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What is Linda Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week (August 21st)

RE-Reading: Beloved, Toni Morrison. Why: No explanation required except, RUN, don’t walk to the library or your device to order. Or, as I did….plow through your bookshelf.

Watching: Lovecraft Country, HBO Max Why: Not sure...weird times call for weird TV? Come for the too true portrait of racism in America. Stay for the amazing staging and fantastical story line.

With No Apologies… STILL Listening: Taylor Swift, Folklore Why: THIS IS A JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE! LOVE her evolution as an artist! We are all pained and forlorn in these times. Taylor’s lyrics are succinct, powerful and beautifully delivered. So welcome in these strange times.

Corona Extras: Billy Porter AND Stephen Sills 🎵 💖

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week (August 14th)

Reading: The Death of Vivek Oji Why: Shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award. A dazzling and devastating story...read every word.

Watching: I GIVE UP!! STILL having no internet or cable due to Hurricane Isaias, I am STILL consigned to endless Twitter scrolling and maybe...just maybe STILL watching Devil Wears Prada on my laptop… 👿 But I am also watching my besties Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway on Pivot Schooled

Listening: Taylor Swift, Folklore Why: LOVE her evolution as an artist! We are all pained and forlorn in these times. Taylor’s lyrics are succinct, powerful and beautifully delivered. So welcome in these strange times.

Corona Extras: You have probably seen this; but it makes my heart SING! EVERYTIME!! And as I told my kids...schooled! And schooled again!  A mother is always right about Phil Collins and Genesis.  Bahahahaha!

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, Listening To This Week (August 7th)

Reading: Caste:The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson Why: Beautifully written and elegantly researched; what Wilkerson outlines is is as horrifying as it is horrifyingly familiar. Read every word.

Also reading: Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy Why: Magical. moving, meditative….a reimagined Moby Dick. Just lovely.

Also also reading: How the Pandemic Defeated America, Ed Yong,The Atlantic, September 2020 Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism? Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic, September 2020 Why: No explanation required, except these articles are required reading

Watching:  Having no internet or cable due to Hurricane Isaias, I am consigned to scrolling Twitter and thus have assigned myself extra reading...see above. I may also be watching Devil Wears Prada for the 101st time on my laptop...don’t judge me…

Listening:   A Me Too Moment in the Military, The Daily, July 31st Why: Maybe...finally...the military will reckon with it’s culture of misogyny and racism?

Also Listening: Stay Black and Die, The Daily, August 5th Why: Because we should listen and understand

Corona Extras:  The @steak_umm Twitter feed is back this week, because only during a pandemic can a shaved beef brand offer some pretty solid “beef” tips (sic) to engage with conspiracy theorists online. I guess we finally have an answer to the age old question “Where’s the beef” lolololololol

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Ciao Bella Chiara. Vai con Dio amica mio.

Chance meeting with Chiara at the airport this past March... Both on our way to different breast cancer conferences! ---

Dear Friends, 

Our hearts are broken. The fierce, funny, fabulous Chiara D’Agostino passed away yesterday, at 1:50pm from metastatic breast cancer. Her niece, Jessica, let Chiara’s vast network know that Chiara was surrounded by her family and was at peace, her brother-in-law reading to her from Psalms.

Chiara trusted God and her faith bolstered her during difficult treatments and bad news. Reciting the rosary brought her peace.

Chiara was a fierce advocate for herself and other TNMBC breast cancer patients, acutely aware that her disease had dealt her a bad hand with limited treatments. She also fought against standard notions of beauty. Chiara often modeled and was photographed bare-chested to emphasize that scars and all and eschewing reconstruction and choosing to go flat are also beautiful.

We were so hopeful when her amazing care team at NYP was able to access Sacituzumab govitecan for her, but it gave her only a few short months before she had further progression to leptomeningeal metastasis. Despite her increasingly grim diagnosis, and difficult treatments, Chiara stayed in touch with her far-flung friends and traveled as much as she could to attend conferences. She was dedicated to educating herself and the public and she fought for more funding for research so that one-day, science would no longer fail other patients. 

Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one, but MBC makes future tomorrows far less certain. Chiara knew her time on earth would be shortened, but she had hoped for more time to crochet with her sister, play with her beloved kitties, chit-chat in Italian and more time to fight for more and better treatments; we will fight on for you. Vai in pace.

Ciao Bella Chiara. Vai con Dio amica mio.

Per sempre nei nostri cuori.

