This Week
From Humanae by Angélica Dass (Image via Demilked)
Brazilian photographer Angélica Dass’ project, Humanae, provides beautiful representation of all skin colors throughout the world. One giant step for women in the W.N.B.A. whose new contract will nearly double maximum salaries and provide paid maternity leave. While women directors may have been snubbed by the Oscar nominations, their 2019 films accounted for $1.7 billion at the box office. When TV Writer/Producer Melissa Hunter tweeted that she wanted more stories of middle-aged women getting their big breaks (instead of the usual 30 under 30), she got so many amazing and inspiring responses. Wait, 47 is supposed to be when it all goes downhill? But that’s when Margit started TueNight! So, 🖕 This gorgeous essay by Lizzie Skurnick gets to the heart of being part of the “sandwich” generation. Forget going around in circles, in Canada you can go ice skating on trails through the woods, so...road trip?
JANUARY THEME: SENDOFF
Editor's Note: We spend a lot of our younger years acquiring: jobs, friends, expertise, furniture, money. One of the sure signs we have crossed life's midline is when we find ourselves letting go. As we head into the new year, and the new DECADE, this month’s theme brings stories of what it is we are leaving behind, whether we wanted to or not.
I Sent My Anxieties Downriver — On a Grapefruit
By Melissa Rayworth
"On the night of the full moon of the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar, people all over Thailand (including me, for the three years that I lived there) stop to consider what they are ready to let go — what mistakes from the past year they are ready to forgive themselves for, what less-than-healthy habits or patterns of thinking they’re ready to outgrow, what pain they are ready to release."
Keep reading...
Obsessed: Cold Killers
(Images via Amazon)
As soon as I felt that tell-tale tickle in the back of my throat on Sunday, I knew. Something was coming and it was not good. By Monday morning I was hacking and hocking and searching every purse on my shelf for an errant Ricola. I’m a lover, not a fighter, but when it comes to possibly shortening the duration of a cold I am ready to do battle. Here’s my list of weapons:
Elderberry Gummies: The last go ‘round with a cold I found myself red-nosed and sniffling in front of the endless options on the wellness shelf, when a fellow shopper approached and placed a bottle of these in my hand. Elderberry
Dr. Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar (with the mother): Studies have shown that the acetic acids in Apple Cider Vinegar have antimicrobial properties, and can be particularly helpful in curing a cough.
Oil of Oregano capsules: Oil of Oregano has antioxidant properties that are good for immunity. I was originally using Oregano Spirits as a tincture in a glass of water, but lord have mercy, it tastes so foul. I can stand it slightly better in a glass of V-8, but was happy to learn from a fellow TueNighter that I can just get these capsules and avoid smelling like a pizza parlor.
Starbucks’ Medicine Ball: I was yesterday years old when I learned about this one. It’s a combination of Citrus Mint Tea and Peach Tranquility tea mixed with steamed lemonade and two packets of honey. Good for when you’re still trying to function in the outside world, but pretty much what I make at home with fresh squeezed lemon (more Vitamin C!) and maybe a splash of bourbon at bedtime
Bone Broth: There’s a cafe up the street from me in Brooklyn that makes a deliciously rich bone broth, and whether or not the reputed health benefits are true, it’s just the indulgence I need when battling a stubborn cold.
—Karen Gerwin
GET TIX! TUENIGHT LIVE, 1/28 in NYC
Join us January 28 at Luminary in Manhattan! For our Winter edition of TueNight Live we're taking RISKS - telling tales of life after the leap. We will be at the beautifully bright and women-oriented private community Luminary. This edition's storytellers include Bridgett M. Davis, Carmen Rita Wong, Robin Gelfenbien, Taiia Smart Young and Stacy Morrison plus more to come! As always, we'll have wine, delish snacks and fabulous stories from women who have been there/ done that.
TueNight 10: Julia Munemo
Julia on a visit to CapeTown, South Africa, with her family in December
Age: 45
Quick bio: Julia is a writer currently living in western Massachusetts. Fifteen years ago, a stack of pulp fiction written by her long-dead father landed on her kitchen table — most of the novels were interracial porn. Julia, a white woman, had been married to a black man for six years by then, and their first son was a toddler. Her memoir, The Book Keeper: a Memoir of Race, Love, and Legacy, tells the story of what happened when she finally faced her shame about her father’s secret career and cracked open those books.
Beyond the Bio: “I couldn’t have faced my dad’s books before I was 40. People talk about feeling more confident and questioning themselves less at this age; me, I still question myself all the time and confidence has never come easily. But something did shift after 40 that allowed me to face my legacy. I think it’s about the ability to feel vulnerable. I felt invincible in my 20s and a good chunk of my 30s. Now I know I’m mortal and it’s scary as hell, but those chinks in my armor mean I can let in other things — things that make my life more complex, and therefore richer.”
1. On the nightstand: The books I’m teaching this winter for the writing workshop I'm teaching at Williams College, “The Personal is Political”: My Time Among the Whites, by Jennine Capó Crucet, Heavy, by Kiese Laymon, I’m Writing You from Tehran, by Delphine Minoui, and Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindma.
2. Can't stop/won't stop: Kissing my sons on the face and telling them how beautiful they are even though they squirm away and go about their business being teenagers
3. Jam of the minute: Lizzo’s “Good as Hell,” which so completely embodies that confidence I find so elusive and so desirable, and which in my best moments I can taste.
4. Thing I miss: Feeling invincible, even though I know its loss is another kind of gain.
5. 80s crush: Dennis Quaid
6. Current crush: Idris Elba
7. Will whine about: The current state of politics, the brokenness and divisiveness of these times.
8. Will wine about: Any topic at all, over a pinot grigio and if the women I’m so lucky to share this journey with come along.
9. Best thing that happened recently: After four months apart during my husband’s recent sabbatical, we reunited last month in South Africa with our kids, and instead of trudging through the two feet of snow that fell before we left home, we walked on beaches and explored places we’ve never seen.
10. Looking forward to: My book’s release on January 14! I’ve been working on it, in one form or another, for 15 years. I can’t wait to hold the real thing in my hands.
Keep it spicy! Share us with a friend.