Being an artist means putting yourself out there. The deeper and more real your expressions are, the more you set yourself up for criticism. Sometimes it’s tough to sift through which criticism to ignore, and which to pay attention to.

Billy McCall interviews Charissa Lucille about closing, then reopening Wasted Ink Zine Distro: “I have emotional whiplash from feeling so down — and then feeling so extremely excited and hopeful. So many community members stepped in and helped.”

Let me start by acknowledging the fact that I never thought I would be this upset by an angry mob storming the Capitol. I mean, isn’t that the ultimate American dream? Name one person in this country who has never at some point in their life thought to themselves, “Ya know what we oughta do? We oughta go down and storm the Capitol. Show those lawmakers who’s boss.”

Southwestness publisher/editor Samatha Anne Carrillo shares the worldview and inspirations that drive her work: “In the real world, facts exist and science is real. … Since Southwestness is my own site, I have the freedom to report on our corner of the world based on my own perception of the world. There’s no question that this perception is still evolving and thank goodness for that!”

Understanding social acceptability is important when creating art in the public sphere, such as political signs, street art and graffiti. Every time and place has its own set of rules.

Our current background image is “Penrose Substitution” by Jared Tarbell. Tarbell is a generative artist who explores the life-like emergent qualities of generative systems.

Entrepreneur Lee Francis is the “Indiginerd” mastermind behind Indigenous Comic Con (aka IndigiPop X) and Red Planet Books & Comics. Dr. Francis dishes on cultivating Indiginerds, supporting community and how his niche bookstore thrives in the retail ocean.

We’ve got to focus. We are at a point before the election where the actions of the next few weeks have the potential to impact our lives — and the lives of immigrants, children and the disenfranchised, as well as our allies and others around the world — for years to come.

For the last few years, I kept checking for accessible foreign editions of some of these books. I reached out directly to Reza Dalvand, the illustrator of Ace, who put me in touch with his publisher in Iran.

Strange Magic’s Javier Romero shares his solo project’s evolution, how his new album holds up to pandemic realities, and how he keeps track of hundreds of “mumble jams” to feed his songwriting.

Ayanna D.N. Freeman explains how she went from having no idea her destiny was in skincare to launching and nurturing her own successful brand.

THE CANCELED SHOWS 5 includes footage from a BLM demonstration, sights/sounds from the UK, a Nashville rocker and a banjo-pickin song about an alien recorded in a sewer drain, apparently.