[susangkomengreaternyc]

What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to this Week (July 31st)

Reading: John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation  Why: A legend’s last words for us. A must read.

Also reading: Memorial Drive Why: You decide. Don’t look away. 

Also, also reading: Wash your hands, wear a mask and socially distance but beware. 

Watching: Ibram X. Kendi on "How to Be an Antiracist” Why: Because we should listen and understand

Listening: Michelle Obama’s podcast Why: We are always seeking the higher ground.

Corona Extra: Sing! Sing a song! Sing out loud!! Why: The promise of the internet. Promise!!

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REPORT: COVID-19 Action Fund

Breast cancer doesn’t stop during a global pandemic and neither do we! Thanks to the generosity of the Komen Community we are distributing $125,000 to our community partners this week to distribute to patients impacted by COVID-19. Patients struggling to meet their basic needs will receive much needed cash assistance from $200-$500 to help with rent, utilities, transportation, co-pays and food, etc.

Organizations receiving these funds:

Albert Einstein College of Medicine BOLD Program

God’s Love We Deliver

Latina SHARE

Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Maimonides Breast Center at Maimonides Medical Center

Open Door Family Medical Center

Peconic Bay Medical Center-Central Suffolk Hospital

South Asian Council for Social Services

Staten Island University Medical Center

Stony Brook University Medical Center

St. John’s Riverside Hospital

St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center

COVID-19 has brought many things to a halt, but our work continues.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE to give! Donate today!!

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to this Week (July 24th)

Reading: The Vanishing Half Why: Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. An excellent rumination on the corrupting consequences of racism on different communities and individual lives.

Watching: Selah and the Spades, Amazon Prime Why: Teen angst and cliques writ large...great storytelling and characters. Director, Tayarisha Poe, is just getting warmed up. Watch this space...

Listening: Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour Why: Saw her in concert at Radio City with my daughter Alessandra in October and I’m missing all things pre-COVID-19 😢

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (July 17th)

Reading: REreading Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates  Why: The writing is stunning; Coate’s offers no answers to the systemic racism in this country nor the hundreds of years of injustice inflicted on African Americans, but rather demands we wrestle with these questions on our own.

Watching: The Chi, Season I-3 Showtime Why: Gorgeous acting and writing. Elevates real stories and voices that haven't been able to speak... and, see above!

Listening: The Chi with Love The Chi’s YouTube Channel Why: See above! A great companion piece to what I am watching. A benefit concert featuring Common, Twista, The Chi’s Lena Waithe & More | Presented by The Chi on SHOWTIME

Corona Extras: In case you’ve missed it as much as I have, the @Steak-Umm Twitter feed is back after taking a break to ensure worker safety. Come for the fresh, funny, timely and irreverent tweets, stay for the witty community comments. #Steak-umm bless

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (July 10th)

Reading:  Michaela Coel’s Chaos and Charisma in “I May Destroy You”, The New Yorker, July 6 & 13, 2020 Why: An erudite elucidation of an extraordinary writer, director and performer.

Also Reading: Michaela the Destroyer, New York Magazine, July 6-19 2020 Why: See above

Watching: I May Destroy You, HBO Why: See above. And, just wow!! The casualness of fairly omnipresent trauma can be unsettling and overwhelming, but don’t look away.

Listening: The New Abnormal podcast, Why: What could be better than the fabulous Molly Jong-Fast and the inimitable former Republican, never-Trumper, Rick Wilson, discussing the day’s events. AND the July 10th episode features and interview with my perennial favorite...KARA SWISHER

Corona Extras: Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The Atlantic’s Books Briefing suggests reckoning with the legacy of the classics

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (July 3rd)

Reading: Overkill: When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far, by Dr. Paul Offit Why: Dr. Offit is a renowned pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. This book looks at commonplace medical practices that research clearly shows are ineffective or even harmful. Eye-opening!

Also Reading: You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument, New York Times, June 26, 2020, By Caroline Randall Williams Why: "Either you have been blind to a truth that my body’s story forces you to see, or you really do mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed, and you must at last acknowledge your emotional investment in a legacy of hate."

Watching:  I am going to follow the advice of film critic, Harlan Jacobson, and husband of our own Susan Jacobson (Komen NYC’s Director, Business Development & Community Engagement) and watch Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods and rewatch Do The Right Thing. Both available on Netflix Why: Harlan is brilliant and has excellent taste. Here is his review

Listening: The Nod Monthly podcast from Gimlet media Why: Celebrates the genius, innovation, and resilience particular to being Black in America, and around the world.

