NEW today in the New York Times: In the face of unprecedented authoritarian attacks, the AAUP is building a powerful and militant resistance movement in defense of American higher education, the freedom to learn, and our democracy. Join Us!

Look what my beloved friend (and yes, series editor and author) sent me!! Happiest of pub days to Vanessa K. Valdés, @lehelton.bsky.social, and Barrye Brown!

“The homes of Schomburg, Dorsey, and other collectors were important sites of Black intellectual culture: salon-like spaces for the bookish crowd. Until now, however, it has been hard to picture them.” How Arturo Schomburg built a library and made history. lithub.com/in-the-parlo...

Dawn Staley. That’s it. That’s the post.

You busy April 9-10? There's going to be an amazing conference at Rutgers celebrating the (beta) rollout of the Black Bibliography Project database. Here's the agenda: globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul... Registration can be found here: globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/event/networ...

Our research at @aaslh.org suggests that among the 21k+ public history organizations (history museums, historical societies, historic sites) in the US: - 2/3 are private nonprofits, 1/3 govt - Among nonprofits, 80% have less than $200k in annual revenue (and thus no paid, full-time staff)

I just read Michelle Caswell and Bergis Jules' on funding for community archives, and you should too. Their argument: we need a strategy for large-scale private philanthropy to sustain community archives and ensure the survival of the stories they tell. medium.com/community-ar...

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

And we continue to celebrate #DouglassDay with our global transcribe-a-thon to make Black history open for all! Transcribe the Colored Conventions www.zooniverse.org/projects/dou...

Local news update. Note: contrary to the headline and the claims made in the article, the research has *not* been restored to the website, at least of the time of this post. (See screenshots, to follow)

THIRD PRINTING ALERT: This is my first book and @wehere.bsky.social's first book. The response has been overwhelming (two small printing selling out in a matter of days), but also has meant a bit of lead time in-between. If you've read and enjoyed, please share this out so more folks can explore!

As the article notes, UD removed my students' research from public access on the internet in July 2025. However, you can see a pre-deletion version of their work on the Wayback Machine: web.archive.org/web/20250612... (Of course, any further work on these projects within UD has stopped.)

Today, in local news (paywalled alas) Kelly Powers, “UD Removes Student Research on Slavery, Newark History amid Federal Pressure,” The News Journal, February 3, 2026, www.delawareonline.com/story/news/e...

Philadelphia sues Trump admin over removal of slavery exhibit at former George Washington residence https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/01/philadelphia-slavery-trump-administration-criticism-george-washington-federal-government/

Forthcoming from @yalepress.bsky.social in April 2026: "Black Studies on 135th Street---The Founding and Future of the Schomburg Collection" Edited by Barrye Brown, @lehelton.bsky.social and Vanessa K. Valdes yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

I'll say again: some Americans have been trying to silence this history from the very beginning. Yet it's also true that—while Washington was still alive and every time after—other Americans criticized him and reminded the public of his legacy of slavery. We've been arguing over this for 250 years.

Over the weekend, you could support a local indie bookstore by ordering a book online, if there’s one you’ve been thinking about picking up.

Erica Armstrong Dunbar's Never Caught about Ona Judge needs to be made into a biopic. The Washingtons pursued Oney, who self emancipated, as a fugitive until they died. Hercules Posey, the cook, also self emancipated. He is why we were so upset about that children's book 10 years ago.

Here's one of the panels that Trump just removed from the President's House site in Philadelphia. (I took this picture of it last March. A couple of weeks later I led a walking tour that included the site.) Does this information "disparage" the United States?

Signs about the history of slavery in the U.S. and the 9 people George Washington enslaved are being removed right now at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, months after the Trump administration threatend to do so. How far we have not come in 250 years.

