#letter from the editor

[archiesonicworkbook]

by the by-- what's ya'lls fave archie character, and why?

[there-goes-trouble]

What do they genuinely think banning children from social media is going to do? Because I can tell you, what it's going to do once the ink is finally dry on the bill and it's been signed, meta or another social media company is going to examine the loopholes very carefully and create an online ecosystem that is just for kids. And it'll have reels. And shorts. And likes. And comments. And fortnite. And we'll all be having this exact same stupid fucking discussion in another 11 years.

[xtrablak674]

WORDS FROM THE QUEEN

[Originally published in Fashion Fag Digest Volume 3, Issue 4, Number 9, 1997]

My spirit is restless

my heart uneasy,

mind edgy.

I am at a crossroads,

a new branch,

a new root.

I feel the energy of change

move through my body like quicksilver

ever moving elusive not,

letting me move,

making me indecisive scared.

Scared of what might,

what might not,

scared of what could,

and could not.

Unresolved issues,

uncried tears,

unhurt pain.

Neutral surviving,

trying to keep my lungs clear

of the water that bogs

so many of us down.

Eyes on the prize,

try not to forget

why you tolerate this mess

why you must not give up.

It can win,

you can't win,

your self destructive,

self loathing,

hateful side

can't win.

Control,

we need it

I have it,

but no one can control emotion

and I am a fool for trying?

Maybe if I don't go there,

we don't touch that.

The hurt will go away

the pain fade,

the anger subside,

the bitterness abate.

I will keep on movin',

don't stop,

express myself,

not repress myself,

be young Black and gifted,

be brilliant,

if not for anyone else's sake

maybe just my own.

Welcome to the Poetry issue, as much as I would like to say that I am not a poet. I can't deny the words that God blesses me with. This issue is about coping and movin' on. The poems, reflect my journies and my love of the Black Woman.

Alot of you expressed that you felt very, unfulfilled and wanted more from the last issue, specifically from the stories Betrayed and When God. So I decided in this issue to tell the rest of the story and tie it up. Check out Reprimand, where I tell their side of the story.

I am particularly proud of my maturity as a layout artist, and especially our new logo. Enjoy and please let me know what you think. I want to bring back the letters page but I can't with out your participation.

Peaceful Journey in the new year.

Miss Trevah

[Afterwords: My nephew sends me a video meme of Wendy Williams attempting to gather her thoughts to say something and is just stumped, astonished and wordless, as the camera still rolls. This is how I feel after just reading this Letter from the Editor from my second and I believe final issue of Fashion Fag Digest.

I have done minor edits, added a missing word, and did line breaks more appropriate to a poem which I couldn't do in the original issue due to space constraints. As I read the piece aloud I could remember my reading the piece aloud before, its so weird how memory works, just saying my own words, connected me to the last time I said my own words nearly thirty years ago.

It wasn't exactly goosebumps, or the walking on of my own grave, but a mental connection to the past that occurred in a flash, as I recalled that albeit I was awful at proofreading, I did read my pieces aloud before finally publishing them. I needed to make sure the voice I heard in my head sounded the same when actual spoken, that the feelings, and whispers were all collected, collated and demonstrated on the written page.

Once again I am amazed at the word-play and the intermixing of pop culture references, which since I made them I immediately get. This space is meant for me unpacking my thoughts and feelings from my past, lets take a brief moment to isolate a few of the references giving them a bit more context.

Eyes on the Prize - is a documentary history program on PBS, they had a very catchy opening song from the civil rights movement attributed to Alice Wine from Johns Island, South Carolina. I knew none of that at the time I wrote this but my paternal heritage is from the sea islands of South Carolina amongst the Gullah and Geechee people. I will always say I am of Gullah/Geechee descent but never actively practiced the culture myself so do not consider myself Gullah Geechee.

"Cause it's all about control, and I've gots lots of it." - I have made abso-smurfly no attempts to hide that I am a huge Janet Jackson fan, I have personally collected all of her studio albums on vinyl. My line which wasn't a direct quote from her but was inspired by her lyrics on my go-to dance song in high school.

