Some favourite things from my 2023

.

[So it seems like I now do this list more or less every year. I really do love lists. As with previous years, this is in no particular order and many of these things didn't come out during the previous year. As well, there should really be more performances and exhibitions on the list, but since the pandemic I'm still not seeing nearly as many of either and therefore this is where things currently stand.]



Music
MIKE – Beware of the Monkey
B. Cool-Aid – Leather Blvd
Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
Noname – Sundial
Aldous Harding – Warm Chris
Kari Faux – Lowkey Superstar (Deluxe)
HOUSE Of ALL – HOUSE Of ALL
Dreamer Isioma – Princess Forever
nutrients – Different Bridges
Melenas – Ahora
H31R – HeadSpace
Just A Touch: Underground UK Soul Compiled by Sam Don
Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan


Books
Ordinary Notes – Christina Sharpe
Hospicing Modernity – Vanessa Machado De Oliveira
The Nutmeg’s Curse – Amitav Ghosh
Francisco – Alison Mills Newman
The Fifth Wound – Aurora Mattia
A Rock, A River, A Street – Steffani Jemison
The Women’s House of Detention – Hugh Ryan
Baby Book – Amy Ching-Yan Lam
Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun – Jackie Wang
The Rage Letters – Valérie Bah (Translated by Kama La Mackerel)
Easily Slip into Another World – Henry Threadgill with Brent Hayes Edwards
For Sure – France Daigle (Translated by Robert Majzels)
Catastrophe Time! – Gary Zhexi Zhang (Editor)


Performances & Visual Art
BLACK MOON – FATHERMOTHER (Kezia Waters & Jordan Brown)
Nehanda – nora chipaumire
Reminiscencia – Malicho Vaca Valenzuela
Quantum Choir – Michèle Pearson Clarke
The Roman de Remort, or the inhumane, villainous fabliaux of the Ultimate Carnaval – Marion Lessard




Plus:
Some passages from Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
Some lines from For Sure by France Daigle (Translated by Robert Majzels)
A short text I wrote about HOUSE OF ALL