hey y’all
Out of Context, the weekly newsletter you didn’t see coming. Written by an actor who is also a writer, I guess.
I’m Mikayla Bartholomew and I write almost exclusively for myself. Have been since I wrote a 42 chapter long fan fiction installment to Harry Potter in the second grade. I’ve penned poems for non-profits, like the NYCLU. Cult-adjacent churches like the formerly known c3.nyc, known now as Fount1. Written extensively on the socio-cultural impacts of the Bachelor franchise. Gone viral for explaining racism to white people. In some spaces, I’m known for using my words in the name of social justice or for examining the presence of misognynoir in pop culture and the entertainment industrial complex2.
But I’m probably most known for playing a Williams sister in the film King Richard. Or for being one of the many voices behind the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Or for my work in short films like Dear Mama, Grace, or Pure. Definitely known for running my mouth on, god rest its beautiful and chaotic little soul, The Blckchelorettes podcast or even Chatty Broads. Or maybe you recognize me as that girl Destiny from Bel-Air3.
However you may know me, and even if you don’t, welcome, y’all.
Here, I’ll lay out the stories, thoughts and out of context experiences I probably shouldn’t be putting online but will anyways. Essays, poems, blogs on traumatic brain injury recovery, excerpts from my 20s, pop culture gossip and Shakespeare inspired annotations and break downs of Kendrick Lamar’s music4.
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why call it Out of Context?
That’s a good ass question, why thank you for asking. For years people have said my life, my experiences, are a collection of really good stories for a book. There was that time I walked from a bar in Brooklyn to LaGuardia airport and tried to buy a ticket to China. Or how when I was three, maybe four years old and I wondered off from my mama in a hotel and Maya Angelou found me and brought me back in her arms. There’s even that notorious DM I received on Twitter after I met Justin Bieber when I was like 16. Or how Beyoncé kissed me on the cheek that one time5. And a more recent development: how a boulder fell on my car and I survived.
But I’ve never really found a way to get everything down, in one place, and tie it up with a pretty little bow. I’m not a huge fan of bows. Or structure. Memoirs before a certain age are embarassing and unacceptable6.
Randomized chaos, in a lot of ways, makes me feel safe. Having the authority to tell my stories, when and where I want to, with a framing that may only make sense to me, sounds nice. And maybe, in practice, I’ll find a structure or pattern that works for me.
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community meant for everybody
If you like it when I run my mouth on Instagram — or even if you don’t, we love debate and discourse here — please subscribe! It’s a really easy way to support an artist in a super unstable, ever evolving industry. Subscribing to this newsletter means you’ll have new posts sent directly to your inbox, and something to run your mouth about in the group chat. (“Why is this girl putting all her business out there like that?” “We need to bring back shame.” or if you’re my mom, “You’re not going to get anymore tv jobs, you keep talking about your mental health problems in public.”)
The theatre, tv and film world is in a really weird, finnicky, elitist place right now , so I’m trying to create the art I want to and put it out into the world. I also never expected to be an actor in real life, truly an accident. I expected to be a doctor or a writer: Out of Context is my chance to give the latter a try. So, if you’re paying to be here, great. Maybe I’ll dedicate my first book to you, one day. If you’re here for free, that’s dope, too, I get it.
Be part of a community of people who grew up being told they talked too much. Run your mouth in the comments section, pop off in the group chats or support this work with a subscription. Pretty please?
what else?
fuck if i know. here’s my instagram, you can follow me over there if you wanna. i don’t tweet for the devil but you can find me on threads. i have no idea what bluesky is and if you see me on Raya, lol, no you don’t.
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I, too, wonder if in the meeting someone cracked a joke not about the Fountain of Life but instead of having “fount” the Lord. I would have if I was still a leader there
Shoutout to Alejo Rodriguez, thank you for everything you’ve ever taught me.
yeah, i’m hoping I finish my arc on the final season in 2025, too lmao.
Contrary to popular belief, I actually really like the song Not Like Us, thank you very much.
and another really cool thing that an NDA from Warner Bros will not let me talk about publicly, but I’m in a Beyoncé music video & she knows my name so whatever.
