Writing in Discomfort.

Some things are just better kept for the journal. Some tweets are just better kept in the drafts.

But what if they’re not? What if instead of leaving all of these ideas to ourselves, to our therapist, we put out art to showcase all of those conflicts inherently in all of the work that is being done?

I don’t really want to write about the Kendrick album because I want to review the project. But I do really enjoy the album, in large part because I’ve been trying to understand why the aspects I find awful or disturbing fit within this narrative he’s trying to tell us. You can read any number of far more articulate and thorough perspectives about his repeated use of the F-word (which I found really unnecessary, and our Black trans brothers, sisters, and siblings should be supported in whatever their responses may be to this song). You can also hear more from other folks about how the contradictions of bringing Kodak on this album, amidst talking about family abuse, are also rightfully obscene. None of these choices or artistic justifications folks go above how folks who have been abused may feel about the album including Kodak, or how trans folks can feel about “Auntie Diaries.”

I think that a lot of what this album has been making me think about is what I’m writing for, who am I writing for, and how I am thinking through with my audience the impact of what…