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The event with @MakennaGoodman1 last night--& her super smart critique of the corrosiveness of capitalism on art--reiterated the struggle for being as open and generous as possible in art with the need for artists to be fed and have the time and freedom to make more art.
Feels weirdly acute these days--we're frantic to find ways to ensure nonprofits and writers get attention without the ability to have in-person events; still, I have a 150% increase in domestic responsibilities now, single-parenting w/o the infrastructure of school/other care.
Which also means I'm getting a 300% increase on requests for free labor. Which is fine! Though some requesters can pay. And some of those are asking for free teaching, giving lectures. All of which takes a huge amount of prep--a one-hour lecture takes me a month of afternoons.
All this to say that it feels impossible to balance the expectations of the literary gift economy--which I believe in very deeply and try really hard to pay into--with the overwhelming reality of need right now, both domestic and in the larger world.
