I have been in love with Greek mythology as long as I can remember. Artemis was one of my first girl heroines (they typically left the story of Niobe out of mythology books for kids), and I found myself loving the idea of living in the woods with a bunch of animals, a bow, and my friends.
My life has taken a very different route than one Artemis would approve of, but I’ve still steeped it in Greek and Roman mythology. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Aeschylus’ Oresteia are two of my favorite books, and I frequently include the names of mythological figures or outright references to myths in my writing, because I like writing it as much as I like reading it elsewhere.
So, needless to say, there are some fancy mythological terms on my list of drabble vocabulary.
!["[Food] is how we care for and nourish ourselves, each other, and our communities."
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There are many terrible things about this pandemic. One of the ones I'm struggling with the most is that it's not safe for me to see friends, and therefore it's not safe for me to cook for them or eat with them. Going out for coffee or dinner is one of my favorite things to do with friends, along with cooking and playing games in person. We're staying connected as best we can, but eating chips and salsa over Discord just isn't the same as eating them together.
The Corners of Their Mouth is a queer food zine, exploring some of the relationships queer folks have with food. It begins with a question: what is the queerest food? Many answers are provided by a variety of people, including nachos, cocoa, figs, pancakes and honey, and rainbow goldfish. I think mango is my answer, but "queer food," to me, is anything cooked by or for my friends. Queer food is us gathered in the kitchen, me cussing as I screw up our Friendsgiving turkey for the sixth year in a row. Queer food is us dropping spinach dip all over my Gloom cards. Queer food is the ramen we made the last time we hung out together before the pandemic, when I was sick and we all hoped it wouldn't be the last time this year we'd get to interact in person.
But right, the zine. It's very good. The Corners of Their Mouth Press do a wonderful job of putting together thought-provoking content on queerness and living with great sensitivity. It's not just about showcasing queer life; it's about caring for it, nurturing it, letting it blossom in its own unique way. If you come upon one of their zines, pick them up, read them. They're lovely and strong things.
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