at midweek

The Poor Man's Feast Shortlist

What are you reading/cooking/watching/listening to today, Wednesday, August 31st?

Hello everyone,

First: my apologies to any of you who were not able to access the New York Times recipe I posted last week because of a lack of subscription. Whenever I post anything here, I always try to make sure that nothing is paywalled. Sometimes, though, some publications will request that you create an account with them, and offer you a certain number of free articles before requiring payment; the New York Times is one of them. If this is burdensome, I apologize; in this case (and in all cases), the recipe is something I think you will truly love.

1. I was captivated by the Dear Poet project over at Poets.org this week, that featured a back and forth between my friend Marie Howe — one of the greatest poets of our (or any) time —- and students who wrote to her in response to a video of her reading her poem “The Gate” aloud. Marie wrote letters back to five of these students; the result is a master class on the beauty of language, how we put words to the ineffable, and how we metabolize grief through the making of art.

2. Here, at the very end of August, many of us are faced with gardens (or farmer’s markets, or CSAs) that are exploding with corn, beans, and squash, known historically as the Three Sisters of Indigenous agriculture. One of my favorite writers, Kevin Noble Maillard, a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, has written an extraordinary piece about the Onondaga Nation Farm— 163-acre plot of tribally reclaimed land 20 miles south of Syracuse, and the Indigenous food sovereignty movement, which aims to make Native communities self-sufficient through the cultivation of healthy foods.