Fellow Travellers

I’m travelling to the UK for the first time, and am surprised by the amount of inspiration I’ve found in the planning process. I’ll see Jonathan Bailey in Richard II (naturally), and The National Theatre’s Dear England. There’s time carved out to visit a series of museums, galleries, and queer spots (pls put a whiskey sour in my hand and blast Chari XCX). Imagining the fun things we could get up to has been an exercise in cultivating my personal taste. QUEERCIRCLE and their sweet community forums and charity work? The Yard Theatre’s creative risks and badass performance space? Sign. Me. Up.

Travelling, I’m learning, helps me be defiant in the face of “the algorithm”. Social media feeds are way too persistent, showing endless bursts of content that usually doesn’t resonate on a deep, emotional level. Putting this trip together made me actually think for myself. Instead of going down a rabbit hole on my Instagram explore page (it’s messy on there 👀), my friend and I intentionally found physical books (like, with paper!) to help us curate our own strange itinerary of touristy spots combined with safe spaces in the queer underground.

Some thoughtful contemplation about what to do and see in a new city has made me consider what I actually like to do and see. Algorithms present what they think we’d like based on data gathered from others, which itself is guided by capitalistic hunger. But what we legitimately like and want for ourselves may be on another plane entirely. Breaking from a preconceived mould and taking creative risks has relieved some brain fog and made me breathe a bit easier.

I’ll report back on this trip, of course, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on all the art and history. That may not be next week, though it pains me to think about breaking my weekly Substack streak… But it should be worth it. And I mean, Jonathan Bailey?? I’ll need time to recover.

Off to London! <3