No need to break your New Year’s Resolution for this indulgence—just sit back and enjoy our vegan, paleo, gluten-free, Whole 30 approved, free-range, incredibly sumptuous recs!
If your Netflix queue is running low, watch
‘Roma,’ streaming on Netflix and in select theaters
“In ‘Roma,’ the Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón uses a large canvas to tell the story of lives that some might think small. A personal epic set in Mexico City in the early 1970s, it centers on a young indigenous woman who works as a maid for a middle-class white family that’s falling apart.” via The New York Times
“This movie is not only beautiful (and nominated for a ton of awards), but it’s such an important story of privilege and how skin color, socioeconomic class, birthplace and so many other uncontrollable factors can have such a strong impact on the direction of someone’s life. I have recommended it countless times since seeing it.” – Callie Langford, Director of Communications
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse,’ in select theaters
“Unlike his Marvel counterparts Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, Spider-Man’s world has accurately reflected real world diversity for years. Yet, the Spider-Man brand hasn’t just focused on simply including a diverse group of people; it’s actually centered themes of inclusion and self-love, as well as respect for the power of diversity.” via Advocate
You know we at CASA love superheroes, so seeing such a fun movie that also breaks the mold in terms of superhero diversity made us very happy. We can’t wait to see a Spider Ham or a Spider Robot at the 2019 CASA Superhero Run on September 15 (save the date)!
‘The Glass Castle,’ streaming on Hulu
“I watched ‘The Glass Castle’ after reading the book 10 or so years ago. The film is a moving depiction of the struggles of living in poverty with an alcoholic parent. The story is very nuanced – and can help us understand and build empathy for some of the parents and families we serve who are also battling addictions.” – Danielle Nevin, Child Advocacy Specialist
If your New Year’s Resolution was to dig in to some good books, check out
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
“This novel provides a fictional but very realistic example of how a family (parents and siblings included) deal with grief and loss of a child, and the complexities of moving forward.” – Tess Gillespie, Intake and Retention Manager
“I recently read Sally Field’s autobiography In Pieces. She experienced ongoing sexual abuse as a child and the book follows her throughout her life and how she grew out of her trauma and handled subsequently difficult relationships with her mother, siblings, partners and her own children. It’s so well written and gives a glimpse into one woman’s experience in reckoning with her past, but also gives insight into a dynamic that many of the families we work with go through.” – Brooke Hathaway, Advocacy Program Manager
"Becoming is an amazing look into the life of the former first lady. One chapter in particular that really resonated with me was when she recognized all the advocates in her life that saw gaps in her education and worked to get her into a school that would help her thrive. She talked about this experience in the context of the other students from her former school in Chicago who did not have the same advocates who were speaking up for them. To me, this showed the importance of having an educational advocate for our kids in the system and how the sky is the limit if you have someone believing in your potential." – Meredith Chambers, Child Advocacy Specialist
“Michelle has the ability to identify how important community, family, and healthy connections are. She attributed a lot of her success to the things she learned – from her community to her family and the people who raised her. Michelle used that as a foundation for the way she raised her own children and how she treated her constituents on a national platform. Through difficult decisions (like helping her husband decide whether to run for office), she always prioritized the best interest of her children. She also had profound thoughts on the act of code-switching (check out our podcast rec for more on code-switching!).” – Tess Gillespie, Intake and Retention Manager
Turn a Day of Service into a Life of Impact
“Each year, on the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King Jr. is honored by committing a day of service to bettering the community. This year, we challenge you to use your day of service to make a long-term commitment* to advocating for children in the foster care system by becoming a CASA volunteer. After all, Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.’”
If you’re sick of your Spotify playlists, tune in to
“We're a team of journalists fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting.” via NPR
That’s it for now! Be sure stay up to date on all our CASA musings by following us on Facebook and Instagram at @casatravis and tag us on social media if you have any recommendations of your own!
2019 CASA Recommends January
