Beyond Knitting
13th
Dear everybody,
We have been writing MDK since 2003. What started as a lark has grown into a daily site for knitters. Along the way, this community—and it is a community even if we can be together only in the ether—has shown itself to be interested in suggestions for things to watch, read, and listen to.
Now, we’re hoping everybody will stay with us as we dig deep.
We are still and will forever be a site for knitters, a place where we encourage knitting as a respite from daily life. We’ll continue to run two posts in a week about i-cord, no problem.
But our weekly recommendations now include movies, books, and podcasts that do the opposite of distract us from daily life. They’re things that have helped us to engage, to learn. We know there are a lot of you out there who are likewise at a moment where introspection is a productive way forward through the turmoil of our country.
This Week
Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th. The 13th Amendment is the one that granted freedom to enslaved people in 1863: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
It’s that phrase “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted” that’s the problem. Ava DuVernay’s 2016 documentary goes deep into the roots of mass incarceration. You can watch it right up there at the top of this post—Netflix is streaming it for free.
There is so much to see, read, listen to these days about race, about equal justice.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. But as a sales guy at a sneaker store once said, when asked how he’d managed to run a dozen marathons, “You just put one foot in front of the other. Before you know it, you’re 26 miles in.”
Love,
Ann and Kay
I agree, a must-see. This is an awful chapter in our history that we all need to understand.
“Yes please” to digging deep with your daily posts. Ms. DuVernay is one of our most important film makers.
I appreciate that you always let us know how to access your suggestions & I plan to watch this very soon.
Thanks to you both.
I agree also, your suggestions are spot on and me and my family truly appreciate them.
I have been working from home which sometimes means knitting samples and winding yarns for kits and I dug deep and watched Just Mercy, Selma, Harriet. But I thought, this is Hollywood, those white people are caricatures. Then I watched a lot of W Kamau Bell’s United Shades of America’s, then this one, 13th. All the while reading about the protests. It’s not a caricature, it’s not made up and it’s still happening. Even the rest of the world knows it. I’m examining my own heart now. I’m taking baby steps and want to take greater ones. We have to change our world.
I fathfully read MDK every morning. The wonderful items, along with knitting stories, that you two share with us broadens our views and helps us understand better. I live in a small rural college town, a two hour drive to the nearest major city, with only tv news as our newspaper is no more. Thank you for sharing the good and the bad of the crisis we face today. You are helping all of us better understand.
I am without words. Thank you to the scientists, artists, journalists, writers, and all who cared and contributed this work. I will have to revisit this to digest, absorb, and emote. This is amazing. Thank you for bringing it to the surface.
You have expressed my thoughts as well. I am stunned and also without words. I will make sure my family and friends know of this film.
Very appreciative of this site’s investigation, learning, sharing. The knitting community can become more unified as we do this kind of reckoning.
I am so appreciative of your willingness to help educate and illuminate the art of sweater knitting, mindfully noting how each component well considered, each stitch well done, the boring parts and the tricky parts, impact the beauty and durability of the whole garment.
Now you are going further, making sure we have resources to be as mindful in our citizenship so that our communities become more beautiful and durable because we have gained discernment and care about our actions.
Thank you and please continue ❤️
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
My comment is over on the page: I Am Not Your Negroe.
Twenty years ago, I was on the phone here in Toronto, Canada, to a man on Death Row in Florida, for a crime he did not commit. His name? Tom. He said (and I still hear it today, because I was floored) “You have no idea what atrocities an African-American man endures down here.” I was dumbstruck because Tom is NOT Black! I have never, ever heard the words “African-American” spoken with such profound respect, as I heard it from Tom that day. I took up the fight, for Tom, and others, solely based on how Tom said those words. Tom is free today, married, with two children. You might also note, that once a man has done any amount of time in prison in the United States, he loses his right to vote FOREVER! Every election from 1863 onwards, has excluded more and more Black men. In that sense, every election since has been a rigged election! Happy knitting ladies, and thank you for taking up the battle.
With all due respect, I think your statement that “once a man has done any amount of time in prison in the United States, he loses his right to vote FOREVER” is incorrect. I hope someone who knows more than I do about this will weigh in, because I think even the law on *felony* disenfranchisement varies from state to state. The US certainly has a lot of problems related to voting and voter access, but calling every election since 1863 “rigged” is painting with a very broad brush. And why the exclusive focus on men?
Sorry if this sounds rude, I don’t mean to be.
After a quick google I find that 93.2 percent of prison inmates in the United States in 2017 were men. So that’s why the focus on men, because they are disproportionately affected by this.
Just signed on now to view “13th” via Netflix. Thank you both so much for these continuing suggestions to help learn about and heal racial injustice. Am living in NYC in self-iso, and it feels so good to see your caring messages, as they appear. There is hope for a much better world out there (and in here :-). May my awareness be raised to comprehend the truth, and let me act and speak accordingly—this is my firm desire as we move forward. Thank you again for these thoughtful posts—very appreciated!
Thank you for the recommendation, it’s so helpful as I am not sure where to begin or go next for that matter. . Finished listening to Just Mercy, today and feeling a bit shell shocked to be honest.
Q. Piper, I was trying to be brief in a comment that I worried was already too long. In the 2016 U.S. election that Trump won, 6 million, 106 thousand people could not vote due to various prison related prohibitions; they were incarcerated, on parole, on probation, still had to finish paying fines and restitutions, or were permanently disenfranchised etc. Some are permanently banned due to the length of their sentence. Some according to the type of crime they were convicted of. I didn’t think a knitting site wanted to get into all those kinds of details. The fact is that in the 2016 election, more than 10 % of the population could not vote, in Florida; over 9 % in Kentucky and Mississippi, 8 % in Tennessee. In Canada, all inmates can vote. Well, even that’s not true. Kids under 18 can’t, but no one under 18, votes in Canada. Ann and Kay, you may delete my comments if you feel I am starting arguments. I’m sure that is not your intention. Nor is it mine.
My beautiful, smart, loving, almost perfect grandkids are bi-racial. I have been a anxious about them since they were born. Their experiences are frightening and I’m sure my daughter doesn’t tell me everything because she knows that I will worry. Peace, Martha
Thank you for recommendations
Thanks for your recommendations.
If white people don’t
wake up after these days, what will it take?
I just noticed MDK changed its name. When did that happen and did I miss an announcement?
They changed it last month and did a post about it here https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/change/. I hope that helps!