Welcome back, y’all — hope it’s been a contented week. While mine has been busy, I found a couple highlights that merited a share and without further ado, let’s get into it.

Top Five — 8/14/20

1. ‘Happy 10th Birthday to this Incredible Polarizing Shoe’ — The Cut

   I hated these shoes, ardently, passionately, ferociously. For those who somehow bypassed 2010 sartorially, let me take a 5” heel step back. The Lita debuted ten years ago, coinciding with the debut of online retailers like Nasty Gal and social media fashion site Polyvore. They were absolutely ubiquitous at the time and clunky monstrosities now, to this day. It’s only right that I honor their atrocity here.
   
   

2. Austin City Council unanimously votes on $150 million in cuts to APD — Statesman
   Shout out to Mayor Pro Temp Delia Garza and Council Member Greg Casar for help pass this plan that puts more money back into social services and away from police funding.

3. Save Sister Cortia’s studio
   Now, something to unironically revere. Sister Corita’s 1960’s art studio in Los Angeles is slated to be demolished — unless we intervene. Her work breathes life into the contemporary social justice movement, marks a seminal moment for women in the arts, and provides scope to just how long activism and art have been intertwined in their ambitions. All it takes is a quick email to a few council members to help denote the historical significance of this site.
   
   

4. ‘Patsy Takemoto Mink’s Trailblazing Testimony Against a Supreme Court Nominee’ — The Atlantic
   The first woman of color elected to Congress was Patsy Takemoto Mink. She graduated from the University of Chicago’s law program in 1951 and was denied the right to take the bar exam. Mink challenged of the sexist statue that prevented her administration and won, but couldn’t find work as a wife, mother, and Asian-American attorney. So she opened her own practice in 1953. Then she won two state legislative elections. And then, she joined the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 and went on to serve her state for a total of 24 years. I’d never heard of her before this week, and perhaps she was amiss in your history books too. So here’s to Representative Mink, whose determination gives us all much to aspire to.
   
   

5. RIP to Luchita Hurtado
   The Venezuelan-born artist captured the interwoven capacity for existence — and in a time when isolation feels suffocating, Hurtado’s work is a reminder that the cosmos are perpetually extending us an invitation. As quoted in the New York times, and what I find to be an appropriate summation of her work, she said, “Everything in this world, I find, I’m related to.” It’s all the blanket.
   
   Until next time. 👋