"...keep on moving. Don't stop like the hands of time" - Another lyric this time from another eighties song by the group Soul II Soul. I used just a piece of the song in my poetic flow. I did this because this is how my brain works, if I hear someone say something, sing it or write it I automatically flash to the reference I have in my head ergo I decided to share this inner dialog outwardly.

Express yourself - I shouldn't even have to say this, but this is obviously a Madonna reference from her famous song of the same name. So that was three parts Black, one part queer, that sounds about right in an exploration of who I am, and what I present to the world.

A poetry issue that honors my love for Black women, say what now? #MicDrop

Curiously I actually look forward to re-reading this issue or maybe just skimming it, because I set a lofty goal and I am really curious if I actually accomplished what I set out to do. This is a time of me acknowledging and embracing the creativity that I have always had, but had trouble fully recognizing and realizing. I think my peers saw it and this is part of what created the allure of Trevor Brown. I am not going to say that I didn't realize my own greatness, but I feel that that can be embraced and accomplished in a number of ways not just one that results in financial renumeration.

The feeling of pride that I now have is more than enough actualization in my opinion. The ultimate goal should be self-love and acceptance, I am overwhelmed with all the love I am feeling for myself and my very creative and brilliant mind. Once again I wish there had been someone around to nurture this because it truly could have become something bigger than what it was. Even in its smallness it was impactful the things that I attempted to share and disseminate into the world around me.

I want to be that encouragement that I never had to the young folks around me, pushing them to become their best-selves to lean into their own interest and creative revelations, to acknowledge there is no one like them, and what they have to offer has value. I just wish our society placed significance in how amazing the small things are, and the power they have, even if just to effect one life.]

[Photo by Brown Estate]

[wttnblog]

Letter From the Editor: Expanding Our Writing Team

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a letter from the editor! I almost don’t know where to start. Since I last wrote to you at the end of January, six amazing months have gone by. There’s been so many changes in my life, in the world, and in Write Through the Night personally! I’m excited to catch you up on everything that’s been going on as well as to introduce you to a few new faces you may…

[threecirclesofvaryingsizes]

I made Todd from Mario earrings. Pls watch and subscribe to Drawfee

[fogtown-sleuth-society]

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧!

𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐈 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞? 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝?

Slideshow inspired by @-224bbaker

𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞

𝐔𝐬�� 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬

BTS -> #behind the scenes

Answering Asks -> #mail from fogtown postal

Fanart -> #blockson's favorite art

Mod Posts -> #letters from the editor

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭...

How do our puppets work?

Is it stop-motion or live puppetry?

How do you light a puppet show?

A multi-puppet scene, explained

Fighting with puppets, explained

🄵🄾🄶🅃🄾🅆🄽 🄵🄰🄽🄰🅁🅃 🅁🄾🅄🄽🄳-🅄🄿

1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 9 -- 10 -- 11

(If there is any art or posts you don't want us acknowledging, feel free to send a private ask or DM)

- Mod N, Mod Q

[archiesonicworkbook]

ARCHIE SONCI MENTUONE

ARCHIE SONIC MENYIOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(also............. i may be a baby fawn in the middle of a field regarding archie sonic stuff but would yr archie sonic server be open for someone just getting into it v slowly)

[miserywizard]

I’ve decided to catastrophize about the fact that my editor didn’t respond to my message about her new cat because the book I sent her was bad because everything I’ve written since sdh has been bad and sdh was also bad and I’m far too much of a legal liability to publish anyway so I’m not sure why I’m still bothering

[karinyosa]

one action that i haven't seen a ton of people discuss online is writing a letter to the editor (not one specific editor, that's just what they're called). i'm thinking of palestine, but a lot of this can apply to other things. jvp has a letter to the editor guide here if u think you'd find that helpful. it's specific to jvp members from what i remember, so take what applies. individual papers will sometimes have their own sets of guidelines as well so be mindful of those. letters are generally more likely to make it to print when it comes to local papers, but you can also write letters to like. the nyt or wapo. you're just more likely to not get a response. as tools for social change, letters' purpose is to sway public opinion and pressure via institutions of media. i focus on local papers because, like with bds campaigns targeting college campuses, this stuff is going to start on a smaller scale first, but can and does build over time. think of one berkeley branch voting to divest very soon after another did first. this is like that to me.

