This week, as we near the end of 2025, the writers and editors of KQED Arts & Culture are reflecting on One Beautiful Thing from the year.

There’s a phrase we use in my house when it looks like things aren’t going our way: “Put it on the stairs.”

These four words stem from a visit I made to City Lights bookstore a few years ago to drop off zines based on my KQED series, Rebel Girls From Bay Area History . After discovering that City Lights no longer had zine shelves, I asked an employee where I could leave mine. When he told me to “put them on the stairs” to the poetry room, I very nearly didn’t. Off in the quietest corner of the bustling bookstore, I was convinced that no one would ever find them there. I half-heartedly left a half-stack, and went grumbling on my way.

What I hadn’t

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