Wrote a whole dissertation on monuments and let me just say: this is ridiculous. Literally no one needs a statue of Columbus, least of all the White House.

What the US is purposefully doing to Cuba should be considered genocide.

just a thought: no movement should ever depend so completely on the reputation of its chosen figurehead that one of its founders is forced to make a calculation like this on behalf of its survival

a preliminary survey for the next component of my research: if you're willing to tell me about your connection to the movie/musical 1776... docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

RIP to Pedro O’Hara’s, Maine’s version of this restaurant.

Sad to see the Ides of March becoming commercialised like this. I really feel like we're losing track of the true spirit of the holiday. It's not about how many knives you can stick in a tyrant all at once, it's about the whole community coming together to stab the tyrant as many times as possible.

Cis people need to pay attention to the way they communicate this. They freely admit that after all of their research, they came up with zero evidence that HRT was harmful. Then they banned it anyway, claiming their inability to find a reason is a reason in of itself.

RIP Baudrillard you would've loved this episode of imperial decline

you know, if the government’s going to fund theater for the public to enjoy, it would have cost a hell of a lot less to just do a new WPA

Edmonia Lewis virtually vanished from history when she died in 1907. A new exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum teases out the mysteries of Lewis's life while showcasing her marble sculptures.

What's scary about this story is the surveillance it hints at. This trans woman had changed her name, legally, but chose not to change her gender marker. She was apparently flagged in the DMV system as trans and her license was invalidated under a law that supposedly only concerned gender markers.

tl;dr: more people should watch this gentleman's speech and think seriously about what he is saying bsky.app/profile/slcl...

As of tonight, licenses of trans people across Kansas are being invalidated en masse, enabling the overnight criminalization of an entire group of people for going about our lives. It’s often said you never know when you’re living through history, so let me assure you: that’s what’s happening now.

btw for trans women to offer this kind of practical warning and sympathy is a serious mitzvah and we cis women really owe it to them (and to ourselves!) to step up our solidarity in kind

@toddbrianbackus.com and I are starting a new theatre company here in Portland, go give @foxbrambleme.bsky.social a follow!!!

ProPublica published children's letters and drawings documenting their sadness and suffering at Dilley. And Dilley staff are now retaliating by confiscating kids' letters and drawings. www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...

And if you’re wondering “Why is there a blob in the back?” Well, that’s where the first woman president was supposed to go. More than a century later, it remains unsculpted.

Rev. Jesse Jackson's "I *am* somebody..." remains one of the all-time great pieces of 20th century rhetoric / agitprop And he could deliver it at a Black separatist meeting, the Democratic National Convention, or on god-blessed Sesame Street (see below 🥹) RIP to the Voice of the Voiceless

rev jonathan edwards, gazing upwards from hell

It would be embarrassing under any circumstances to spend a year on this reactionary horseshit, but to have spent the year in which graduate students were sent to concentration camps for op-eds and the federal govt launched a no hold barred attack on academic freedom is just beyond

A little under 18 months ago I was part of the care team of a dear friend who got diagnosed and then died from stage 4 colorectal cancer in a two month span. She would have turned 41 a month after she died.

we know this, but a reminder: anytime ICE CBP etc says they’re drawing down their presence in a city, it’s bullshit. whatever their numbers, lawless federal agents remain behind & still cause havoc & kidnap people. Also relocated agents just go somewhere else to destroy lives. Abolish ICE end DHS

The short story of the 21st century in the United States is that out of malice or cowardice or some combination of both, every presidency contributed to building and expanding a federal secret police of goons and thugs, despite clear warning and obvious abuses, until we got to this point.

That the illegal destruction of USAID will kill more than *20 million people* in the next five years, & has ALREADY KILLED 600,000 in just one year, is a world-historical crime that Americans aren't being told about in the terms & with the repetition necessary for them to believe it.

Classic literatures adaptations as a way to get young people going to the movies, you say?

I've been singing this to myself all day

We put on an all-Yiddish community production of fiddler on the roof in Philadelphia and cast member and local artist Sofie Rose Seymour created the most amazing show poster that ever was

Context: this speech is from SIR THOMAS MORE, a history written, as near as scholars can tell, in the early 1600s by 6 or 7 people including Dekker, Heywood, Chettle, Shakespeare, and Munday. It was never performed, because Jacobean England was a police state and it was banned by the censor.

Always found this 2020 Philadelphia report on the Columbus statue helpful to think about. Even oversampling local whites didn’t show support for keeping the statue. It’s still here, but not because the majority wants it. www.phila.gov/media/202011...

'measles outbreak at the child prison' seems entirely avoidable, it's really the kind of thing that only happens if you do several unthinkably evil things on purpose all at once

Todd got a cool title change! And he’s directing my favorite play later this season! A little good news in 2026!

🖤🖤🖤

Miep Gies, who helped hide the Franks, repeatedly said she did not want to be viewed as a hero because she did what she expected any normal person to do.

Everything they learned in Minnesota they’re applying in Maine from day one. They started off doing fast-moving snatch and grabs on the street, recording and using facial id on observers, and threatening observers directly. They’ll do it all where you live too.

The Maine Office of Attorney General says the information collected could become fodder for an investigation into ICE activities during its surge here:

I think a lot of us get hope wrong. Hope, I do not believe, is an emotion. In fact, hope makes space for lots of emotions to exist alongside it. You can DO hope scared, angry, sad etc... Hope doesn't find us. We make hope through action and struggle. It's a practice of living and is re-made daily.

Reminder in the face of all the angry gaslighting propaganda.

It's also about convincing you that they impose reality and that they are the final arbiters of truth. Hence the importance of continuing to name reality and truth ourselves, at every single turn, with all that is available to us.

“all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones of those who did not make it…” - @clintsmithiii.bsky.social

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.

Yesterday, Minneapolis gave us hope. That’s what they’re trying to kill: the will of a people who are willing to fight them.

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.

In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

"Slavery was real" Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington. Presidents House, Philadelphia.

Shot: "The United States on Thursday announced plans for a 'New Gaza' rebuilt from scratch to include residential towers, data centres and seaside resorts." Chaser: "In the Gaza Strip, health officials said Israeli airstrikes on Thursday had killed five people in the enclave." What a lede.