#CowAppreciationDay 🐮🐄:

what a guy

given that it's both black history month and Transgender Hell Era i recommend people go read about frances thompson, the first black trans woman to testify before Congress. her bravery and defiance in the fact of targeted government oppression is so admirable, as is the love from her community. she transitioned while enslaved and lived her entire life as a woman, more or less openly trans. she was outed and jailed by police who had always been aware she was trans entirely because her testimony of being raped by anti-black rioters was inconvenient for Congress and they needed an excuse to ignore her. and yet she never wavered in her conviction of her womanhood. when a reporter questioned her on why she wore dresses, she told him "none of your damn business." she died young but she was cared for by her community to the end. it's both an interesting look at how people historically engaged with trans people (even the West has a more complicated relationship with gender & sex than transphobes want to admit) and like. idk. her going through everything she went through and still being like fuck you. i know exactly what you are doing and it's bullshit. i am what i've always been and you are cowards relying on hatred to maintain power. and no matter what i'm not legitimizing your bullshit. i love you frances thompson

Miniatures from a Judeo-Persian manuscript, Mashdad, Iran, 1853

According to the scribal inscription, the book was calligraphed by Eliyahu ben Nissan, known as "Gurgi" (the Georgian). The text is a transcription of the tale of Yusuf (Joseph) and Zulaikha (Potiphar’s wife), as told by the 15th-century Sufi poet and philosopher Nur ad-Din ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-Jami. The story of Joseph is the story of a Jew forced to live among non-Jewish Egyptians, who despite hardships and temptations never loses his faith or forgets his true heritage; and when the time came, he revealed himself to his brothers and rejoined his family. This story must have had deep resonance, and even comfort, to the Jadidis in Mashdad (Persian Jews who were forcibly converted to Islam in the 19th century but continued to practice Judaism in secret); perhaps they commissioned this story as a reminder that like Joseph in prison, if they could keep their faith they would one day be rewarded.

Art by Kamura

Carlos Ochagavia, 1978

Every Greek kid's favourite worm, now going international

Greek version

Javier Arizmendi-Kalb (Mexican, b. 1960s), JUNTO AL HUMO, 2022. Oil and oil crayon on canvas, 72 x 60 in.

Ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ σε όλους που με ενθάρρυναν να ολοκληρώσω αυτό το πρότζεκτ <33 Τα αγάπησα πολύ αυτά τα σκουλήκια στον καιρό που μου πήρε να το ζωγραφίσω

English version

stoppingoffplace.blogspot.com

the work of your hands...

(excerpts from) Psalm 8: From The Voices of Children , 1965 / Psalm 23: My Shepherd is the Lord , 1966 / The Great Harvest , 1965---all by G

Illustration Robert Stobridge, mid 60's Please refer to the blog linked above for this and so much more

Remember if you can live through February you'll live another year 💜