Apparently today Trump theatened to withhold funding for the renovation of Riker's Island prison unless authorities named it after him.

My article exploring varieties of protest where people put their bodies on the line is out today in The Progressive. progressive.org/magazine/how...

It is now conceivable that in Minneapolis, standing armed on the same street corner, we could have local police, the state National Guard, ICE, Border Patrol and the United States military fighting over how to deal with a car stuck in a snow drift.

British police have killed fewer people in the last 100 years than American police kill in an average month. Policing in America is an ongoing tragedy.

#peaceprize #tacos

I was laid off from Teen Vogue this week, alongside multiple other phenomenal team members. At our Summit, I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation. Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue and that is incredibly painful to think about.

We must use the Portland frog as a model for resistance. Each city must deploy its own protest animal mascot.

Re-envision the American Revolution

My essay, To Resist a Dictatorship of the Absurd, An American Turns to Václav Havel, appears now in World Literature Today. worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/essay/r...

Bats have a bad reputation. Myths, folk tales and negative media coverage mean people often link them to vampires or blame them for disease outbreaks. But bat populations around the world are in decline, and without them, ecosystems lose key benefits like pest control, pollination and seed dispersal

A model for us as writers

An essay on my Holocaust surviving grandfather’s relationship to Harlem, to me and to Billie Holiday now appears in North American Review's Open Space section. @northamerreview.bsky.social y.social northamericanreview.org/open-space/2...

Columbia University endowment: $14.8 billion. Loss from stock market last week: + or - $1.4 billion. Cost to replace federal funding to maintain independence, integrity and constitutional rights: $400 million.

I grew up in a Detroit suburb virtually on the Canadian border, but didn't feel kinship across the Ambassador Bridge until now.

Whether you're a student, a teacher, a parent, or a product of public schools, join us. (Bring a desk😀) We will defend our schools, our futures, and our democracy. www.mobilize.us/sunrisemovem...

From 2023 to 2024 Colombia University's endowment increased by $1.2 billion. (Harvard's by 2.5) Colombia's cancelled federal contracts total $400K. Isn't this a moment to step in and finance your mission? What is a privileged endowment for?

These attacks on protest and freedoms cannot be fought in isolation or in movement silos. We need broad, brave coalition. Climate, Palestine, labor, migrant, trans and reproductive rights; academic freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association ... Together we are mighty. Divided we fall.

“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner.” www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

*Jon Ossoff* just announced he's voting no. You think that happened out of nowhere? CALL YOUR SENATORS. 👇

Amazing and grounding insights from this group. Refreshing after reading daily through the filters of mainstream media.

Their mass direct action (more confrontational than street protest) is a model for this critical moment.

SCOOP: Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/h...

I have two mini-reviews in Oprah Daily for Black History Month, one on Imani Perry’s Black in Blues, and the other on Lee Hawkins’ I Am Nobody’s Slave. www.oprahdaily.com/entertainmen...

"Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts."

Some teachers are dusting off copies of Animal Farm. Some possible Spark/Cliff notes points of allegory. Snowball - Biden Squealer - Vance dogs - ICE Don't want to stretch the parallels too much, but does anyone have other takes? You will not be graded.

Black Lives Matter fundamentally broke these people’s brains. They couldn’t bear the idea that they might have to tell a different story about this country and thus tell a different story about themselves. They hated it, and now they are using everything they have to never feel that way again.

I'm not teaching my grad course 'Civil Resistance: How It Works' this semester. But here is an abridged version of the course schedule, readings, and films I used the last time I taught it (in 2022). Just in case it's useful. drive.google.com/file/d/14RRJ...

Whenever we talk about or engage, publicly or private, this day's painful political events, we can do so in a way that affirms us. Maybe we don't need to watch television today. Maybe we don't need to respond to that person's comment.

Writing exercise for tomorrow. Choose your most empowering MLK quote. Use it as a writing prompt to challenge media narratives of presidential stuff.

Tomorrow, rather than endure media portrayals of U.S. political events, read some of your favorite MLK quotes out loud. Here are some possibilities to choose from: www.oprahdaily.com/life/relatio...

I've realized that Trump's understanding of international relations may be based on his playing the board game Risk as a child.

Twenty big cats, including a half-Bengal tiger and four cougars, died at a sanctuary in Washington State after becoming infected with bird flu, according to the facility’s director. “We’ve never had anything like it.”

Never stop saying what needs to be said.

Twitter was taken over by Musk. BlueSky is being taken over by cute cats.

"This tension—the quiet violence of structural systems versus the overt, spectacular violence of a single act—has always been at the core of America’s identity." - Liza Featherstone in Jacobin Magazine on the Mangione murder. jacobin.com/2024/12/luig...

Check out the new issue of World Literature Today with my portrait of Cape Town that meditates on the deep disparities that remain in the post-apartheid era. #capetown #apartheid #southafrica www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/january...

Did the eye-opening exercise of tracing over 24 hours the undocumented immigrants I’m connected to, from neighbors to soccer players on Mission field where I run, to Everett Middle School where I’ve volunteered, the café where I’m writing this. Others I’m not aware of. I’m part of this web.

Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist” James Baldwin

Inaugural post to set intention of building writer’s community. Affirm, learn, exchange, reclaim relationships from that other platform. Good to be here all.