Harry Armstrong

History has a funny way of repeating itself. Businesses fail. New ones rise. Names disappear from storefronts and are replaced by something new, sometimes before we've even noticed the old one is gone. Three years ago, I walked into a brewery hoping to get a job as a line cook. That brewery was Mazama Brewing Co. I got the job and for nearly three years, I worked there long enough for the place to become part of the rhythm of my life. Long enough to know the people who come and went, the...

I didn’t expect to spend my afternoon making lace. The museum lobby was quiet except for the sound of conversation and thread suspended in air—a fitting introduction to Punto in Aria, or "stitches in the air," the sixteenth-century Italian lace-making technique being taught that afternoon. Around a handful of round tables, strangers worked patiently on small triangles no larger than a hand. No one seemed hurried. There wasn’t a product to buy or a deadline to meet. Just thread, patience, and...

Everyone seems to be getting married. I'm over here taking notes. Toeheads, I’m starting this newsletter with a topic about love. I’m currently reading One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The author is Egyptian-Canadian-American; I’m Filipino-African-American. As a 31-year-old turning 32 this Sunday (May 31st!), the book has me thinking about love and what kind of family I want to have. Being raised by immigrant parents has been such a blessing. They taught me the value of...