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6
It's been a terribly difficult week in an already difficult time. So, before we dive into some good ol' fashioned bulletin content, we wanted to include some links to organizations that are doing good work to support people that are on the front lines of the various crises that are facing us. It's not an exhaustive list at all, but it's something. Donate if you can.
Partners In Health
Black Vision Collective
Minnesota Freedom Fund
Southern Poverty Law Center
ACLU
National Bailout
Native American Community Response Fund
Stay safe, keep your eyes open and take care of each other—
The Nine Stories Team
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S U R P R I S E !
Our Shiny New Website
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We had a great time working on our new site with the brilliant, New York-based designer Jay Schaul. Check out the tour above, head to the site to take a spin, and let us know what you think!
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II
T H E C A N O N
'Wildlife' Criterion Release
Not bad for a directorial debut, huh? We are so proud—verklempt, even—to see Paul Dano's beautiful first film welcomed into the Criterion club. And as usual, the cinephiles over at Criterion Collection have done a beautiful job gathering interviews, essays and artwork to mark the release. Get your DVD or BluRay now!
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III
O N E T O W A T C H
My Name is Joe
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Directed by Ken Loach. 1998.
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Like all of Loach's work, 'My Name is Joe' reminds us what movies can do: inspire profound empathy. In this 1998 film, Loach follows Joe Kavanagh, a recovering alcoholic in Glasgow, as he does the difficult work of being human. Check it out here.
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e a u d ' g r e a t a l b u m
Perfume Genius
Has anyone else been listening to "Set My Heart On Fire Immediately" on repeat? The latest album from this wonderful artist is, well, wonderful. With all the songwriting chops of Roy Orbison, and an ethereal texture that is straight out of 2020, Mr. Genius will grab hold of your heart from the first second of the first track and not let it go. Is it too early to call the song of summer? Listen here and read a great Jia Tolentino profile here.
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S I Z Z L E
Nine Stories Greatest Hits
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Shout out to Jeff Ferruzzo at Arcade Edit for putting this together!
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The new video that's playing behind the IX on our home page is a patchwork quilt of Nine Stories history thus far: Carey dancing in Wildlife, Tom presiding over the Public Theater, Sondheim laughing in rehearsal, the remarkable cast of Slave Play, and on and on and on. We like to think of it as our "Now That's What I Call Nine Stories" compilation CD, and we couldn't be prouder.
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B O O K b u y i n g
Bookshop.org
It's no secret that independent bookstores are struggling mightily these days—pandemic or not. How can they possibly compete with the speed and selection of the Bezos behemoth in the sky? Enter bookshop.org—a digital aggregator of independent bookstores. So if you order on bookshop.org, you're ordering from a local store. It's quick, it's easy and it's the right thing to do.
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VII
S U M M E R S C A R I E S
'Relic' Is Coming
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'Relic' comes out July 10th. Don't say we didn't warn you.
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VIII
I N M E M O R I A M
'The Love and Rage of Larry Kramer'
This beautiful piece in the The Cut by Matthew Schneier is part book review and part ode to the "brutally effective and enduring" AIDS warrior, Larry Kramer, who passed away last week. Schneier writes, "How much of the movement’s success was the success of sons of privilege who knew how to advocate for themselves and bend the ears of power? But fury is now our responsibility: the Kramer bequest. Larry’s legacy is assured, even if the work is not done."
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IX
R E V I S I T
'Making America White Again'
In November of 2016, Toni Morrison wrote this piece for the New Yorker. Now, four years later, these posthumous words and insight ring as true as they did that week a few Novembers ago. She writes, "unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force. Here, for many people, the definition of “Americanness” is color."
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There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
The way things stay so solidly
wherever they've been set down—
and gravity, scientists say, is weak.
And see how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
There's a name for it on horses,
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,
as all flesh
is proud of its wounds, wears them
as honors given out after battle,
small triumphs pinned to the chest-
And when two people have loved each other
see how it is like a
scar between their bodies,
stronger, darker, and proud;
how the black cord makes of them a single fabric
that nothing can tear or mend.
For What Binds Us
Jane Hirshfield
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