and it’s great to see that they don’t want to conform to be deemed more acceptable. I found myself nodding along as I read this New York Times interview with the Smith siblings, like, I get it, I get it! I think they’re both so smart.
Stephanie

Image by Norbert Wu, Minden Pictures/Corbis.

Image by Norbert Wu, Minden Pictures/Corbis.

Like many of my fellow Rooks, I love the ocean and think deep sea creatures are literally the best thing ever, so for the past year I’ve been following the story of the large die-off of sea stars (or starfish, as I’ve always called them) along the West Coast of the US and Canada with deep sadness. This week, researchers identified what’s plaguing the starfish as “sea star-associated densovirus.”

This National Geographic article breaks “densovirus” down for science/ecology laypeople like me, explaining that this type of parvovirus—meaning a kind of virus that mostly affects animals, a word I recognized as something the vet ruled out when my cat was having stomach problems—melts the starfish into white slime over the course of a few weeks. The scientists don’t know what triggered the outbreak that is killing millions of sea stars, but they hope that, with continued research, they can prevent it from spreading to sea stars in other parts of the world.

On Wednesday, the 2014 National Book Awards were celebrated in New York City. Here’s a full breakdown of the NBA winners, but the one I am most excited about is Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, which won in the “Young People’s Literature” category. It’s a beautiful memoir told in verse about Woodson’s coming of age in South Carolina and New York during the ’60s and ’70s as the Jim Crow era came to an end and the Civil Rights movement gained momentum.

However, Woodson’s moment was tarnished by the host, Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, making racist jokes straight afterward. Handler has apologized, and with that apology made a major donation to the We Need Diverse Books campaign, but it’s still disgusting that it happened. Again, Woodson’s book is brilliant—so that it isn’t overshadowed by the controversy, I encourage you all to read it!

Another moment from the NBAs that should not be overlooked: The speech that the legendary fantasy writer Ursula Le Guin made after being awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She had much to say about art versus commerce and profit versus freedom. It’s worth listening to and thinking about.
Caitlin

Image by Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press.

Image by Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press.

When members of a drug cartel confessed to the murder of 43 student activists from the rural Ayotzinapa Normal school in Mexico, it wasn’t enough to stop the tide of civilian protest that was unleashed when the 43 went missing on September 26. On November 20, the anniversary of the start of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, the country went on a nationwide strike, staging massive protests that were echoed in smaller versions around the world.

The vast majority of people taking to the streets over the Ayotzinapa 43 are regular old civilians who are sick of business as usual—similar to those who were activated in the United States during Occupy. The reporter Daniel Hernandez released two and a half hours of raw, live footage from the big rally in Mexico City. In the video, he goes into the crowds and interviews the protesters. Watching this video, I got a sense of the increasing awareness that is sweeping the country.

Photo by Jennifer Kirkland via VICE.

Photo by Jennifer Kirkland via VICE.

You’ll get a case of real-life shivers after reading this piece on a man who was found with a self-inflicted stab wound in a haunted house in Iowa. Remind me again why people pay money to sleep in ghost-infected historic sites?

The only thing sadder than the gruesome campus rape story that opens this piece on predatory college campus culture in Rolling Stone is the fact that few women who have attended a sloshy party at a frat house will find it shocking. This piece is a damning indictment not only of University of Virginia, where the attack took place and was summarily swept under the rug, but of college administrations everywhere that accept sexual violence as part of the four-year experience. Proceed with caution: trigger warnings for sexual assault.
Chanel

Image via Jezebel.

Image via Jezebel.

It’s been a big week for One Direction, and of course the stans are hella out right now. So why not read this amazing and “sobering” roundtable about 1D? The conversation touches on the guys’ current relationship with their fans, their public image, and their past, present and future.

Image via Salon.

Image via Salon.

The death of Elvis Presley is just short of legendary. Salon posted an excerpt of the writer Joel Williamson’s new book, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, which uncovers the events surrounding the King’s last breath. Was his heart really to blame? Read this enticing passage to find out!!
Meagan

AHHH, RIDE HAS REUNITED! The ’90s-era shoegaze greats are playing a string of shows in Europe and North America. Ride hugely influenced lots of rock bands beyond just the shoegaze scene with their soaring melodies and deeply expressive lyrics. For a musical genre that wasn’t very popular in its heyday, it’s really incredible that the past few years has produced such interest in the nostalgic scene, and that these old shoegaze bands (like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive) can reunite to critical and commercial success. Ride’s debut album Nowhere is one of my absolute favorite records and it is an essential piece of music history—I am SO EXCITED to finally hear it played live.

The profoundly personal stories from all of the interviewees in StyleLikeU’s “What’s Underneath” project are proof that our insecurities and fears and hopes are singular lived experiences, but also form a common thread that ties us all together. The project has been so successful that StyleLikeU has launched a Kickstarter in order to raise funds for a feature-length documentary film. The team will travel around the world, filming stories told by people of all races, genders, body types, and ages. StyleLikeU has unwaveringly supported the notion that all bodies are valid and worthy of love, and I hope the Kickstarter is funded, so they can bring that critically important message to an even wider audience.

This week, President Obama announced several executive actions relating to undocumented immigrants. The order, which will positively impact an estimated 5 million Americans, will prevent families from being split up due to detention or deportation. Immigration policy in the United States has led to nuclear and extended families being torn apart, and going forward many families will no longer have to live with such an unconscionable fear. The President’s plan also includes a path to citizenship for undocumented Americans and expansion of the work-visa program. ♦