Required Reading

​​‣ The world of paleontology is juicier than you might think, and New York Magazine's Kerry Howley gives us the lowdown on the latest clash between two researchers about the asteroid that devastated the earth 66 million years ago:

During and DePalma both believed the fish at Tanis died in a violent flood less than an hour after an asteroid hit the Earth, killing off the non-avian dinosaurs. This is why they found fish pointing in both directions, their bodies broken and speared with debris; like a pool in an earthquake, the river rocked back and forth, throwing sea life upward to land wherever it might fall and be entombed in layers of mud. “A car crash frozen in place,” as During puts it, a freeze-frame from 66 million years back. They would both converge on the same mystery, tunneling toward greater precision: In what season had the asteroid struck?

​​‣ Five women activists from Haiti share their perspectives on the ground amid violence continuing to spread across the country, writing in Hammer and Hope about their experiences as factory workers, musicians, and artists:

This has really highlighted the Haitian artist’s duty to resist, a duty of solidarity toward the Haitian people and toward ourselves as well. Because we are also affected by the political climate, our families are affected. I have moved from Pacot to Turgeau, to Laboule, to Dèlma over a short amount of time because of all of the violence and armed groups gaining territory. There is an implicit responsibility that artists have to resist through the work we produce. But the context I’ve described means that there are also challenges to this resistance.

‣ Richi Kumar reports for NPR about the protests igniting in the wake of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old female doctor at the hospital where she worked. Kumar writes:

“In India, the problem has never been that the laws are not friendly toward women. The problem has always been the uneven application of, those laws,” Kaur says. "There's very little that Indian women can really hope for if especially if they are from historically disempowered, communities.

This high-profile case also has brought attention to India’s low rates of employment of women. One reason is that they lack safety in their commute and in their workplaces. And yet the rape of a doctor in a hospital, was still shocking, Kaur says, even though a survey from 2015 reported that about three-quarters of doctors reported experiencing violence in their workplace.

‣ I'm always learning something new from the work of Alexis Pauline Gumbs, whose unique scholarship encompasses marine mammal studies, Black feminism, and poetry. For the Nation, she speaks with Marian Jones about her biography of Audre Lorde and the limits of quotation:

Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde is both a biography and a celebration of the icon’s life and work, which society has mostly ignored in favor of repeating her most famous quotes. Survival Is a Promise explores Lorde’s life, from her formative years as an unloved, disabled child (nearly legally blind, mute, and requiring special footwear) through her teenage rebellion and her adult years as a celebrated Black lesbian icon (the lover of Frances Clayton and Gloria Joseph), a mother, a cancer survivor, and a woman who died too young—at 58 in 1992—from liver cancer. Crucially, this story is not told in linear fashion: It leaps forward and backward in time, connecting the themes of Lorde’s life to the natural world and the cosmos. It offers a deeper understanding of her poetry, highlighting key moments that shaped her identity and activism, all with the hope of showing how expansive Lorde’s life was. Ultimately, Gumbs’s book argues that Lorde’s legacy lies not just in her powerful words but also in her embodiment of resilience and love in the face of adversity.

‣ Reporter Theia Chatelle has a must-read report on the Israeli military's concerted efforts to target queer Palestinians living in the West Bank. For Dropsite News, she writes:

Following the attacks of October 7 and Israel’s war in Gaza, an image of an Israeli soldier hoisting a Pride flag above the rubble of Khan Younis went viral on Twitter. Critics described it as an example of “pinkwashing,” or when an institution deploys pro-LGBTQ+ messaging to distract from or paper over its unsavory actions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also mocked the pro-solidarity slogan “Gays for Gaza” as tantamount to “Chickens for KFC.”

Israeli officials often point to a British Mandate-era law that makes homosexual acts punishable by death in Palestine. But that law is not enforced.

“By contributing to the erasure of Palestinian bodies and voices, they contribute to the dehumanization of people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—both queer and straight—and attempt to justify the hierarchy of lives that privileges Israelis over Palestinians,” said Sa’ed Atshan, an associate professor at Swarthmore College who studies gender and sexuality in Palestine.

In 2014, nearly two dozen Israeli intelligence officials published a letter declaring their refusal to complete their reserve service in the IDF over its violations of Palestinian rights in the West Bank. "The Palestinian population under military rule is completely exposed to espionage and surveillance by Israeli intelligence,” they wrote. “It is used for political persecution and to create divisions within Palestinian society by recruiting collaborators and driving parts of Palestinian society against itself."

‣ The Black Polar explorer you've never heard of, illuminated in a new PBS short:

‣ JK Rowling has left the chat ...

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-5uszayh-C/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

‣ Wally the walrus took a much-needed sabbatical — he must've just experienced fair week in New York:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-EEE_Zv6a5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

‣ Is Clippy the answer to our AI woes?:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_TdY5XyFdr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Required Reading is published every Thursday afternoon, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.

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