Notes From a ContrabandCamp
Here's what you missed on the first weekend of camp and a preview of what's coming.
If you’re reading this, thank you.
On Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, you helped a vision called ContrabandCamp become a reality. Here’s what happened this week at our campsite:
I helped everyone prepare for the part that comes after the fucking around. Stephen A. Crockett Jr. wrote about the inauguration of an entirely different leader in D.C. Monique Judge pushed back against the media whitesplaining a Nazi salute. Tiffany Cross joined us to discuss Trump’s first 100 hours in office, and I wrote about Donald Trump embracing critical race theory.
I think some other stuff also happened on Monday, but it was probably minor.
As the nation celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I invited a group of writers, journalists, and — most importantly — friends to Georgia for the inaugural ContrabandCamp Weekend. To be fair, I basically threw this together after realizing that we wouldn’t be in Washington, D.C., covering the inauguration of the first Black woman to be elected president.
Besides the laughter, conversations and food, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the stress-free weekend was the idea of treating Black culture and our impact on society as a form of wealth. That’s why ContrabandCamp exists. In the coming weeks, months and years, we’ll be sharing some of this with the Campsite.
For example, what if you could get a brilliant, outspoken legal scholar who wears his heart on his sleeve to discuss criminal justice with a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who changed the way American journalists cover police brutality? What would that even look like?
It looks like Elie Mystal and Wes Lowery at ContrabandCamp, and it’s coming soon.
What if you were in the room with Joy Reid when "Saturday Night Live” opened the Dave Chappelle episode with a spoof of MSNBC anchors? Would you like to be a fly on the wall at a dinner party with your favorite writers, activists and scholars?
If you subscribe to ContrabandCamp, you already have an invitation.
Here’s a peek into what ContrabandCampers can expect.
Instead of speculating, we’ll sit down with an actual elections data analyst to talk about what really happened in the 2024 election.
We’re taking a deep look at the criminal histories of the insurrectionists who received pardons.
You’ll get to choose the worst and whitest of 2024 at the Wypipo Awards.
We’re going to drop some daily history facts before it’s illegal.
More of your favorite writers, thinkers and creators.
We promise to keep it smart, bold, brilliant and Black!
Make sure you bring a friend!
The Heritage Foundation Mandate for Leadership (which morphed into Project 2025 was a reworded continuation of the eugenics phase of pseudoscience, the effect of which is still being experienced. The Heritage Foundation is the philosophical offspring of the Pioneer Fund.
Love love MH! His takedown on the political zeitgeist always delivers!