A quick check in!

Hey friends,

I hope this message finds you well!

I envision this newsletter as focusing on working class politics and the arts. For me, these things go hand in hand as I have worked most of my life as a laborer while writing, playing music and working in theater. Recently, I had the opportunity to write about the play Dimes Square at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research (BCTR) by the writer Matt Gasda. The BCTR is doing some incredibly vibrant work right now. You can read about that play here.

This week, I just wanted to check in. I started this substack right around Thanksgiving with the idea that I’d publish one significant piece a month. The holidays kind of threw things off and, this month, I’ve had two big pieces sitting on editors’ desks at different publications, waiting for approvals. So, thanks for your patience.

Next week, I will be posting one of two longer essays. The combination of these essays act in a way as a good manifesto for this newsletter. One of them is about the idea that rural Americans “vote against their own economic interests.” This oft repeated canard drives me up a wall, and I plan to gleefully refute it. But it can’t be all politics all the time. So, the other piece that I have locked and loaded is about Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album (I’m a big fan) and the roots of American music. When the record was released the boring/narrow/old/exhausting conversation about whether country music is black or white inspired me to dive into the history of the guitar as well as the contributions of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders to American colloquial music.

Which essay I post depends on forces outside of my control that would be boring to explain. Just know that one of these essays will be up next week, and the second will be posted about a month later. Both will also be recorded in audio for your listening enjoyment. I also plan to link to some playlists for the Beyonce stuff.

Thanks for tuning in.

More soon,

Michael