NEW YEAR / SAME ME

but now, finally, with a newsletter

I have always loved New Year's as a holiday, specifically because it's completely arbitrary. On the one hand, it does sort of mark a space-related thing-- that we have completed an orbit around the sun-- but it's only loosely tied to the Earth's orbital period, and besides, who's to say where a circle starts and ends? Everyone can argue over whether the new decade starts in 2020 or 2021 (blah blah "there's no year zero" blah blah) if they want to, but the Gregorian calendar (the one you probably use for most things) made its debut in the 16th century, 1582 to be exact, so it really doesn't matter. If you want to wait another year to kick off that new decade, go ahead, but I am ready for a new decade now. Maybe I'll celebrate a new decade in 2021, too! Who can tell.

Arbitrary or not, the new year marks a moment that we've all communally agreed is good for reflecting on the passage of time, reaffirming goals, and clearing the dead wood out of our lives. There is no mandated gift giving, and relatively little consumerist push besides party hats, gold glittery things, and various forms of carbonated wine. Unlike most of the other holidays, it doesn't come with an attached religious tradition, nor is it about whitewashing US colonial history. It's just a night. Even its traditional trappings can be used to signify endings in other contexts: in Japan, the song "Auld Lang Syne" is often played to signify that a store is closing for the night. Should auld acquaintance be forgot... we reopen tomorrow at 8am.

In marking our shiny new orbit, I thought of doing a retrospective of the stuff I did in 2019-- but honestly, 2019 was sort of exhausting, and even recapping the Good Fun Things made me kind of tired, and I'd prefer to write about a lot of them in depth individually rather than laundry listing them out. So, here's a handful of things instead!

Life

I got married! Neither of us ever really wanted to be married in general, but it turns out we do very much want to be married to each other. It was a completely amazing time, and a very good excuse to get a bunch of your loved ones all in the same room. A+, 12/10, would marry Frank again.

The Work

I've been working on a book proposal (yes!) this year, so I stepped back a bit from writing articles. Having said that, I was very excited to write this essay on hype in science called "Why Scientists Sometimes Make Extraordinary Claims" for the Washington Post.

I was also very happy to write a response to Indrapramit Das' short story "Song Between Worlds", an essay that, while titled "What Would Sound Be Like on Mars?" is as much about the threads of authenticity, capitalism, and space tourism in Das' story as it is about the nature of sound. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Slate Future Tense for the opportunity!

I'm pleased to say that the JustSpace Alliance, a nonprofit founded by myself and Erika Nesvold dedicated to advocating for a more ethical and inclusive future both in space and on Earth, is now just over a year old. Back in July, we co-organized a day of panels called "How Will We Govern Ourselves in Space?" with New America and ASU/Slate's Future Tense, which you can watch here. Special shout-out to Erika for moderating these panels when my immune system decided to freak out and land me in the ER instead of on my flight to DC-- having a great collaborator like her meant being able to focus on getting better, because I knew she'd do an awesome job.

An aside I'm really proud of: the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program is in its fourth year and going strong! Our students are so smart, hardworking, and kind, I am very grateful to work with them all.

Art

The first half of this year was pretty amazing for aerial performance! In early March, I performed an act for lyra (aerial hoop) based on the 2018 remake of Suspiria in the Aloft Circus Arts student show. The music was a collage of different songs from the soundtrack, but unfortunately YouTube doesn't understand sampling so they blocked it for copyright reasons-- instead here's some stills, and you can see a clip on my Instagram.

In June, I had the very great honor of receiving Scholastic Art & Writing's Alumni Achievement Award, for which I created this... lyra performance? video art? music video? called 40 Orbits, with choreography and performance by me, music composed by my lovely husband Frank Okay, and video by our dear friend RELAX HI DEF:

I showed this work as my offering to the student awardees at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (way better than me standing up there and talking for 4 minutes), which involved me standing at the podium on stage while it was screening, trying not to look like I was quietly freaking out that something I'd made was on a screen in Carnegie Hall while Tracy K. Smith, Tina Fey, Zach Posen, and Rose Byrne looked on. Podiums are great-- no one can see your knees and hands shaking!

I also spoke about this and other work at the intersection of art and science as part of Eyeo Festival, specifically in the context of how I've moved towards performance as my physical disabilities (which are usually invisible) have demanded more of my body, and put limits on how much I can sit still.

In the news

Probably the most nerve-wracking thing I did to end up in the news this year was dressing up like a Handmaid to protest Mike Pence delivering the welcome address at the 2019 International Astronautical Conference.

To recap, Pence is the head of the National Space Council, a position that helps provide him a glossy, futuristic distraction from his actual work stripping human rights away from marginalized people. The organizers of the IAC maintained that he should be invited to speak in his "professional capacity", which to me (and the 200+ cosignatories of our open letter) is not separable from his career of assaults on the rights of immigrants, women, LGBTQIA+ folks, and others. The letter and walk-out were not my work alone-- they were coordinated by a group of people who were upset and angry that the IAC chose to invite Pence, many of whom could not make public statements individually for fear of reprisal. I would like to thank those folks for coming together to speak out!

While at the IAC, I also got to be on this fun panel about SETI and when we might discover life beyond Earth, and got to talk with many friends (old and new!) about my research and JustSpace. This year also saw lots more talk about what it means for humans to try and establish settlements in space, the release of new planetary protection recommendations , and lots of thinking about what regulations might look like for space as private industry vies for more autonomy (and simultaneously pulls some bullshit, like spilling tardigrades on the damn moon).

Last but not least: I finally released this newsletter, AND I also finally took the time to sit down and draw/write the first issue of Perfect Pup, my instructional zine about how to make special hot dogs (naturally, the first issue is a Chicago dog). If you subscribe to the paid version of this newsletter ($5 a month) during January, I'll mail you a print copy (and probably a love note).