97. A Song For Soweto 🇿🇦

Nicole Costello

Mar 12, 2022

An Airbnb In Cape Town

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Friends,

It’s the weekend.

Ivan Coyote @ivancoyote

I have officially run out of enough serenity to accept the things I cannot change. There’s simply just not enough fucking serenity to be had at this point. Maybe this is a supply chain thing too, I don’t know.

Here's five things you may find interesting and/or meaningful.

1. Reading 🪘

One of my favourite writers and friends, Malinda, recommended a book to me for reading and then kindly wrote down her feelings:

This Book Changed My Life

14. My Private Property | Mary Ruefle

This book came via a recommendation from one of my favourite writers and friends Malinda 💛💛 I was cheeky enough to ask her to write a newsletter post for us and here she is, more beautifully penned than I could ever have imagined. Thank you Malinda…

3 years ago · Nicole Costello

2. Women In Art 🎨

Excited to see Turner Prize winner, Lubaina Himid’s exhibition at the Tate Modern (on until July 2022).

3. Wish-listed 🪜

This ‘Quick Step’ stool designed by Sarah Kay for SCP.

You can buy her here.

4. Watching 👀

Shut up and listen.

5. A Poem 🇿🇦

A Song for Soweto — June Jordan

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At the throat of Soweto

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a devil language falls

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slashing

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claw syllables to shred and leave

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raw

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the tongue of the young

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girl

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learning to sing

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her own name

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Where she would say

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                              water

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They would teach her to cry

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                                        blood

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Where she would save

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                              grass

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They would teach her to crave

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                                           crawling into the

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                                                    grave

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Where she would praise

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                                 father

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They would teach her to pray

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                                          somebody please

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                                          do not take him

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                                              away

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Where she would kiss with her mouth

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                                           my homeland

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They would teach her to swallow

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                                              this dust

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But words live in the spirit of her face and that

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sound will no longer yield to imperial erase

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Where they would draw

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                               blood

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She will drink

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                     water

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Where they would deepen

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                                  the grave

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She will conjure up

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                            grass

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Where they would take

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                               father and family away

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She will stand

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                     under the sun/she will stay

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Where they would teach her to swallow

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                                                       this dust

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She will kiss with her mouth

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                                          my homeland

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and stay

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with the song of Soweto

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stay

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with the song of Soweto

See you next Sunday.

PS:

AJP 🕊 @aIIegoricaI

Normalise sitting outside the café all day and not really doing anything

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Ohhh love your inspiration even more in this app ❤️

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