#2020 dakar

[zerotosixty]

Fernando Alonso, 2020 Dakar Rally

[skitskatdacat63]

Fernando S1E5 - “Mission Accomplished”

[xraidsexperience]

Xraids Experience | Alquilar moto en España

¿Necesitas alquilar moto en España? Visita pronto nuestras instalaciones, somos Xraids Experience, el lugar más indicado para alquilar moto en España.

Si desea conocer más sobre nuestros servicios, ingrese a nuestro sitio web www.xraidsexperience.com.

[joeinct]

Dakar, Photo © Louis Barthélemy, 2020

[gothhabiba]

For centuries, scholars’ understanding of sub-Saharan Africa derived from the written records of European colonialists, who gave the impression that sub-Saharan Africans had no native written languages of their own. In fact, says Fallou Ngom, who grew up in Senegal, people in sub-Saharan Africa have used a written system derived from Arabic to record the details of their daily lives since at least the 10th century.

That script, Ajami, is still flourishing; people throughout Africa use it to write phonetic renderings of about a dozen languages, including Swahili, Wolof, and Hausa. But because texts written in Ajami are often passed down through families where they can be lost over generations, many are inaccessible to scholars, few of whom can read the script anyway. Those who know about Ajami texts often dismiss them as mundane, with little scholarly value. Ngom, director of Boston University’s African Studies Center, disagrees. He is digitizing more than 18,000 of these indigenous texts—including those in Ajami, Arabic, and Ajami-Arabic—and making them widely available to offer scholars new insight into African history, literature, culture, medicine, and everyday life.

The BU College of Arts & Sciences professor of anthropology partnered with the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, on a 15-month project funded by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme. Ngom gained access to the documents through an elder in the Casamance region of Senegal who helped him compile a list of locals with Ajami manuscripts. The elder made introductions and facilitated approvals for the research team.

[ID: a page of Ajami handwritten text above a large red and black geometric decoration. The text, which is written with full diacritics, looks like classical Arabic script with several extra or different letterforms and diacritics. End ID]

“It’s human knowledge,” Ngom says. “It’s everything. And it’s a grassroots tradition. They’re handwriting these materials, making copies, and sharing them in the community. In many cases, this is the only form of literacy they have. So that’s what they use to document their lives.” The texts reveal “the interests of these people, their preoccupations.”

These everyday interests and writings expand scholars’ comprehension of the region’s people beyond the history and traditions emphasized in postcolonial literature, which Ngom says gave “the false impression that only oral traditions exist in sub-Saharan Africa.” In Senegal, the official language is French, in which only half of the population is literate; French literacy is restricted to a minority educated group in urban areas. The absence of Ajami in the history of sub-Saharan Africa “makes invisible centuries-old traditions of producing knowledge.”

Lara Ehrlich, "Digitizing Ajami, a Centuries-Old African Script." The Brink. 2020.

[zvaigzdelasas]

When Kémi Séba, a leading anti-colonial figure in Francophone Africa, last attempted to travel from his native Benin to Mali in January 2020 he was prevented from boarding the plane by Malian authorities.

At the time, Mali was under the control of president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta—a close ally to France who would not have welcomed Séba’s ability to lead large protests against the country’s former colonial ruler.

Two years later and Séba tells Quartz that he was personally invited to Mali by local authorities led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of a military junta that seized power in August 2020, to give a rousing speech against neo-colonialism in the capital city of Bamako.

“The Malian authorities regard me as an ally because they know that I have reignited Pan-Africanism in Francophone African countries,” said Séba who was kicked out of Senegal in 2017 after the government called him a “threat to public order.” [...]

While the international community and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) have denounced the military takeover in Mali, he praises the armed forces for responding to growing discontent with the former government

“The alliance between civil society and the military forces is a patriotic path forward and it will be the beginning of a new era in Africa,” he said.

“Democracy in the western sense has failed. Mali for me is proof that something can be different.” [...]

