Silence > Selling Out: Rebel Yell Creative newsletter (Feb 20, 2026)
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
This week in the Rebel Yell Creative newsletter: Subscriber spotlight, selling out, lending libraries, and more.
Silence > Selling Out
This year I've been thinking a lot about “selling out.” It was a Gen X mandate: don't sell out. Don't sully your art with the big endorsements and massive record deals and huge followings. When Riot Grrrl was suddenly exploding in the early 90s, along with sexist media coverage, the members imposed a media blackout to help them stay free and just make their art.
It's all so quaint in the modern world, where selling out is just…reality. And there's something really disturbing about that. Especially when we don't own the means of production, distribution, or presentation.
I haven't been able to fully articulate these thoughts yet. Then I read this excellent piece by disability justice advocate and author Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha. Well worth the read, especially if you've been thinking about if and how to share your work.
“You can just not focus on coverage, at all. You can focus on doing your work…As we divest from corporate surveillance state social media, we may need to relearn and practice older methods of information distribution. I hope we will also create new ones that don’t exist yet.”
How to Make a Lending Library
You've probably seen Little Free Libraries, and even Library of Things collections at your public library. But then there's the more scrappy and unexpected community libraries to reuse and share resources.
Minnesota showed how powerful communities really are, by sharing spaces, resources, mutual aid, and much more to fight ICE. It's a model of community sharing and building we should bring to our own.
This is a great how-to guide for one simple and artistic method of sharing, a library with tools, seeds, sleds books, cooking equipment, games, and other items for your community.
P.S. If you like this idea, consider the Analog Art Library : )
Mentor Mondays
Have a burning question? Need some creative advice? As a newsletter subscriber, you can now submit a question on Mondays, and get some insights or ideas for free 🔥
Ask a question about creativity and creative practice. About getting unstuck creatively. About specific projects and ideas. About making art as resistance.
Comments