Corona Extras: “A Bit of Relief: The Long Distance Chorus,” The Daily, June 27, 2020 Why: The director of the chorus at PS 22 discusses teaching and singing during the pandemic. Come for the heartwarming story, stay for the music.

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (June 26th)

Reading: Catching up on my New Yorkers this week. Why: The June 22nd issue is a must-read review chock-block-full of analysis, and insights of the protests. The striking, raw cover by Kadir Nelson depicts George Floyd embodying the history of violence inflicted upon Black people in America is beautiful yet brutal. Here is the online cover. Scroll through and read every story. Don’t look away.

Watching: The Chi, Season I, Showtime Why: Set on Chicago’s South Side. A great companion piece too much of what I have been reading and watching. The amazing Lena Waithe doesn’t sugarcoat the brutality, the humanity and the hopes of the characters shine through anyway.

Listening: HAIM’s newest record, Women in Music Pt. III Why: I needed something new! LOVE these artists and the Bonus track Hallelujah is powerful and profound.

Corona Extra: I’m DANCING...on my own obvs... to the OFFICIAL Sisters for the Cure 2020 Playlist! Join me and a great roster of speakers and talent streaming live tomorrow at 10:30am for our third annual Sisters for the Cure.  Sign me up!!

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (June 19th)

Reading: “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi Why: Winner of the 2016 National Book Award for nonfiction. We can no longer brush aside this country’s racist beginnings. Understanding and learning from our history is the foundation from which we can make changes. Kendi cautions that “protesting against racist power” is not enough: “An anti-racist America can only be guaranteed if principled anti-racists are in power, and anti-racist policies become the law of the land.”

Also reading: “Why Juneteenth Matters” by Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, June 19, 2020 Why: “If Americans are going to mark and celebrate Juneteenth, then they should do so with the knowledge and awareness of the agency of enslaved people.”

Watching: Watchman, HBO (HBO is making this timely series available for free this weekend) Why: Timely, poignant series that explores the legacy of systemic racism in America and exposes history that had been forgotten. 

Also watching: Dear White People, Netflix Why: This is a comedy but it’s also a very serious look at how African American students carve out space for themselves on a majority-white campus of an elite university where they don’t feel immediately accepted. It also highlights how the grievances of black students on these campuses are often discounted.

Listening: “The History and Meaning of Juneteenth,” The Daily by the New York Times, June 19, 2020 Why: No explanation required

Corona Extra: In light of a petition calling for Tennessee to replace statues and memorials of Confederate generals with Dolly Parton, I am re-upping my suggestion to listen to the fantastic podcast, Dolly Parton’s America. Why: Just listen, learn, and be inspired and amazed. “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.” DP

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Susan G. Komen® Updates Breast Cancer Screening Guidance As Communities Begin To Re-open

“There is no reason to further delay getting routine mammograms”

Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading nonprofit breast cancer organization, today updated its recommendations regarding routine breast cancer screening as communities across the country begin to re-open. Komen now urges everyone to take care of their health by scheduling routine screenings and preventive care and getting any worrisome symptoms checked out. For women who feel well and are due for a screening mammogram (and the center is open), they should do so. Women who were due for screening mammograms this past spring and have not gotten it yet should call their doctors about making an appointment.

“We want to reassure you, it’s OK to see your doctor, even during the continued COVID-19 crisis,” said Komen’s Chief Scientific Advisor Dr. George Sledge, Jr., who is a medical oncologist and Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. “We don’t want women to stop getting mammograms and there is no reason to further delay. Hospitals and cancer centers know how to appropriately mitigate the risk of infection and are among the safest places to go in society in that regard. We absolutely do not want to see an increase in the number of advanced breast cancers because of delayed screening. We don’t want to lose the gains we’ve made in treating breast cancer.”

This new recommendation updates guidance Komen previously issued on March 18, 2020, during the early stages of the pandemic in the U.S. At that time the organization suggested non-symptomatic (no sign of breast cancer) women delay routine breast cancer screening to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and allow health care workers to focus on managing the pandemic. However, Komen noted that diagnostic imaging for people who were displaying warning signs for breast cancer and other essential health care services should not be delayed.