A recent poll by the [french-speaking] Friedrich Ebert foundation found that 68% of Malians are very satisfied with the coup, 27% are satisfied and only 5% do not support the military [...]

The question now is whether anti-colonial populist governments with broad support from their citizens will become a trend that spreads to other parts of Africa.

Séba believes that it is currently mostly isolated to Francophone Africa where it is slowly gaining momentum.

Even the more internationalist regional leaders like Macky Sall, Senegal’s president, have recently suggested that he wants to overhaul financial relations with the West.

The president gave a blistering speech earlier this month at a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uncea) meeting in Dakar where he criticized the IMF for not allocating a fair portion of special drawing rights (SDRs) to the continent during the pandemic.

Africa has received only $33 billion of the $650 billion in emergency and unconditional funding issued by the IMF during covid-19, with much larger sums being allocated to developed economies like the US, Japan, China, and Germany.

“Explaining underdevelopment in Africa is very simple. The rules set up by international institutions have put us in a straitjacket. The rules are unfair, outdated, and need to be disputed,” he told delegates.

“It is time for Africa to speak out. The voices should not just be those of leaders but of finance ministers and others affected by a system that works against the continent.”

The growing dissatisfaction with Bretton Woods institutions adds to the feeling that the West has deliberately short-changed Africa in terms of access to vaccines.

Western drugmakers continue to block African manufacturing plants from producing life saving vaccines due to patent issues and vaccine donations to the continent have fallen well short of the mark.

This may have [sic] led to an increase in anti-Western sentiment in other regions outside Francophone west Africa.

Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, a non-profit [...], said that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has increased anti-Western sentiment in Africa.

Russian flags have been flown in rallies everywhere from Ethiopia to South Africa as many Africans believe that the West’s condemnation of the invasion is hypocritical in the context of Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. [...]

Nicolas Cheeseman, professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham, said that populist policies are on the rise in other parts of Africa but not to the same extent as the Sahel.

“Figures such as William Ruto in Kenya and Julius Malema in South Africa are using populism as a way to try and gain power, but at the minute it seems to be more of a tool of the opposition than the government,” he said.

Still, the populist trend in west Africa could be the start of a wider movement in Africa and activists like Séba certainly hope that recent developments reverberate across the continent.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the divisive figure has established connections with Malema in South Africa to expand the movement to Southern Africa.

Last week, hundreds of protestors from Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party gathered outside the French embassy in Pretoria, holding signs that had expletives against France. .

For a country which is not linked to French colonization, this could be a warning sign that events in the Sahel may eventually morph into something much more significant in Africa.

6 Jun 22

[burlveneer-music]

A Fourth World album by Shackleton (!) - The Majestic Yes (2022)

Taking off from Beaugars Seck’s foundational sabar drum rhythms — recorded by Sam in Dakar in February 2020 — Shackleton has constructed a trio of intricately layered, luminous, enchanted, epic excursions. The second is more dazzled and meandering, with jellied bass, insectile detail, and discombobulated jabbering; the third is more liquid, fleet of foot, and psychedelic, with a grooving b-line and funky keyboard stabs, scrambled eastern strings and hypnotic vocalese. The harmonium in The Overwhelming Yes sounds like Nico blowing in chillily from up the desert shore. The overall mood is wondrous, twinkling with light, onwards-and-upwards; an uncanny, dubwise mix of the ancient and the futuristic. Mark Ernestus’ Version is stripped, trepidatious, mystical, and stranger still, with just a snatch of the original melody, extra distortion and delay, and crystal-clear drum sound. Twenty minutes of startlingly original music, with Shackleton the maestro at the top of his game, and a characteristically evilous dub by Mark Ernestus. Mastered by Rashad Becker; handsomely sleeved. Sick to the nth. Love 4 Ever.

[crosscountryrally]

Honda se refuerza con todo: Skyler Howes llega al equipo oficial Honda HRC

Honda ha dado el golpe al mercado del Mundial de Rally Raid FIM W2RC y el Dakar 2024 hoy al confirmar al tercer clasificado del último Dakar 2023 como quinto piloto oficial de Honda HRC. Se trata del estadounidense Skyler Howes, que con 31 años viene haciendo ruido en el rally cross country desde su debut en el Dakar 2019.

