The week of July 20, 2019 was seeking our summer bop; thinking a bit harder about our own voice; and reveling in the most surprising Tupac superfan of all.

RIP Justice Stevens. Thank you.

Mash-Ups In The News:

16 Black Chefs Changing Food In AmericaWho they are, where they work, what they’re shaped by, and how they feel — meet the chefs (and the food!) that epitomize Mash-Up America.via New York TimesSixteen And EvangelicalAt 34, Laura Turner realized she would never be a teenager again, but she still dwelled on those years of friendship, church, and faith. She reached out to the friends she’d lost touch with, and together they looked back on who they were and who they are.
via Slate 

LA's Piñata District, Where Street Food Is TheaterMeet the main players of the Piñata District: Abuelo of the Corn, El Churro Boy, El Chapo, and Cheese Cowboys. They’re been there for years, they know how to avoid turf battles, and they’ve got their own styles and stories from making their unrivaled street food.
via Los Angeles Times 

Trump’s Racist Tweets, And The Question Of Who Belongs In AmericaFor immigrants, children of immigrants, and people of color in this country, the racist chants and rhetoric of Trump and his supporters show we may never belong in their version of America.  
In this America, U.S. Air Force and Congress members are told to "go back" to countries they've never visited, we wake up with "racial dissociation" and "melancholia," and Andrew Yang's robot apocalypse could be the revolution we need. Editor's note: They're wrong. You belong. 
via The New Yorker
The Other Housing Crisis: Abandoned HomesIn a country with both affordable housing shortages and housing development surpluses, this current crisis of vacant lots and blighted homes didn't exactly come from nowhere.
via Axios

Eat Your Grief: ‘The Farewell,’ My Family, And The Weight Of FoodFood is often portrayed only with joy, but sometimes our meals are hard to swallow, with familial pressures and grief turning this manifestation of love into sources of anxiety. Lulu Wang’s film, "The Farewell," starring Awkwafina, explores these contradictions and more.
 via Eater

How Japanese RPGs Inspired A New Generation Of Fantasy AuthorsFrom all fifteen games in the Final Fantasy series to the fanfic sites that turned RPGs into literature, today's fantasy writers are looking beyond Tolkien and Martin for their world-building inspo.
via KotakuThis Fearless Woman Is Fighting To Keep Slavery Out Of Your SeafoodGhost Fleet is a new documentary about modern-day slaves in the Thai fishing industry, focusing on the work of Patima Tungpuchayakul. She's an abolitionist who has devoted her life to helping "lost" men return home and see their families for the first time in decades.
via NPR