Stay in It, Always

On the Elizabeth Catlett show and restoration for my nervous system.

New Orleans, we’ve got about ten tickets left for the Patricia Lockwood reading at my house on September 27. Tickets are available here. And here is a fun profile of her in The New Yorker and an intriguing review of her book from Dwight Garner in The New York Times.

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Hi friends.

Good morning, how are we feeling? Are we getting any work done? Or are our nervous systems too thrashed?

Fuck everything that’s happening—I’m writing anyway. I get up every day and I write in my journal or I type little paragraphs to myself on my phone. But I keep my brain moving. I imagine a different world every day and I write it down for myself, just to keep myself sane.

If you’re just getting started on something, don’t get distracted.

If you’re halfway through something, don’t stop until you finish.

And if you’re about to cross the finish line, I want you to treasure this moment and allow yourself to linger in sense of pride.

Stay in it, stay in it, stay in it. Even if it’s just for an hour a day.

Don’t you dare give into it all. And don’t you dare give up on yourself.

This weekend I went to Chicago, the city of big shoulders and encased meat. I had dinner with two old friends. We ate pizza and we talked about our lives and I felt safe and connected. The next day I had lunch with a new writer friend and he gave me a pep talk like I’d never had before.

Later that night, I talked to another friend about his book in a room full of attentive people. It was a warm and supportive vibe, and I was happy to be there with my friend. I was glad I put myself out there. Took myself on a plane somewhere, sure, but it was something I could have done at home, too. Dinner with friends, a conversation with a new friend, a literary event in the world where I read someone’s book—I put a lot of energy into that read!—and then thought hard about the questions I wanted to ask them.

In the morning, before I had to get on the plane home, I walked from my hotel through the city to get to the Art Institute. I saw the Elizabeth Catlett show, which I know was in Brooklyn before this so some of you reading this letter may have already seen the show. But for me it was a revelation.

Catlett was a revolutionary. She spoke for herself, and for those she loved, and she spoke for those who could not speak for themselves, who I think she also loved. How does it make you feel to know there was one more person out there trying to make a difference with their art?

There were some students there, too, walking around with their notebooks, so much intention in their eyes. Busily writing things down, or sketching. Look at all this goddamn inspiration in one room, I thought.

It was restoration for my nervous system.

I’ll leave you with this thought, which was written on one of the placards describing her work, and it was from her friend, the artist Rupert Garcia, no slouch in the revolutionary department himself.

“Betty Catlett exemplified the lesson that the articulation of meaning is most profound when it is presented through a balance between what needs to be said, and a controlled understanding of the means by which it is presented.”

How does it make you feel to know there are people out there who cared about making great art with a message? And still do.

And there always will be.

Stay in it.

Sending love,

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.