“Correr para el Honda HRC es un momento destacado de mi vida y mi carrera. Aprendí a conducir una Honda XR75 cuando tenía 3 años y comencé mi carrera en los rallies con una CRF450X, por lo que mis raíces están profundas en Honda. Tener también el apoyo de Monster Energy es enorme para mí y estoy muy emocionado de ver lo que el equipo y yo podemos lograr juntos. Después de un podio en el Dakar mi objetivo sigue siendo el mismo, divertirme lo máximo posible y seguir alcanzando lo más alto del podio” declaró Howes, que además de la P3 de 2023 tiene un noveno lugar en 2020 y un quinto puesto en 2021.

El jefe de equipo Ruben Faria se mostró muy contento con la incorporación de Howes a Honda HRC: “Estamos muy contentos de darle la bienvenida a Skyler. Es un piloto joven, pero con bastante experiencia en los rallies: fue tercero en el último Dakar y ganó en Marruecos. Es bastante completo y rápido fuera de pista. Con él tendremos un súper equipo para el Dakar 24 y estoy seguro de que Skyler nos ayudará a estar en lo más alto de la clasificación”.

Por el momento, Honda contará con cinco riders en Marruecos y el Dakar, con Quintanilla, Cornejo, Brabec, Van Beveren y Howes en la alineación oficial.

[felipeandletizia]

Felipe and Letizia retrospective: December 14th

2003: Weekend in London.

2004: Audience to the Junta Directiva del Club de Encuentros “Manuel Broseta” (the alicantin lawyer who was killed by ETA in 1992); Inauguration of the newspaper office of “Las Provincias Multimedia” in Valencia & 16th King Jaime I awards

2005: Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Institute of International and Strategic Studies

2007: Attended the musical “Beauty and the Beast” in benefit the Children’s Oncology Residence of the Spanish Association against Cancer

2009: Lunch offered to the president of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet; Meeting with Presidents of Communities and Autonomous Cities attending the 4th Conference of Presidents & Gala dinner offered to the president of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet

2011: Prince of Girona Foundation presentation in Barcelona

2012: Audiences at la Zarzuela

2014: Lunch with her team at a restaurant near la Zarzuela

2015: 13th meeting of the patronages of the Princess of Girona Foundation

2016: Meeting of Princess of Girona Foundation at the Royal Palace in Madrid.

2017: Visited Village Pilote initiative for kids of the streets in Dakar, Senegal as part of her four-day cooperation trip to the west African country; Visited Ala 46 (Group 82) of the air force in Las Palmas & Lunch for the 5th International Forum of Tourism, Maspalomas Costa Canaria

2020: Visited military facilities of the Spanish Air Force & Arrived in Honduras for a cooperation trip

2021: Lunch celebrating the 15th anniversary of the newspaper “elEconomista”

2022: Inaugurated the exhibition “De Territorios 5x50”, one of the events in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the UNED & Delivered the 19th edition of the Annual Awards of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation

F&L Through the Years: 1099/??

[oyesmendes]

love is just a word - the shorts

read the whole series here!!

maranello; winter of 2020

memories, memories, and more memories

boxes on top of boxes, on top of more boxes in a not so big apartment just fifteen minutes away from the ferrari factory. carlos was squeezing past some of the stacks, trying to avoid toppling them over; while isa was in the kitchen washing away at the sink.

this was home for the next two years.

he's pulling out random stuff from these unlabelled boxes - a result of last minute packing and the lack of organisation - and he's stumbled upon the one he wanted to avoid the most. the box from madrid. the one that he had tucked at the back of his closet for the last two years. it was more battered than the others that had survived the plane and truck ride here from the uk, but carlos never paid much attention to its state, not to mention the familiar handwriting on the side of the box.

castaña's

he had hoped that it would be his clothes, or a couple of his helmets, or knick knacks he shoved into a box haphazardly; but no, the moment he lifted the lids, he spotted his old race suit, then an old helmet and a lump formed in his throat. the dark green hues and your number '25'. the last time you raced at a professional level, and your last helmet exchange with him. a picture frame peeks out from underneath the countless trophies.

