on unions and laws "women and men belonged to different categories, where one group was able to protect itself through organised labour, while the other was in need of government protection, at the same time it held special value for the nation state as a potential producer of coming generations"

locals said this at the time

‘And it is precisely in that that its historic punishment lies: to be condemned, returning to it as though driven by a vice, to chew over Hitler’s vomit.’ Cesaire on europe

"it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for Arabs of Algeria, the 'c—' of India and the 'n—' of Africa." —Césaire

"For my part, I make a systematic defense of the non-European civilizations." -Césaire

"to go further, I make no secret of my opinion that at the present time that barbarism of Western Europe has reached an incredibly high level, being only surpassed—far surpassed, it is true—by the barbarism of the United States " -Aimé Césaire, 1955

does the CTA blue line division stop have a bathroom in it if not, why not

a self cleaning bathroom lol or, we could have fully operational 24 hour bathrooms in our park district buildings along with midnight basketball and the labor to staff it

it matters that while {some} chicagoans herald the coming of a time limited, closed overnight public bathroom that does not include a plan to halt criminalization of using the bathroom it is still a bathroom that will still operate to criminalize precarious people so it is not a public bathroom

the bathroom made to ensure poor people cannot use it

Always looking up. (From my 2018 series, "Not the Tiffany Dome" at the Chicago Cultural Center. Five more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/spuda...)

cps board members ask for information and cps officials refuse to give it to them - not an outright refusal just a non-acknowledgement a never responded to email, a not returned phone call, an ignored request this is one offer that we make we will teach cps board members how to FOIA

how many are using Chicago's birthday as a reason to have a political fundraiser here are 15 cooler things to do instead, in no particular order 1. Count how many municipal devices you see around town on a walk around town

the 12yo needed to take up space on her trifold so i introduced her to the digital archive of Mr. Brubaker and now her project is overfull there better be an @aoife.bsky.social digital archive someday

a lot of my artistic practice is cleaning spatulas and hand cutting paper you might like the creation but did you see the extremely straight line i cut

i got permission to use the kid's line drawings to mess around with split fountain screenprinting it's pretty fun!

using a formal academic research library in chicago can be really great and my heart will always be with the public library down the street i grew up taking myself to the library, hiding in its corners, "reading" and then as i got older reading, using the air conditioning and it occurs to me

something I think many Westerners don't appreciate about the region is how many workers there are mixing and moving across South Asia and North Africa in and out of the Middle East and those networks of people are all relating sentiment right now

At a dinner party in Cairo, when a newly arrived expat asked “So what does Bahrain do?” one of my funniest Arab friends responded immediately, “Torture.” Solidarity with the Bahrainis rioting against their vicious US-supported regime, which practices torture against its Shia majority.

If this is a stress that anyone reading this has, parsing and non-judgmentally helping refine information needs like this is explicitly an area of research and training for librarians. Like, I cannot promise there will never be a shitty librarian on duty, but it's your right to expect this help.

i go to archives and use the libraries a lot, it has taken me a long time to feel comfortable just kind of putting half thoughts out for a librarian to help me with i play with language a lot as a dyslexic and as a reading specialist and we need creativity in the process of research for example

something I think many Westerners don't appreciate about the region is how many workers there are mixing and moving across South Asia and North Africa in and out of the Middle East and those networks of people are all relating sentiment right now

I talked to college students and a big chunk of this conversation centered on how white people are uncomfortable being uncomfortable but I don't know what to tell you. POC live in fucking discomfort and like in my early 30s I made a pledge to spread that discomfort around.

the answer i have for war is methods of survival and art i am drafting a new zine format with interlocking designs and will screenprint soon 🏵️

Chicago is showing off

it's art build day today

you know what i'd seriously go to a double dutch competition downtown

i mean i also sent an invitation to ja'mal green because also why not lmao

update: josh long still sucks AND he declined my invitation to connect on LinkedIn

this is so funny lmaooooooo i will say when i worked specifically on sending incarcerated people reading materials, he was a favorite of the ladies

the thing about running my own work day and business is that i work really weird hours so that i can do art and the other things that i actually want to do i recently told my therapist that i finally found the balance between art, reading and friends and it involves not having a job

also today i radicalized the entire third floor at the art studio about bathrooms in chicago by the time i left, everyone was mad that chicago has no bathrooms along the lakefront, downtown, in their neighborhoods that some park districts lock their bathrooms, that the libraries have weird systems

friday night is when i find out how many FOIAs i have to fight about with chicago public schools this week it's a lot

this is a work in progress piece of art, i am still very much learning and practicing and one of my responses to fascism, including AI, is to do more art

sometimes you go to the studio and leave with a very handy print

This reminds me of the post-Duncan era in CPS when we had three CEO's in three years and all the institutional memory vanished. "It was like the bombing of Dresden," I told a national education reporter at the time.

Everything about this cleaners is iconic, & I can't go down 79th without stopping to take a photo of either the building or its sign. Both should be protected & preserved. Architect: Gerald Siegwart, 1959

years ago, I met with a CPS Board member, saying a version of this to him the choices of those with power will live on long past their exit from the agency I told him, I'd be stuck navigating his bad choices it is really common for young people and parents to hold the archive of CPS bad behavior

i sent an email to the chicago public schools board this morning and needed to reference emails that i had with cps officials in late 2023/early 2024 none of the cps officials from 2023/early 2024 are even around anymore so, i'm the only one left with the archive and it's external to the agency

the best part about public meetings is that i have friends who also listen or attend regularly, so even if i don't talk to them in between meetings, i get random comments on meeting day "I thought he was just being colorful when he introduced himself and then I was like oh this is personal"

this is a thing that i have been working on with some Hennepin County officials, trying to find revenue because if HCMC closes it would be catastrophic for the region i feel strongly that team owners should finance their own stadiums, I have other words for the feds that I shouldn't post online

100%. When they built Northside College Prep, Daley said the quiet part out loud - CPS will cater to white, middle class+ Northside families to keep them in the city, equity be damned. And the district has never seriously tried to change course.

I try to find reasons to show this in class every semester. I wish CPS would find inspiration in these kind of large, participatory projects. www.pbs.org/video/off-th...

i think CPS officials should only get to use bathrooms in CPS schools

now we recess for 30 minutes before we hit the business portion of the agenda cps will be renewing and extending business contracts with numerous nonprofits in the city, issuing warning resolutions to teachers but not principals, settling a lawsuit and extending leases at Catholic church locations

the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education meeting will start in 15 minutes and notes are dripping in from people who like to leak (positive connotation) "Aspira Charter schools closing at the end of March" you can watch the meeting online on the CPS YouTube channel starting at 10:30

it's really funny doing work next to partner (a very serious person) because randomly he'll read out what he's looking at and comment him: "7 cat breeds that get stressed by late meals" also him: "every single fucking cat, what are you talking about"

him: wait, san diego is south of los angeles me: maybe we should get a printed map up for you and 12yo him: <<stares>> me: you have a hard time with spatial relationships and locations him: that's not true, the mitten (holds hand up) okay sir, yes you are a troll, i'll give you that

While Illinois politicos are looking to the March primary, Chicago Board of Education candidates are quietly starting to gather signatures to get on the November ballot. Board Rule takes a first look at the field. board-rule.ghost.io/season-opene...

Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire originally published in 1955 re-published in 2000