{"id":5597,"date":"2022-05-29T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T06:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5597"},"modified":"2022-05-29T06:55:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T12:55:00","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-796-featuring-juana-medina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5597","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #796: Featuring Juana Medina"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nI have sat here a long time, trying to figure out how to start this post. I had planned on writing about a book, as usual, but I decided instead to share this image from author-illustrator Juana Medina<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 shared earlier this week<\/strong><\/a> on Instagram with the note: “Enough.” <\/p>\n

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I honestly feel hopeless about the possibility of legislative action on gun control because of the power-hungry GOP, whose hands are dirty with the blood of everyone who has perished this year in a gun massacre (and, truly, so much more). It feels like an exercise in insanity anymore to say that it’s important to reach out to your representatives, because we are living under a minority rule. But I encourage you to do so anyway. And to try to find glimmers of hope where you can, despite how hopeless I sound today. <\/p>\n

On that note, here’s an attempt …<\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> Dr. Roxane Gay’s New York Times’s<\/em> piece<\/a><\/strong> from Wednesday nailed it. 1,000% nailed it. (Oddly enough, the NYT<\/em> has changed her headline a few times this week. But whatever. Read it anyway if you have access. If you don’t, let me know, and I’ll get it to you somehow.) <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Chris Murphy<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Speaking of Juana, the newest picture book she has illustrated, Joanna McClintick’s<\/a><\/strong> ‘Twas the Night Before Pride<\/em>: “To know that we matter, \/ to show all we exist \/ and that any oppression \/ we must always resist.”
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\nThe book also has DELIGHTFUL surprises in the endpapers:
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Okay. I was able to guess four out of five. Then I really really peered at that paper the last guy was holding and I got it. @juanamedina<\/a>\u2019s endpapers, for the record, will amuse you all day with games like this. pic.twitter.com\/uUz2YPzMod<\/a><\/p>\n

— Betsy Bird (@FuseEight) May 5, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n