"oh what's this!" isa picks up one of the trophies sticking out of the box, holding it in her hands and squinting at the words. he pushes the old race suit further into the box, effectively covering the picture frame from anyone's sight.

"that was a trophy, from formula three." he tells isa, wrapping his arms around her. he remembers the moment like it was yesterday.

-

"carlitos! you did it, you did it!" you're jumping up and down in the paddock, excitement pumping through your veins. carlos runs over to hug you, spinning you round and round again. the both of you were practically glowing under the sunlight.

this was his first formula three podium. the same week you were on the podium with his father for your second dakar race. it felt like an absolute dream come true. you walk hand in hand with him through the paddocks, the media having a good field day with the pictures. you both arrive back in his drivers room, a bag sitting on the table.

"what's this?" carlos asks, running his fingers over the bag. he knew it held a helmet, but he already had his in his hand, so he was puzzled as to who's it was. you gesture for him to open it, and when he pulls the zipper, he notices your iconic dark green stripes. he takes the helmet out, and it sides were covered with white ink.

to my chilli:

i'm so proud of how far we've come. i'm so proud of you. can't wait for our future together. i love you.

-castaña

a scrawly heart was drawn next to the message. this was the helmet you won the race in. carlos was grinning from ear to ear, holding the helmet in his hand like a baby.

"you like?"

"i love."

-

while he was in his trance, walking down memory lane, isa had already lined up the few trophies along the shelves. but he stopped her as she reaches for another one, close to the helmet, the frame, and a lot of other memories.

"i'll do the rest, mi amor. you should take a rest."

"i'll get dinner started then," she pecks him on the cheek, smiling sweetly at him. he takes the helmet from the box, placing it next to the trophy, the side with the note facing the wall.

then he pulls the picture frame up. just as he remembered. it was you, and him, perched on a bench each holding the trophy and helmet. he was smiling widely at the camera, while you had your lips pressed to his cheeks.

his fingers run over your face in the picture, and he holds the frame tightly to his body before putting it back with the box, storing it with all the other memories of you.

taglist: @primadonnasdream ​ @chicadelapartamento512-blog @thebagginsofbaggend @starlightoctavia @d0ntjudgemy50shades @cowspew @justthatgirlxox @ggaslyp1 @fromthedeskofjoii @lorenakaspersen @words-4u @o0itsjustme0o @ambrosialilly @totowolfff @dr3lover @gulsolsikke @enjoymyloves @rmaddenns @care2703 @katcontrreras @tattered-tales @duruxoxo @ccloaned

[mybeingthere]

Born in 1986 in Bouaké (Ivory Coast), Roméo Mivekannin lives and works between Toulouse (France) and Cotonou (Benin). 

After training as a cabinetmaker and studying art history, Roméo Mivekannin chose to enter the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Toulouse. In parallel to his studies, he  experimented with several mediums, from sculpture to painting. 

Recent exhibitions: Paris + Basel (Paris, 2022); Effractions, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, 2022); FITE, Musée Bargoin (Clermont-Ferrand, 2022); Picasso Remix, Biennale de Dakar, Dakar (Senegal, 2022); Zoos humains, Africa Museum, Tervuren (Belgium, 2021); Re-création, Fondation Blachère (France, 2021); Hosties Noires, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Dakar (Senegal, 2021); 1-54 Paris, Christie’s, Paris (France, 2021 and 2022); Les Âmes du peuple noir, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan (Ivory Coast, 2020)

https://cecilefakhoury.com/.../93-romeo-mivekannin/works/

[lboogie1906]

Hamilton Frederick Bohannon (March 7, 1942 – April 24, 2020), often credited and known professionally simply as Bohannon, was a percussionist, bandleader, songwriter, and record producer, who was one of the leading figures in 1970s disco music.