In announcing the updated recommendations, Komen noted that health care leaders now have a better understanding of the situation and the capacity of health care systems in communities across the country, as well as how to minimize exposure to COVID-19. Hospitals and doctors’ offices have instituted new policies and are taking many precautions to reduce risk of COVID-19 infection. Hospitals and outpatient facilities such as mammography centers routinely clean equipment between patients. Health care workers and patients are expected to wear masks and have their temperatures checked. Additional steps are being taken to allow for social distancing, too. For example, appointments may be spread out throughout the day so fewer people are in the waiting room at the same time. Or, people may be asked to wait in their cars until they are called for their appointments. If you are worried about going to the center, talk to your doctor about your concerns.

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (June 12th)

Reading: “Tears We Cannot Stop”, Michael Eric Dyson Why: Dr. Dyson is one of the country’s leading intellectuals. This 2017 book is a searing indictment of our racial divisions but presents a roadmap for redemption and hope.

Also reading: “Can a Vaccine for Covid-19 be Developed in Record Time,”  New York Times Magazine A Never Before Published Hemingway short story found by Hemingway’s grandson!! “Pursuit as Happiness” Here are his grandson’s thoughts on the piece.

REwatching: Ava DuVernay’s 13th which is streaming for free online on Netflix Why: Powerful and infuriating in equal measures and a stark depiction of how far we have yet to go in addressing system racism and the over-policing of Black bodies.

Listening: What a Day, a daily, 15 minute take on the day’s news/events from the folks who brought us the wickedly astute and irreverent, Pod Save America. Why: Comedian, Akilah Hughes’ voice is exactly what we need right now

Corona Extra: Netflix has launched its Black Lives Matter collection. I plan to rewatch Becoming and When They See Us this weekend. Why: Black stories matter

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Achieving health equity, ensuring that where you live and the color of your skin does not determine whether you live is the driving purpose of Komen NYC’s work. George Floyd’s murder by police and the ensuing rawness of outrage, protests, and calls for justice, equality, and change have laid bare how much more work needs to be done. Health equity requires social equity. There is no doubt systemic racism is a driving force in the disparities in breast cancer care and outcomes that people of color face. As a community, we must listen to voices with different perspectives, be willing to learn, grow, and change and be agents of peace and progress. Let’s accept that racism is a public health crisis and work to dismantle all vestiges of it. Black lives matter. We wish you peace, Team Komen NYC

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (June 5th)

Reading: Re-upping this from last week with additional commentary and a stronger suggestion that you spend some times with it... The Nickel Boys, Colin Whitehead, Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. Colin also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2017 for his novel, Underground Railroad, which also an amazing read. Why: Brutal honesty and clear reassessment of African American history and leaves a hard and bitter truth about the ongoing American experiment.

Also re-reading James Baldwin this week... Re-Read #1: Letter from a Region in My Mind, James Baldwin, The New Yorker, November 10, 1962 Why: “Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.” Re-Read #2: Fifth Avenue, Uptown, James Baldwin, Esquire July, 1960 Why: “The country will not change until it re-examines itself and discovers what it really means by freedom. In the meantime, generations keep being born, bitterness is increased by competence, pride, and folly, and the world shrinks around us. It is a terrible, an inexorable, law that one cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own: in the face of one's victim, one sees oneself.”

Watching: Just Mercy, free on Amazon Prime Why: Further elucidation on the systemic racism that plagues our society.

More titles streaming for free: Vanity Fair - movies like Just Mercy and I Am Not Your Negro are available to stream free of charge. Paramount Pictures - offering free rentals of Selma on all US digital platforms for the month of June.

Listening and Reading: The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazine Why: Nikole Hannah-Jones, the architect and lead author was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The project reframes the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

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What is Linda Reading, Watching, and Listening to This Week (May 29th)

Reading: The Nickel Boys, Colin Whitehead Why: Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. Colin also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2017 for his novel, Underground Railroad, which is an amazing read. Only three other authors have won the Pulitzer Prize more than once, Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, and John Updike.

Watching: Fleabag Season One, Amazon Why: A dark British comedy, that is as hard not to watch as it is at times hard to watch. Phoebe Waller-Bridge won an Emmy for lead actress in a comedy series and the show won the Emmy for best comedy series. It is deliciously smutty, you may not want to watch with children under 13.

Listening: Re-upping my Spotify playlist, I can’t enough of it! Why: I have added a few new songs. Familiarity is comforting during these difficult times.

Corona Extras:  My FAVE, Kara Swisher was on a roll this week with THREE NY Times columns. One ruminating on the unexpected joys of this lockdown, and two on Trump’s Twitter tirades. Here’s the first and the second.