i recommend seeing what other articles individual papers have about palestine just to get a feel for what might be most impactful for you to write about, or what still needs to be said. for local papers, you might want to tie it to your community in some way (and that might even be a requirement to get in the paper), so you can talk about, for example, how much money comes out of your specific area for israel, using uscpr's funding map. you can talk about protests in your area. if there are arab, palestinian, and/or muslim communities in your area, you talk about them. if there are medical facilities or lots of families in your area, you can talk about them. if there's a big tech presence in your area, you can relate it to that. education, youth, food, policing, etc. there's something. there are probably multiple lines of connection between your local community and palestine. you can also just respond to a published article or lte.

if you are writing a letter to the editor, it will be considered an opinion piece, so you can include opinions or things that may be seen as more subjective. check out other letters to the editor to get a sense for the type of tone/content/etc they are looking for. don't be afraid to break or bend those rules, but it's helpful to be aware of the general vibe of the paper, what's likely to get published, and what needs to be said.

what do you want your community to be talking about? what needs to be brought to their attention? what misconceptions need to be corrected? what issues do you want to put on the table? what do you want to add to the conversation? what's missing? what should be done about it?

if you can't make it to in-person actions, this can all be done online. and if you consider yourself good with words, this may be an area in which you're uniquely effective.

ps: citing other articles or sources is always helpful and is a way to platform other articles/books/texts that u think should be shared, although i don't think that's usually a requirement for ltes. if u can't think of one, ask around.

[chiropteracupola]

sometimes you start to wonder what the historical record for the guys you made up looks like in the fictional world where they existed. and then you make some fake documents about it.

[moth and compass is a collaboration with @natdrinkstea!!!]

[wttnblog]

The August Wrap

[threecirclesofvaryingsizes]

I'm going to the drawfee liveshow in LA this week should I bring a book to read during the show so they can all collectively think "wow... she's different"

[fogtown-sleuth-society]

Heyo, it's Mod N here. I'm a huge puppet nerd (that's how I got onto the team!) and I'm thinking about starting a little series to talk about puppetry on here.

Fogtown uses some really cool tech! All our backgrounds are digital, but are physically displayed behind the puppets using screens. There's a few rare greenscreen moments for key shots, but most of the effect is done in-camera (and aided by our talented lighting team!). Puppetry in film and TV has a long history of being at the forefront of special effects technology, I think it would be super fun to talk more about some incredible works that helped us get to where we are today making Fogtown!

Some of my ideas at the moment:

Waldos & 3D rendering (Jim Henson's Secrets of the Muppets)

Blue screens (Wubbulous world of Dr Seuss, Jim Henson Hour)

Mixing mediums with live puppetry with stop-motion (The Golden Key 1939)

Syncing in-camera animated backgrounds (Vinton's The Adventures of Mark Twain)

Let me know if this sounds fun. I'm also still trying to think of a name for the series / a tag to give it. So I'm open to ideas :D

-Mod N

[archiesonicworkbook]

it may be a long time coming-- but are there any issues y'all look forward to me reacting to?

[havendance]

could I ask about Nightwing recruiting people for Brother Blood?

This is the fic where Tim joins the Church of Blood because of that time Nightwing got brainwashed and went on television publicly endorsing them. It's currently on hold because I need to get around to finishing reading that arc in New Teen Titans.

Currently all that's written is a scene which sets up Tim as a sad, lonely kid stuck at boarding school for the summer and thus vulnerable to cult recruitment:

"There's only a week and a half left of school," Tim said. "You guys always come home for summer break." He tried very hard to sound like he was pointing out facts and not like he was whining, because he wasn't. "You know we're trying our very best," his mom said this time. "We'd much rather be home with you and if things weren't so complicated over here, we would be. It should only be a couple extra weeks and then we'll be home." "A couple weeks I have to spend at school." "Belmont Academy has an excellent summer program," his dad said. "You can spend your time running around with your friends instead of getting weighed down by your ole' mom and dad. It'll be fun, kiddo."

[arklay]

DANI HAINES x CARLOS OLIVEIRA / template.