Federal immigration agents in camo chase landscapers, students, and day laborers through U.S. cities in a deportation campaign, treating neighborhoods like war zones. Ashley Gilbertson for @hammerandhope.bsky.social documents the courage of communities who resist.

The immigrant catchers, faces covered, chase the workers down the street in broad daylight. They are armed and dressed in camo, like soldiers. This is a war involving only one army. The enemy is the landscaper, the day laborer, the high school student born in Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela.

That reminds me that TODAY is the last day to apply for @librariesftp.bsky.social's 2026 Library Elections & Appointments Training Cohort. Cohorts start meeting at the end of Feb. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This is what our government is doing. Our government. Powerful article and photos #AbolishICE

In this special issue, Hammer & Hope commissioned the photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson to show us the Trump administration's arrest and deportation campaign. hammerandhope.org/article/ice-...

"Wherever the agents appear, even when they lean idly, chatting, we see the cold threat of violence and the fragility of freedom. And in the brave crowds who gather to confront them, scrambling their illusion of total control, we see the power of solidarity..." hammerandhope.org/article/ice-...

I’ve been very happy to support independent journalism that speaks with a clear voice on problems that affect real people.

Very thrilled to have been asked to contribute to this conversation by the good people at @hammerandhope.bsky.social I have a longstanding Black vampire fixation, so this was a real treat to write. Many thanks to my other correspondents and to my editor Lovia Gyarkye! 🙌🏽

The Sinners Roundtable pieces are compelling! Grateful for this work! 👏🏾👏🏾

Another must read

In 2015 I was on the R Train, reading ‘The Turner House’, when a woman asked me ‘Can I take your picture reading that book’? ‘Sure-why?’ ‘My friend wrote that book and she’ll be so happy to see someone reading it.’ Can’t wait, 10 years later, to read ‘The Wilderness’ on the same train

One of my favorite essays from this year was Robin D.G. Kelley's "Between Fires in Los Angeles and Fascism in America" in @hammerandhope.bsky.social. hammerandhope.org/article/los-...

"I don’t know of any other media outlet that covers Black life from a working-class perspective and insists on emphasizing the intersections between race, class, and culture." -- Michelle Alexander on Hammer & Hope If you value this work, become a monthly donor! hammerandhope.org/membership

🚨We’ve added three new articles to Issue No. 8! 🚨 Maya Meredith interviews Zohran Mamdani’s political director Afua Atta-Mensah ; Peyton Dix profiles the novelist Angela Flournoy; and five writers discuss Ryan Coogler’s Sinners hammerandhope.org

Thank you so much @triplingual.myatproto.social !

Thank you @loekwa.bsky.social !!!

In a recent Hammer &Hope newsletter, Robin D.G. Kelley wrote about supporting the magazine's crucial, independent work. Join him — and help us become self-sustaining — by becoming a monthly donor today: hammerandhope.org/membership

A new episode of Unruly Subjects w/ @chenjerai.bsky.social dropped today! 🎧: pod.link/1849696769/e... We feature an interview with @hammerandhope.bsky.social's Lovia Gyarkye, influencer Conscious Lee, and voicemail responses to our prompt: “How do you balance your love life with the struggle?”

for anyone interested, @hammerandhope.bsky.social ran an article on exactly this: "An organized urban wing of the railroad called vigilance committees focused on protecting, supporting, and learning from fugitives. That education went in both directions..." hammerandhope.org/article/unde...

I don’t know how to put a dollar figure on an article. I do know the media ecosystem is better when there’s new models like @theflytrapmedia.com and @flaminghydra.com and @autonomynews.co and @hammerandhope.bsky.social and @prisonjournalism.bsky.social (just to name some of my subscriptions)

My newsletter was fire in 2025 if I may say so myself, lol. It really was though. Proud of the work and those who helped me make it happen.

Really wonderful article. I got to it the other day and I keep thinking about it.

I wrote up some thoughts on the place of class, identity, and left organization in NYC's election for the @hammerandhope.bsky.social newsletter: Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race overturns the destructive bipartisan consensus that identity politics are simply a dead end.

"The Underground Railroad was not so much aimed at 'helping' fugitives escape as it was a movement to learn from & amplify the work fugitives were already doing to free themselves." by Jesse Olsavsky in @hammerandhope.bsky.social For anyone teaching U.S. history ⬇️ hammerandhope.org/article/unde...

"On the continent that brought you colonial terror, world war, and concentration camps, fascism is once again a mainstream ideology." Gary Younge in @hammerandhope.bsky.social explains parallels, differences and interactions between the European and US far right. hammerandhope.org/article/trum...

Don't miss another smart dispatch from writers like Mike McCarthy. Sign up for our newsletter! hammerandhope.org?goto=signup

“New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible.” --Zohran Mamdani For @hammerandhope.bsky.social I wrote about what comes next. hammerandhope.org/article/mamd...