He began playing in local bands, one of which featured guitarist Jimi Hendrix, before graduating from Clark College with a BS in music and secondary education. After a brief period as a schoolteacher, he was recruited as a drummer in Stevie Wonder’s touring band. He moved to Detroit and was employed by Motown as the leader and arranger of Bohannon & The Motown Sound, who provided backing for many of the label’s top acts on tour, including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Diana Ross, and the Supremes, The Four Tops and others.

He formed an ensemble, featuring members of the local band, The Fabulous Counts, including such musicians as Ray Parker Jr. and Dennis Coffey. He signed with the Dakar label and released his debut album Stop & Go. This was followed by five more albums for the label over the next two years, on which he “perfected his formula of heavy, thudding bass accents and aggressive rhythms”. Although several of his tracks were club hits, he had limited chart success. His first hit single was “South African Man”, which reached #78 on the Billboard R&B chart, but had more success in the UK, where it reached #22 on the UK Singles Chart. This was followed by “Foot Stompin Music” - his only record to reach the US Billboard Hot 100 - and “Disco Stomp”, his biggest hit in the UK where it reached #6.

Much of his music has been widely sampled. Other musicians who have used samples of his music include Jay Z, Digable Planets, and Snoop Dogg. His name was repeatedly invoked in the Tom Tom Club song “Genius of Love.” His composition “Ooh!” was included in Mary J. Blige’s album Love & Life.

Peachtree Street in Newnan, Georgia became Bohannon Drive. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha

[motorsportverso]

História do Rally Safari no Kenya

Começou em 1953, com vitória de um Volksvaguen Beetle (fusca) com uma dupla da casa ,más acho que era edição de campeonato nacional,da dupla Allan Dix e Johnny Larsen.

A dificuldade na savana africana era grande.

E as especiais tinham as vezes distância de 280 KM,300 KM e levavam o dia inteiro para ser percorridas como no rally Dakar,rally dos sertões.

E porcausa das dificuldades da áfrica os carros eram modificados com suspensões mais altas,mata boi nos carros snorkel,bagageiro com estepe em cima da capota.

Em 2001 ultima edição do wrc  tinham especiais com 117 a 124 km

A volta do prova como etapa do mundial de rally estava prevista para 2020,más por causa da pandamia de Covid -19 foi adiada para 2021,más com o formato padrão de 4 dias de programação com especiais mais curtas em relação a essas,com carros normais só as suspensões um pouco mais altas.

Imagens e vídeos do Rally Safari

Porsche 911

Datsun 240z

Audi Quattro

Video Rally Safari 1983 (WRC)

[tengomilpalabrasparati]

Tal día como hoy 21 de enero ...

2020: Se confirma el primer caso de COVID-19 en América.

2001: Por primera vez en la historia, una mujer, la alemana Jutta Kleinschmidt gana el Rally Dakar.

1986: La sonda estadounidense Voyager 2 pasa junto al planeta Urano.

1976: El avión supersónico Concorde comienza a operar sus vuelos comerciales de línea regular.

1968: En Groenlandia se estrella un avión bombardero estadounidense del tipo B-52 con cuatro bombas atómicas en su interior, lo que causó una gran contaminación radioactiva en la zona. Se le conoce como accidente de Thule, por el nombre de la base aérea desde donde partió.

1954: En Estados Unidos se bota el primer submarino de propulsión nuclear de la historia llamado Nautilus.

1950: Se descubre en la Universidad de California (Berkeley) un nuevo elemento químico, al que se llamó berkelio.

1927: Presentación del cine sonoro en Nueva York.

1893: Se patenta la fórmula de la Coca Cola.

1793: En París se ejecuta a Luis XVI en la guillotina.

(Se patenta la fórmula de la Coca Cola)

[lvdbbooks]

2023年2月24日

【新入荷・新本】

François-Xavier Gbré & Baptiste Manet & Martial Manet Album Architectures, Abidjan, Caryatide, 2022

English / French. 24 x 32 cm. Softcover. 128 pages.

