The Gladis is a collaborative publication that centers on the belief that there is already so much in the world that inspires hope, revolution, and transformation. We have no desire to reinvent the wheel. There are already skilled, genius women and trans/enby souls - particularly women and trans/enbies of color - who have been working for a better world for decades now. All we really want to do is point to where shapeshifting and brilliant trickster magic is already gathering in the world while also inspiring our immediate community to keep decolonizing alongside us.
So we’ve gathered 5 spaces that glow bioluminescent for you. We hope you’ll find inspiration, action, and shifting personal paths here.
1. The Fruits of Madness: Consenting to Bending Centuries into Place by
“How do we endure this final leg of the race to the end of the century—the end of empire—without world hopping, without consenting to bending time, without freewheeling through fever dreams, then marching toward freedom dreams, then scrambling from sleep, with blood and stars in our eyes? In this fruitless expanse we turn our fear into dandelions, blowing seeds of myriad modes of being that will flourish in marvelously tenacious heirs. We worldbuild because we need somewhere to plant the seeds of our madness. So when the heirs reach the bottom and bite into another century they realize they were never alone, they realize we were there too planting seeds into the soil of the sky, they realize they’re not the first to dream up ways of turning their fears into feasts. They realize we left fruit for them to remember how to go mad without losing your mind.”
2. Operation Olive Branch’s Master list of vetted GoFundMe links for families fleeing Gaza
There are 848 families on this list. Operation Olive Branch is a volunteer-run movement committed to giving the world tangible ways to help Palestinian families who are trying to survive the current genocide. Please consider choosing a family to donate to and/or share about.
As of our publication date, there are 848 families on this list. We have been sharing about Dr. Youssef Ashour and his family inside our Ancestral Mother series and today we’d also like to introduce you to Hamada and Lamis, a newlywed and expecting couple. They are also trying to evacuate Hamada’s father Nizar (63) Mother Majda (58) and his 2 sisters Saba (24) and Haya (20). The family is currently taking refuge in the south of Gaza after losing their family home. If you would like to help them you can find the GoFundMe HERE.
3. Take Back the Magic Book Club with
“There was a quality about her writing – and her life – that I knew was nourished by a web of ancestors, both living and departed.
It was no surprise then when I read her mother, Perdita Finn’s book: Take Back the Magic. It felt like finding my mother. Using the scaffold of her own life, she weaves a story web: how she followed her deep intuitive knowing – towards magic, towards her life calling, her partner, and place. This knowing connected her to the wisdom of her ancestors, who guided her as she nourished relationships with them and the unseen world.”
We begin Monday, May 27th and all of our paid subscribers are invited to join!
4. Tuesday in America by
“A reporter has begun to break down: the end of the email states the police will be on campus through May 17, until after graduation. The reporter apologizes, saying she can’t imagine police presence there on campus that long. “It’s unprecedented,” another says. The connection is unstable, but we can still hear you, we’re listening.”
5. Things to Say Instead of “I Hope You’re Feeling Better” or “But You Look so Good!” by
“This past season I have been the sickest, I’ve ever been. And I feel I’ve been pretty honest about that with my community. But we live in a white light illness/death phobic culture that doesn’t teach us how to stay with the trouble of incurable or chronic illness. People fumble a lot. Say I’m looking great and quite often say “You’re all better right?”
No. I actually was just on the phone with the doctor about my terrifying test results. I was actually just kneeling next to the toilet trying not to vomit.”