🚧 New Beginnings: The Little Octopus 🐙 School and 🔀 KJR Studios Newsletter Changes

Bismillah. We begin everything with the name of Allah. We say Bismillah to initiate an act to acknowledge the intention and the ethics we carry with all that follows Bismillah.

☺️ Hello!

Has anyone else been watching Veep? I am at the debate episode during what must be my seventh watch of this entire series. 😂

Table of Contents:

1. 📅 Some Updates

2. The Little Octopus 🐙 School

3. 🔀 KJR Studios Newsletter Changes

   1. 🕸️ Primitive Hypertext (after Octavia Estelle Butler) [Mondays]

   2. ✍🏽 1,000 Words [Tuesdays]

   3. 🖼️ KJR Studios Updates [Wednesdays]

   4. 🧕🏾 Jumu'ah Series [Fridays]

   5. 👾 The Greedy Goblins [Second and Fourth Saturdays]

   6. 🔐 Paid Subscriber Content [Sundays]

---

1. 📅 Some Updates

Tomorrow marks the end of my 12-day stay in Harstad, Norway, where I experienced the highs and lows of Midsommar or Sankthans — 24 hours of sunlight, ate a lot of Thai food of varying quality, led a hand-drawn animation with 6-10-year-olds as part of my contribution to Festspillene I Nord-Norge, sat by the water for listening to the seagull symphony and had the best skin days I have had in quite some time. I am grateful for the places my art practice takes me. Harstad is quite special to me now. Since I have spent the last two Midsommars somewhere in the Nordic region, it seems like a tradition I must continue. It has been a spiritual reset — here, I am both estranged from and enmeshed in deep feeling. On my last “night” here, I am re-watching Ari Aster’s Midsommar.

Tomorrow also marks a redemptive trip of sorts: In 2015, U.S. Customs and the FBI thought I was trying to join ISIS, and I was barred from flying to Istanbul. I wish the former sentence was untrue. I am headed back almost a decade later to have the trip I was supposed to have. I am attempting to take a real vacation, but I have already turned this into a geological work trip and scheduled a few short projects. I am so excited about Cappadocia! I am hitting up a few cities and will be OOO except when checking in with my studio manager! I am OOO July 1 - 9. Already scheduled newsletters will go out, but no meetings and certainly no emails — toodles! ✌🏽

2.The Little Octopus 🐙 School

I quietly launched an itinerant, ambient, and occasionally location-bound school for my other obsessive and greedy little learners. The Little Octopus 🐙 School has mapped out its next season, and we are starting with our dear Clarice Lispector. All class fees (except 45 USD for Zoom) go to fund the Orange Tangent Study microgrant. I am so hyped about this class. You can sign up here. You can also see more information about the class here. I will also send out a newsletter later this week!

3. 🔀 KJR Studios is undergoing yet another facelift!

I wonder how many changes readers will tolerate. I hope you’ll stick with me as I try to find a more sustainable rhythm.

a. 🕸️ Primitive Hypertext (after Octavia Estelle Butler)

Mondays: This is done in the same spirit — a list of five things I’ve read/seen/heard and want to share. I decided to switch the format to mirror Harper’s Findings.

---

b. ✍🏽 1,000 Words

Tuesdays: I am pushing myself to write 1,000 words a day. I will share some of it every month or so.

---

c. 🖼️ KJR Studios Updates

Wednesdays: Reminders about exhibitions, publications, and classes.

---

d. 🧕🏾 Jumu'ah Series

Fridays: I am unable to attend Jumu'ah, so instead of physically gathering, I will share a newsletter each Friday detailing a practice of gathering that does not include physical congregation. Read the full explanation here.

---

e. 👾 The Greedy Goblins

Second + Fourth Saturday of Each Month: Sometimes, I am completely overwhelmed with how to start a sentence when a bunch of greedy goblins (tangential thoughts) are volleying for my attention. I am returning to the list form to relieve myself of the pressure of narrativizing or “making a point.” And speaking of my tangent goblins — creatures that I picture as purple blobs with octopus-like suction cups covering their bodies and puppy dog eyes that weaken my resolve — here come two others:

• I am reminded of The Odd Years, a book of to-lists Morgan Bassichis created every Monday in 2017 and 2019. From their 2021 special edition — “— REPRISE MY ROLE AS FAMILY KILLJOY”. I am thinking about Hsu Hsu’s 2020 New Yorker essay, My Year of Making Lists which connects the trauma of COVID to the illusory sense of control that a list implies. In addition to this angle, I was drawn to this:

and

I make lists because I have poor sensory gating which means I am often taking in a lot of stimuli and I need to place it … somewhere. There is also something about what Hsu Hsu calls “a desire to displace anxious energy into a nerdish ritual.”

---

f. 🔐 Paid Subscriber Content

Sundays: We are starting Q & A ☺️

---

Thank you for reading,

Kameelah 👽

Finally, while I do not organize my finances around paid newsletter subscriptions, wouldn’t it be cool if this little newsletter could allow me to take quarterly self-imposed writing retreats? Consider getting a one-year membership at USD 70 :)

How to cite this newsletter: Rasheed, K. (Year, Month Day). Newsletter Title. I Will (?) Figure This All Out Later. URL