���格：5,500円（税込）

/

コートジボワールの旧首都アビジャン（Abidjan）に残る、「トロピカル・モダニズム」とも形容される主に1950〜70年代に建てられた近代建築にフォーカスした写真集。常に変化し続ける都市において、必ずしも特定されず、しばしば不可視化される、豊かで特異な建築的景観の価値化を通して、現代遺産の概念を考察します。

An iconographic work on the modern architecture of Abidjan which aims to offer a photographic survey of thirty buildings representative of the chosen moment of architecture that followed independence.

This is not an architecture book but a photography book on an architecture that expresses itself through diversity. It is a book that intends to offer a photographic view of buildings in Abidjan that bear the imprint of a certain «tropical modernism».

More precisely, Album Architectures, Abidjan is the testimony of an encounter between two individuals who live and share an aesthetic and emotional attachment to the lagoon city. Issa Diabaté, architect, contemporary actor of the architectural future of this city that never stops reinventing itself. François-Xavier Gbré, a photographer who has made architecture his preferred medium for apprehending the muted history of places by envisaging architectures as the sedimentary traces of the social and political changes of a country, the Ivory Coast.

This book, and the Album Architectures collection more broadly, aims to initiate a reflection on the definition of the notion of contemporary heritage through the valorisation of rich and singular architectural landscapes, not always identified, often invisibilised, of cities in perpetual urban change.

Born in 1978 in Lille (France), François-Xavier Gbré is a Franco-Ivorian photographer who lives and works between the Marais Poitevin in France and Abidjan.The photographic work of this mixed-race art-ist of Ivorian origin who grew up in the north of France apprehends architecture, landscape and urbanity in the form of a documentary testimony that evokes the architectural photography of Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore and Guy Tillim. From Mali to Israel, from Lille to Rabat, François- Xavier Gbré photographs abandoned architectures bearing the traces of their country's social and political history. His photographs take a dis-tanced look at the buildings and the symbolic charge that history and historicity give them. They are inter-ested in the past, in the muted history of places, reveal the invisibilities of everyday life and petrify fragments of a world in perpetual mutation. In a soft radicality, he testifies of the in-between, of these moments of tipping revealed with force by the architecture.

François-Xavier Gbré's work can be found in the collections of the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), the Tate Modern (London, UK), the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, USA), the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia), Chazen Museum of Art—University of Wisconsin (Madison USA), Walther Collection (Ulm, Germany), Rencontres d'Arles (Arles, France), Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (Paris, France) and Musée des Confluences (Lyon, France). In 2020, François-Xavier Gbré is the win-ner of the Louis Roederer Prize of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles.

Baptiste Manet is an architecte specialised in contemporary heritage. He is the co-founder and director, with Yann Legouis, of the Sapiens Architectes office. He is also the co-founder of the association Éditions Cosa Mentale and a teacher at the École nationale d'architecture de Paris-Belleville (Paris). In 2022, Baptiste Manet participated in the experimental residential programme for the research and study of artistic practice and thought, organised by the RAW Academy in Dakar and the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

Martial Manet has a PhD in Law and graduated in philosophy from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has been Visiting Scholar at the Institute for African Studies at Columbia University (New-York). He teaches at the University of Paris I Panthéon- Sorbonne (Paris)

[swiftieinlove91]

thank u taylor

hey taylor. hey tumblr.

this is my first tumblr account, and I made it because I know Taylor Swift lurks on here sometimes, and I hope this message finds her.

