October 2020 Monthly Review

disclaimer: these reviews are for my own personal accountability and aren’t really meant to be articulate blog posts. if you are curious about anything I write here, feel free to email me at nichole.lynn.bennett <at> gmail.com

highlights from the past month

• animals visiting my pumpkin fairy house
• playing Masks RPG
• finished Pandemic Legacy Season 2
• started Brindlewood Bay RPG
• piloting Transmissions from 2050 with Kealing Middle School 8th graders
• piloting Transmissions from 2050 with Austin Youth River Watch high schoolers
• attended first Unlearning White Supremacy Circle
• facilitated Planet Texas 2050 retreat
• Cameron Esposito’s comedy writing class
• got my flu shot (went back to campus for the first time since March)
• voted
• attended first Sunrise meeting
• going through film history with MIT film experience course
• turned in PEO Scholarship
• accepted to present Art Bytes
• received a grant to pay for my summer work on Stories of Ancient Resilience

lessons learned from last month

• self care as after care
• miracles are changes in perception
• learning not to take things personally (ego)

theme or emotion that sums up the month

from gratitude journal

• toads
• getting ideas
• plums
• making food

from morning pages

• tired
• trying to fight grind mentality
• midnfulness
• Why does “caught up” hold my happiness?
• joy of watching animals
• that’s not mine to stress over/ boundaries
• allergies
• decolonizing imagination
• anti-racist work and wondering if I’m standing for something or going with the status quo
• at whose expense do I have these shoes
• how can we show up for one another
• self care as after care
• embodiment
• inner child work

media

tv shows

• Lovecraft Country
• Kipo and the Wonderbeasts
• The Mandalorian

films

• Black Diamond Express
• The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog
• L’arroseur arrose
• The Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat
• Edison Kinteoscope Recording of a Sneeze
• The Great Train Robbery
• The Best at Bay
• Lonedale Operator
• The General
• Easy Street
• The Immigrant
• Modern Times
• Battleship Potemkin
• The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights
• A Trip to the Moon
• Life of an American Fireman
• The Cabbage Patch Fairy
• Nosferatu

books

• The Testaments
• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
• A Song for a New Day
• The Racial Contract
• Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
• Parable of the Sower Graphic Novel
• Dated Emcees

music

• Jyoti
• Astrid Engberg
• Duma
• Nubya Garcia

board games/rpgs

• Masks
• Pandemic Legacy Season 2
• Brindlewood Bay

video games

• Rimworld
• Read Only Memories

MOOCs

• MIT’s Film Experience