Join us on Thursday 22 January at 11am for an in person, guided tour of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's centennial exhibition, 100: A Century of Collections, Community, and Creativity. Registration is required and limited to 20 participants - link in bio 🔗 #BibWeek26

I finally had a chance to read L. Helton's Scattered and Fugitive Things - cup.columbia.edu/book/scatter.... I learned many new things AND it also helped me to see the work that we are doing with the Black Zine Fair more clearly.

macmillan.yale.edu/stories/yale... An amazing, impressive book by an incredible scholar and fastidious researcher - congratulations Justene!

Last week, ICE arrested and separated a father and son after a routine check-in. Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria. Now he's in custody, alone. ICE won't say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end.

Today! All books in @columbiaup.bsky.social Black Lives in the Diaspora series are 50% off, including THE SOUTHS IN HER by @nimojo.bsky.social; AFTERLIVES OF THE PLANTATION by Jarvis McInnis; and SCATTERED & FUGITIVE THINGS by @lehelton.bsky.social. bit.ly/4rupQx9

"We have classrooms because you have to learn how to sustain a thought aloud— exposed to others and to your own ineloquence— to see that other people can help you reach where you can’t quite go and to see that you can help others reach better clarity…” - Lauren Berlant to 20 y.o. about college #Lit

Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program

My big news: coming May 19 from @scribnerbooks.bsky.social the book I always knew I would have to write. More info and pre-order links here: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Keeper...

On Monday, December 1, Columbia University Press will be selling all books at 50% off! (And some books at 70%!) tinyurl.com/7wzhyfmv @columbiaup.bsky.social

I used to handle interlibrary loans for a public library. ILL is a magnificent expression of the idea that readers deserve books, and books deserve readers. It’s libraries everywhere pooling their resources for the benefit of everyone. Killing IMLS could have killed ILL. This is great news. 📚

Well, it's official. Second printing of "The House Archives Built and Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities" is sold out. Next printing in Jan! Will post will sales or live, or sign up here: www.wehere.space/we-here-pres...

Pleased to announce the Wheatley Census is ready for 1.0 public release! As detailed a census as possible (right now) of the first six editions - those printed in the 18th century - of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, is available here: www.wheatleycensus.org.

Hey, remember this? The job posting for a digital archivist to do this work is now up! Position: CLIR Project Digital Archivist Location: Toronto (90% on-site) Salary: $60,000 + health benefits Deadline to apply: 2 December 2025 More info: 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌈🗃️

New online: Nikhil Pal Singh on Zohran Mamdani. www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

People still matter. Good morning.

New York, NY: Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center at New York Public Library

Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence

When I visited @lehelton.bsky.social's seminar. Every student had a copy of the book, and most of them were heeeaaaavvily annotated. Now some of it was just them being a good cohort, but one of the first questions was about the materiality. I just don't think a PDF would have had that reaction

Readers! Writers! Archivists! Keepers of things! You’ll want to read this book! THE HOUSE ARCHIVES BUILT by @dorothyjberry.bsky.social. 1st printing sold out fast, but you can put your name on this list @wehere.bsky.social to find out as soon as the 2nd run is ready: www.wehere.space/newsletter

I’m sorry to have to miss the @moderniststudies.bsky.social convening this year, but I’m incredibly honored to be in such good company on this shortlist for the 2025 MSA First Book Prize!

GET YOUR CALENDAR OUT 🗓️ and write these two dates down… 10/16, 2p ET USA: Dorothy Berry’s (@dorothyjberry.bsky.social) The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities available for purchase. The first 50 copies sold will be signed 🫢 www.weherepress.org

My reading list just got much longer . . .

ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”: bit.ly/3IviMig

"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...

This is real.

Yall please go watch @merriam-webster.com’s new AI ad😅 youtu.be/RvQnl3O0D3c?...

Important thread on what came out in the AAUP vs. Rubio case.

Bibliographical Mysteries! "Share your successes and failures, cold cases, breakthroughs, speculative practices, novel uses of technology, collaborative momentum, and other stories." CFP *by 10.7* for a special session of @bibsocamer.bsky.social annual meeting. bibsocamer.org/news/cfp-bsa26