As right-wing attacks on public and higher education have increased in hostility and visibility, revisiting the Atlanta Public Schools hysteria is instructive for communities fighting back today, write Sarah Abdelaziz and Anna Simonton in our latest issue. hammerandhope.org/article/atla...

Vigilance committees were antislavery organizations that began forming in northeastern cities in the 1830s, often supported by Black churches, writes Jesse Olsavsky in our latest issue. Their work took on new urgency after the revamped Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 hammerandhope.org/article/unde...

Just became a member this week. You should too. Banger after banger, every issue.

“I’m working to develop a different research agenda. In Niger, they can arrest you without due process. What is happening in the U.S. now actually resembles what has been occurring in Niger for some time.” - Rahmane Idrissa for @hammerandhope.bsky.social hammerandhope.org/article/mili...

"Black organizers had noticed gaps in the campaign’s strategy for reaching Black voters. To address them, they led canvasses in working-class Black neighborhoods...By early October, Mamdani had taken a commanding lead over Cuomo among Black voters" hammerandhope.org/article/zohr...

Since the U.S.’s inception as a nation in the 18th century, white people have deployed monuments to territorialize their power through representations of famous men, writes Mabel O. Wilson in her essay for Issue No. 8 hammerandhope.org/article/uva-...

"The video was a force of nature, a monocultural eruption of soul and sex," writes Damon Young, "It felt as if D’Angelo had been given every bodily gift a human could desire, and had granted us the privilege of experiencing them with him." hammerandhope.org/article/dang...

"We have a whole team set up so that if they see ICE, they can move in quickly, record everything, ask for warrants, and provide whatever support is needed to the folks getting detained and their families," said Lelo in his recent conversation with Hammer & Hope. hammerandhope.org/article/farm...

"The terms in which this longer project is now being activated are alarming and blatantly authoritarian," says @elizabethkai.bsky.social .bsky.social in her conversation with @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social in Issue No. 8. hammerandhope.org/article/nati...

After DHS agents descended upon a Home Depot in Los Angeles, @latenantsunion.bsky.social spent the summer experimenting. @city.bsky.social reports on how organizers built a long-term protective presence for Issue No. 8 hammerandhope.org/article/los-...

"Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced since the start of this year and continue to face settler violence, which is at a record high, fueled by genocidal rhetoric from politicians," writes Kholood Eid in her Issue No. 8 essay hammerandhope.org/article/gaza...

"After the federal mass-deportation initiative dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” hit the shelter, a meeting was held the next day. Black residents affirmed they stood with Latino residents and the raid impacted everyone. Afterward folks were less divided by race..." hammerandhope.org/article/trum...

From Chicago, @natalieymoore.bsky.social reports on escalating tensions and ICE's operations. Read the full piece and more in our latest issue. hammerandhope.org/article/trum...

Mamdani’s ability to deliver transformational policies largely depends on how effectively a left coalition can mobilize for them, writes @hadasthier.bsky.social in our latest issue. hammerandhope.org/article/mamd...

trial by jury clearly has a role to play today as it did then. you can read other lessons from this history - ways that multiracial groups people living and working in the North resisted slave power under Black leadership in the latest @hammerandhope.bsky.social hammerandhope.org/article/unde...

“If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die protecting my people,” said Jorge, a former day laborer. “I’ve got blood family, but these are my people, too. These are my neighbors.” h/t @hammerandhope.bsky.social

Organizing for and with solidarity works.

Look look look!

When I feel cynical about the state of media or discourse, @hammerandhope.bsky.social is a powerful reminder of what is possible - really good writing, about really important things, from really smart people. It's also free to read, but absolutely worth supporting as a paying member.

The eighth issue of Hammer & Hope is now live. OUR NATIONAL NIGHTMARE. The reins of government power, technology, and the press tighten and tangle in a few white billionaires’ hands. Where is this American cabal going next, and how deep will it drag us with it? hammerandhope.org/article/nati...

This is good, and everyone should read it, inside or out of New York, because its lessons are going to be relevant for socialist candidates and campaigns in any part of the country. Written by someone i admire so much, Maya Meredith- her debut in @hammerandhope.bsky.social!!

Great story from @hammerandhope.bsky.social on how Black organizers noticed gaps in the Zohran campaign's strategy for reaching Black voters—and then set out to do something about it by canvassing in Black neighborhoods, hosting their own outreach events, and more. hammerandhope.org/article/zohr...

NEW ISSUE PREVIEW 🚨Mamdani’s evolving relationship with Black NYers sheds light on a critical question for any left project in the U.S.: How do you build trust with Black voters to earn their support? - Maya Meredith, a leader in the NYC chapter of the @demsocialists.bsky.social @afrosoc.bsky.social