Discovering AK press books has been a huge blessing and a huge rabbit hole for both time and money. So many radical topics that I've wanted to ask questions about and examine but that no one wants to talk about with someone like me who is only radical compared to my extremely conservative upbringing. Anyways, let the reading begin. I've started a few books from AK but I'm dropping everything and digging into "Take Care of Your Self" for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because it's the shortest page count in my stack.
Even the title causes a swirl of emotions. Responses to the words "take care of yourself" range from "Yes, tell me how!" to "take care of yourself because no one else is going to. Because if you can't name what you need, it will be your fault that you're hurt. Because if you ask for what you nee, they will tell you that you're asking too much."
And I guess I'm not alone in interacting with the title this way. The author seems to have similar experiences and yet still believe that care is the answer to the oppression we see in the world. Liberation is good too. But what do you do before and after liberation? You take care of yourself. You take care of your community. You let your community care for you. But creating spaces in which care can happen is actually much more difficult than it is to to talk about.
This book was a beautiful look at why care is needed and how care is curated. Like art. Through art. How art takes care of us and how it helps us to have conversations that we may not feel ready for but desperately need to have. How art can make space in this world for those who feel like there is no space for them. How much more deeply we can care for ourselves and our community once we extend care far beyond bubble baths, vacations, and things you can buy. How care is truly and literally something you make with your hands and your heart.
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