Last Rites / The Sounds of Collapse

Today: Editor Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, who is currently a contributing writer at Pitchfork; and Luke O'Neil, author of the story collection A Creature Wanting Form and the newsletter, Welcome to Hell World.

Issue No. 23

Women of Faith
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

20 Perfect Songs
Luke O'Neil

Women of Faith

by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

My tía Josie was my favorite aunt, my idol, I would do almost anything to be like her. She was a streetwise genius and thought I was, too; her sense of humor was absurdist and inappropriate, and it still cracks me up. When I was nine, for instance, a quip about my nail-biting habit: "You should start smoking cigarettes." 

In the 1980s, Josie helped create the first "minority" employee program at the U.S. Postal Service. She sent postcards from San Francisco drag shows, called from work trips to D.C. to recount in detail every fascinating exhibit she'd seen in the Smithsonian, a place I dreamed of going. Long distance cost a lot of money in those days; I imagine she was using government phones.