I’ve been thinking a lot about where my words go and how people find them.
Before it became kobbygraham.com, my website was a little blog was called Wherever I Lay My Hat, and it was my quiet corner of the internet. A space where I figured things out in public, and told stories about living while Ghanaian that didn’t always fit neatly (or quickly enough) elsewhere.
I owe a lot to blogging.
My earliest posts make me cringe, but they are where I found my voice. Blogging has since led me to paid writing work. This still surprises me: how are people still stumbling across my two-by-four writings when I do so little promotion on Instagram (I’ve long since left Twitter and Facebook)?
Blogging Block
For a long while though, I stopped blogging. It wasn’t due to a lack of ideas. It was because I grew up and sharing freely became…
Costly.
First, I kept being asked why I wasn’t hoarding my ideas for big magazines, or for DUST: the magazine I co-founded and edited between 2010 and 2013, at the beginnings of Accra’s global cultural renaissance.
Then when I became a lecturer, close friends warned me that ideas are currency in academia. Publishing them informally lets others claim them first, potentially benefitting from funding and promotions I get locked out of because no one is interested in peer reviewing blog posts.
Nevertheless, you may have noticed that I’ve suddenly started blogging again. If you’re interested in learning why, I explain it all here. Summary version?
I want my flow back.
Offbeats & Frequencies.
I’ve started a newsletter on Substack. It’s called Offbeats & Frequencies, and – like most things I do – it sits somewhere between the musical and the metaphorical.
I’ll be sharing my writing there ahead of posting it here, in addition to many other things: DJ mixes, playlists, and fragments from the cultural research I do when I’m not teaching, DJing or procrastinating. Etc.
Why Substack? Hmm…
Because I think blogs and newsletters serve different purposes.
I think of my blog a little like a journal left lying somewhere by mistake: it’s there if you’re looking, but it’s almost invisible if you’re not.
Substack, on the other hand, lets me send words – and more – directly to people who want them. And it’s very social. The app feels a little like Twitter for writers and thinkers. Like old Twitter – before the noise, the bots, and the influencers, and certainly before the billionaire-induced emptiness of whatever the fuck X is.
I do not know how, when, or why this happened, but I’m here for it.
Freedom & Freeness.
I remain deeply committed to free content (my blog and DUST were always free). More writers should be. There’s too much important writing hidden behind paywalls these days, especially on the political Left (which is obviously where I lean).
Meanwhile, the global Right has been FLOODING timelines with free content: much of it drivel, some of it dangerous. The result? A digital ecosystem where the loudest voices are often the worst, and where the thoughtful stuff is locked away.
As Africans, we just don’t have that luxury.
So much of our culture – historical and contemporary – is already undocumented or under-shared. If we start hiding even more of our stories behind paywalls, we’re deepening that silence, and this worries me.
We need more open archives. More generous thought. More people writing, sharing, teaching, and doing it in ways that don’t always hinge on access to money that we don’t always have.
I’m not saying everything should be free. But I am saying we need to think with a little more intention about what we lock up, and what we keep open.
It’s a balance I am still learning to strike, but it’s one that I must master if I am going to model sustainability for those who may one day follow in my footsteps.
This is why Offbeats & Frequencies will (eventually) have paid tiers. Kind of like a Patreon: something for those who can and want to support my work. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that what I do straddles worlds, so I’m thinking of my tiers like this:
- Free: essays, archives, playlists, updates, and vibes.
- Supporters ($5/month): all the above, plus exclusive mixes, deeper or more frequent essays, reading lists, conversations with other creatives, and behind-the-scenes fragments from my creative and research life.
- Patrons ($10/month): all of the above, plus voicenotes, access to live listening sessions, mini salons, and other experiments in digital intimacy.
I will figure it out as I go along, and I hope you will join me for the ride. If anything I’ve written on my blog has ever moved you, I’d love for you to sign up for the newsletter.
But don’t worry: my blog isn’t going anywhere.
Kobby Ankomah Graham 