Today we talked live with novelist, poet, activist, and actress Amber Tamblyn of Listening in the Dark, about the new tenth anniversary edition of her book Dark Sparkler, and how the silencing of women in Hollywood she writes about in those poems reflects the deep, systemic misogyny at the center of American life, how fighting for change will take all of us, and how poetry lets us understand the things that are broken. Tamblyn talked to us about:
Why the worst fear of the far right is of a woman being more than one thing
The incomplete legacy of and backlash to the #MeToo movement and why the fight against misogyny is ongoing
What the project of feminism looks like today, and why it includes reaching still-shapable men — before Charlie Kirk does
You won’t want to miss any of it. Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.
During the conversation, Amber recommended a short list of poets whose work captures America today; here are some links to Bookshop.org to get you started (and if you have more recommendations for political poets, leave those in the comments below).
Kevin Young (whose latest work we’ll be reading in September in The Ink Book Club)
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More Live conversations this week!
Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 13, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, journalist Jon Lee Anderson will talk to us about his latest book and the legacy of the War on Terror. And on Thursday, August 14, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio will return. We hope to see you for all of these conversations!
To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert once we’re live, and you can watch, chat, and even participate in the conversation during our Book Club meetings from your iOS or Android mobile device. If you’re using a computer, you can also watch (and ask questions in the text chat) on our homepage.
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