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To make that way out of no way no of out way that make To To imagine what we would never have imagined have never would we what imagine To

To commune with the ancestors the with commune To To gain empathy empathy gain To

To focus and meditate and engage in slow thinking slow in engage and meditate and focus To To time travel time To

To spark insight spark To To engage in play in engage To

To practice being someone else and living in many skins many in living and else someone being practice To To remember what we dare not forget not dare we what remember To

To banish despair banish To To have laugh out loud fun loud out laugh have To

To embrace the play of ideas of play the embrace To we agree and disagree with disagree and agree we

To engage in radical hope radical in engage To folks the with commune and humanity our in delight To

To practice falling in love with a world we don’t yet inhabit yet don’t we world a with love in falling practice To To sustain our spirits and challenge our thoughts our challenge and spirits our sustain To

A Reminder List—please add to it: to add List—please Reminder A So WHY READ A BOOK? BOOK? A READ WHY So

SO GO OUT AND BUY THESE BOOKS. Spread the word! Boost the signal! #1 The Waterdancer’s World by L. Timmel Duchamp The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin When The World Wounds by Kiini Ibura Salaam Everfair by Nisi Shawl Sleeping Under the Tree of Life by Sheree Renee Thomas

Buy these books from the publishers and/or get them at a local bookstore or borrow them from a library.

Tis is also an invitation to support Independent Presses like Aqueduct Press (http://www.aqueductpress.com/) and Small Beer (http://smallbeerpress.com/) who always let us feast our minds! Buy any of their books. Right now!

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the toxicity. toxicity. the f o Turn doing. are people work the on Focus

ing pleasurable. READ A BOOK! Go to a play or a concert! concert! a or play a to Go BOOK! A READ pleasurable. ing

- think slow make must We thinking. fast myopic, disrupt to

The Hopi say: the one who tells the stories rules the world. the rules stories the tells who one the say: Hopi The

nd elegant modes modes elegant nd f must we simplicity, bite/Twitter sound

are in order to be ready for change. To do that in an age of of age an in that do To change. for ready be to order in are

tives of their nation, of the world. the of nation, their of tives

group of us (artists) to embrace the complexity of who we we who of complexity the embrace to (artists) us of group

- narra the understand who citizens requires democracy that

e marvelous Nalo Hopkinson recently encouraged a a encouraged recently Hopkinson Nalo marvelous e T

trying times. In the furor of the moment, we might forget forget might we moment, the of furor the In times. trying

many artists who worry that they are insignifcant in these these in insignifcant are they that worry who artists many

of the next few years. So train up. READ A BOOK! A READ up. train So years. few next the of In the weeks since the presidential election, I have spoken to to spoken have I election, presidential the since weeks the In

thinking. We will need slow thinking to meet the challenges challenges the meet to thinking slow need will We thinking.

a rehearsal of the possible. Reading a book requires slow slow requires book a Reading possible. the of rehearsal a

by Andrea Hairston Andrea by

solve horror with a click. Like theatre, reading a book is is book a reading theatre, Like click. a with horror solve

Take Back The Narrative (Ongoing Action) Action) (Ongoing Narrative The Back Take

- dis will that miracle instant the not is book a Reading

Reading neuroscience, I learn that our brains are set to By Andrea Hairston amplify the bad, dangerous, awful things. Te Internet can become a horror echo chamber, preying on our propensity CC BY-NC to notice the negative, like the weather channel always fea- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial turing the mega-storms coming to devastate us. We can so easily lose perspective and founder in a spectacularly awful Originally published on Ambling Along the Aqueduct moment, however— http://aqueductpress.blogspot.com Meanness does not have a mandate. Burn This Press San Francisco, California We are the fesh of our ancestors and of our great, great, November 2016 great grandchildren. We are never alone in this difcult now. We make the world with our thoughts and our passions. Edited by Liz Henry Stories are sacred time machines connecting us to one 2 another. 7