Best of 2020
While I certainly don’t want to miss an opportunity to finally read 2020 for filth, I’m not sure what sorts of terrible things I can say about this year that hasn’t already been said more eloquently by lots of other people. It was a terrible, no-good, soul-crushing, exasperating, and thoroughly exhausting excuse for a year. I lost my job and, like so many people, spent the bulk of the past 12 months living under a thick fog of anxiety. Still, I am so incredibly grateful for so many things and the general wretchedness of the past year also served to highlight just how lucky I am. I got to spend my time safely quarantined with my loving partner and favorite person, Joshua Sanchez. While unemployed, I had lots of very kind folks in my industry go out of their way to offer me freelance work and job references. I remained healthy (thank goddess!) and relatively productive. I learned to knit and launched a tiny cottage industry selling hats and scarves. Compared to what so many people have gone through this year, I realize that I am incredibly fortunate and should never take for granted all the blessings in my life. That being said, doing a “best of” list for 2020 feels very weird, since I basically saw no shows, listened to a shockingly small amount of new music (for the most part it was all ancient new-age playlists and non-stressful jazz around my lair), and mostly looked at old poetry books as a way to keep sane. Still, it feels good to acknowledge that 2020 did actually manage to give us all some beautiful art, so here are the things that made an impression—and made me feel better—in the crazy-ass year of 2020.
Books
Arena - Lauren Shapiro (poems)
Cardinal - Tyree Daye (poems)
Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems - Wanda Coleman
Romance or the End - Elaine Kahn (poems)
A Beautiful Crime - Christopher Bollen (novel)
A Saint from Texas - Edmund White (novel)
Wow, No Thank You: Essays - Samantha Irby
What Are You Going Through - Sigrid Nunez
Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary - Sasha Geffen
Make Time for Creativity: Finding Space for Your Most Meaningful Work - Brandon Stosuy
Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir - Natasha Tretheway
Records
Jessie Ware - What’s your pleasure?
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Boltcutters
Bill Callahan - Gold Record
Juliana Barwick - Healing is a Miracle
Duval Timothy: Help
The Soft Pink Truth: Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
Kelly Lee Owens: Inner Song
Fleet Foxes: Shore
The Microphones: Microphones in 2020
Perfume Genius: Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
Caribou - Suddenly
KMRU - Peel
Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders
Movies
Scream Queen
Host
Bacurau
Da 5 Bloods
Lovers Rock
David Byrne’s American Utopia
First Cow
Possessor
My Octopus Teacher
Normally I’d add an entire section here devoted to interviews and live shows (haha, there were none!), but I didn’t actually do too much professional writing in 2020. I was focused mostly on my own poetry practice, my own ongoing poetry workshop, and taking Joshua Sanchez’s always amazing screenwriting class. However, I will say that interviewing Dionne Warwick for InStyle was a personal highlight and the kind of gig that comes along right at that moment you need it most. The same thing is true of my new job, which materialized at the end of the year at basically the exact moment I was ready to throw up my hands and give up. Lesson learned. Never give up.
Sending love and light to everyone in hopes that 2021 will be happier, healthier, and less psychically draining than the year we all just endured.