writer safy-hallan farah on aesthetic transformation, our spring fashion recs, & more
monthly recs #49
Each month, we ask a writer to share what’s on their minds and in their open tabs for our monthly recommendations. This April’s guest curator is of
, where she writes a blend of identity-critical autotheory and audiovisual stimuli exploring affects, aesthetics, taste, psychology, consumerism, performance of womanhood and modern femininity.At 13, I returned from winter break conspicuously dawning a hijab after cutting twelve inches from my hair. At 18, I removed the hijab, convinced it was the most obvious barrier between my old self and the next version of myself.
Over the years, I’ve unveiled countless layers of myself, grafting one identity onto the next — each rebirth marked by an aesthetic transformation. Today, I am John Quiñones.
I used to say Minneapolis feels like a Portlandia skit, but post-Trump, it feels more like an ABC’s What Would You Do skit, a meta-performance designed to virtue-signal and reinforce the social differences identity framework. Quiñones tells the audience his name after directing performers to enact skits that depend on audience awareness and participation. Endings–life and death, day and night — are just violently unsubtle introductions. I’m John Quiñones at the end of each episode just makes sense. I’ve been drawing inspiration from him during my fiance’s County Commissioner run, which he’s announcing his candidacy for soon.
I become Quiñones in a Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl by Tiqqun sort of way, of course. Each iteration of identity, every layer, resembles a matryoshka doll — more conspicuous than the last yet somehow skinnier. There is no makeover or shopping spree montage. There is no glow-up externally signified by the removal of glasses or a hijab. There are only jagged, clunky scenes of metatheater and brain-rot. This is girlhood. This is brand activation.
safy-hallan farah’s
1. A London Fog trench coat
2. ROYCE’ Ghana Bitter chocolate
3. Choke Enough by Oklou
4. Wearing my lanyard, noise-canceling headphones, and ID holder as part of the jewelry stack
5. I keep a photo album filled with inspiring textures and colors
paid subscribers can scroll down for more recs from safy, including the book on her nightstand, the everyday habits that keep her going, and a favorite herbal remedy
more from us
6. It’s allergy season. Our must-haves for making it through include local honey (in NYC, try the neighborhood-specific options from Andrew’s Honey), a nasal spray, and an air purifier.
7. As the seasons change, we’ve been contemplating cycles of death and renewal (inspired by our conversation with death doula Virginia Chang). Garden cemeteries, which originated with Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery in 1804, were designed as park-like landscapes to encourage community engagement while honoring the dead, replacing religious graveyards with serene imagery, horticultural beauty, and spaces for gatherings; their popularity, exemplified by Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, directly inspired the creation of Central Park and Prospect Park. Today, historic cemeteries such as Elmwood in Memphis, Spring Grove in Cincinnati, Oakland in Atlanta, Congressional in D.C., and Jersey City & Harsimus offer volunteer opportunities for those interested in preserving these landscapes through gardening and maintenance.
8. For dressing in these in-between temperatures and unpredictable weather, focus on light yet warm layers and materials that can stand up to a sudden shower, like this single-breasted coat or this windbreaker from Uniqlo, KASSL’s rubber coat and boiled wool cardigan, this Auralee sweater vest, a Pleats Please shawl, and these leather slippers from Stòffa.
9. This book will teach you how to draw a tree — but it’s also a thoughtful meditation on practice, imperfection, and nature in all its variation. A lovely companion for a day in the park (bring a pen and paper, so you can practice for yourself).
10. A few upcoming events and exhibitions our team is excited about: in New York, BAM’s Macbeth(s) series, featuring a multitude of screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s original, and Woven Histories, an exhibit considering textiles and modern abstraction; in Paris, Mark Leckey’s exhibit at Lafayette Anticipations exploring the ecstatic and the everyday and the Paris Noir exhibit at Centre Pompidou retracing the influence of Black artists in France from the 1950s to the 2000s; in the U.K., a career-spanning exhibition of Ed Atkins’ computer-generated videos exploring the disappearing gap between the digital world and real life at the Tate; and in LA, an exhibition of pioneering feminist artist Carolee Schneeman’s multimedia works at Lisson Gallery.
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