Some sad news this past weekend: Pam Spaulding, whose blog Pam’s House Blend has been an inspiration and beacon for many of us in the LGBT and progressive blogosphere, has announced she is closing her blog July 1, after nine years, in order to focus on her health.
I am sad to see the Blend go. It was one of the first blogging communities I became aware of as I launched my own blog, and I contributed a few diaries/posts to an earlier iteration of the site, when anyone could create an account there. Some of her regular writers have also contributed posts to my own Blogging for LGBT Families Day in past years. Pam showed us how to build community even as we were battling oppression. As “a black lesbian living in the South,” she also reminded us that the voices of the LGBT blogosphere should not all be White, male, and northern.
At the same time, I admire her decision to do what is right for her personally, and to stop before the Blend became a shadow of its former self. She writes:
The Blend could continue limping along, but my health and well-being come first; over the last few years burning the candle at both ends with a full-time offline job and PHB. It has taken a severe toll — most readers have learned that I am dealing with chronic pain conditions — fibromylagia, and in the last couple of years, aggressive rheumatoid arthritis.
Pam promises she won’t be gone entirely, though, saying, “I’ll continue to be active on social media and make time to mentor folks as I can. It’s just time for someone else to pick up the ball and run with the daily activist grind, and forge new ground in an ever-shifting new media.” She also informs us that a rebranded blog with her current contributors Laurel Ramseyer, Alvin McEwen, and Autumn Sandeen will soon launch at Firedoglake, the Blend’s home for the past few years.
Congratulations on having the courage to make a difficult decision, Pam, and thank you for all of your writing and community building. We’ll continue steaming ahead, boosted by the caffeine hit from the Blend.
Wow, that is really the cliched “end of an era”. I guess when your name is in the title, there’s no choice but to rebrand when you move on. Hope her fellow contributors continue to thrive, though. And hope Pam returns to better health. She’s been a blogging hero, hasn’t she?!