Taylor, I want to say thank you, and I didn't know of any way you might see it better than tumblr. You have been such a huge influence in my life - sometimes in ways I haven't always realized until years later. I remember the first time I heard one of your songs, and connected it to you, and realized I loved it. It was "Love Story," and my mom was driving me to Friendly's before school started that day to meet up with a bunch of fellow drama kids the morning of opening night of one of our plays (it was a tradition for us to meet for breakfast). I remember that the sky was a steely blue-grey, and that I was full of anticipation and nerves and hope for that night. I'd been homeschooled most of my life, and it was my first time joining in on this breakfast tradition. I hoped some of the other kids liked me. I had a crush on one of the stage crew boys. and Love Story came on the radio and something about it hit me in that moment - I was young, I was in love, I had hopes and fears and parents who I couldn't always count on to support me. your song affirmed and soothed all of that, and added to the young, naive, fragile, intense beauty of that moment.

later, i was in grad school and 1989 had just come out. i had the cd and it was the only thing i ever played in my car, just on repeat. from the joyfulness of "welcome to new york" (which i would play without fail every time i drove from grad school in maine to home to buffalo, NY, making sure to have it blasting at exactly the moment when I crossed into NY), the no-f's-given attitude of "shake it off," to the devastating, wrenching, cleansing sadness of "clean." I played that album so much that friends i carpooled with regularly inadvertently became swifties as a result of me driving them around xD

then, later, i was a young woman who had just ended an engagement, after a 6-year-long relationship that started when i was 19, in my mid-20s and feeling hot and vibrant and sexy and strong and powerful and untouchable for the first time ever. Reputation came out and i felt all the strong, sensual energy in every single song. It became the anthem to my being. you helped me, you showed me that it was possible and beautiful and completely okay to step into my power. i was single and i was living alone for the first time ever and i was so unsure and so scared but you helped me feel like i had power, and I would figure all those things out.

lover buoyed me as i tried to re-navigate love again after ending such a long and serious commitment. it provided both salve for the wounds, in terms of beautiful songs like "death by a thousand cuts," as well as hope for more and better, in songs like, of course, "lover."

and then the pandemic hit, and you literally saved my life. "folklore" and "evermore" were incredible, precious gifts. they felt so authentic - like less-planned, just loving gifts to your fans and the people who love you. they are what got me through 2020. i was living in Dakar, Senegal at the time the pandemic started, and in late march i was mandatorily evacuated by the US govt back to buffalo. i had nowhere to live, no car, no savings, no health insurance, no plan (my plan had been to continue to live and work abroad for a few years, then pursue a doctorate degree abroad). i watched everything i'd planned and worked so hard for fall apart in the matter of a week. and then folklore came along, and it helped soothe me, and helped me feel connected to everyone else in the world who was going through similar things - our lives and plans and dreams coming derailed by something none of us had planned for, could have possibly planned for.

this was also when i started to really reflect on myself and who i am (i had a lot of time lol). i finally felt free and strong and ready enough to step into my queer identity. i don't know if it was intentional or not, and i don't want to assume anything about your personal life, but songs like "seven" and "betty" and "august" helped me come into that truth about myself. again, i don't want to assume anything about you personally, but your songs helped me find and be okay with myself, and i want to thank you.

and then evermore was just icing on a gift-cake ;) i went through another really bad breakup in 2021, one that shook my perception of reality to its core. your songs kept me grounded.

and now, here we are, post-midnights. i met you there at midnight. i stayed up til 4 am on a worknight to listen to the full album, several times through, and then the bonus tracks. i SCREECHED at the beginning of "vigilante shit." i danced along to the full album. i cried during "question...?" and "sweet nothing."

in between all of this, for the last several years, I watch your "artist of the decade" performance and your live in paris performances from lover and your performance of "false god" on snl and your tiny desk concert and your interviews.

i don't know how you've managed to do it, but i feel like i've grown up with you, and i feel like every album you release is exactly what my heart needs at that moment in time. you've taught me so much about how to find oneself, how to overcome adversity with class and grace, how to tune out the haters, how to believe in myself and my power. thank you. thank you thank you thank you. your music and your words have been here with me throughout my life, buoying and affirming and teaching and loving and powerful. i am so incredibly grateful to be alive in a time and space where i've gotten to grow up alongside you, and so incredibly grateful that you have pushed through everything you have to be the shining light you are.

thank you, taylor <3