This week, @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I talk about Venezuela and the idea of “strength through peace,” with references to Audre Lorde and Mark Twain. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/v...

Language and Power in N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell’s “Far Sector” We all know the power of words and the ways that words shape our reality. The student in Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray” points this out when he gets into a conversation with other individuals in the waiting room at a dentist…

If you’re looking for something to help yourself decompress from everything, check out “The Goes Wrong Show.” I watched the first episode and haven’t laughed that hard at a show in a long time. youtu.be/Oklwzmeo6qQ?...

Since Ole Miss is in the semifinals, sharing a piece I did after watching “The Ghosts of Ole Miss” a few years back @sethwickersham.bsky.social interminablerambling.medium.com/william-faul...

I rode the metro into work with the j6 rioters; the first car they came in whooping and screaming, gassing each other up. The next car I moved to they were tense and quiet, older white people full of fear. My office in Dupont Circle was 6 blocks away from the Capitol.

As @bradleyonishi.bsky.social @drkarenlcox.bsky.social and others pointed out right after January 6, 2021, we are seeing a new Lost Cause rhetoric take hold. To destroy a nation, the Devil fills its people with those false hopes and false fears. interminablerambling.medium.com/the-new-lost...

Attempting to Change the System from Within in N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell’s “Far Sector” I first read N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell’s Far Sector when it came out in the trade paperback, and I’d been waiting for an opportunity to teach it. When it came out as part of DC Comics’ compact line,…

As @bradleyonishi.bsky.social @drkarenlcox.bsky.social and others pointed out right after January 6, 2021, we are seeing a new Lost Cause rhetoric take hold. To destroy a nation, the Devil fills its people with those false hopes and false fears. interminablerambling.medium.com/the-new-lost...

At this moment, @remender.bsky.social and Daniel Acuña’s “Escape” is a must read, especially in light of yesterday's events. interminablerambling.medium.com/we-are-all-t...

There’s a lot I don’t know about what 2026 might bring, but I promise you this: the #ScholarSunday threads will continue! Here’s my 257th of public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

At this moment, @remender.bsky.social and Daniel Acuña’s “Escape” is a must read, especially in light of yesterday's events. interminablerambling.medium.com/we-are-all-t...

Time to reread Audre Lorde’s “Grenada Revisited.” “This language is calculated to reduce a Black nation's aspirations in the eyes and ears of white americans already secretly terrified by the Black Menace, enraged by myths of 1/

Walking Bergen today and Phil Ochs’ “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” popped up. This sums up a lot of my thoughts today. youtu.be/1rVTBCtYjoY?...

Picked up Mariann Edgar Budde’s “How We Learn to be Brave” over the holidays, and started it today. It’s a good way to start off 2026.

Just finished my list. I did 185 this year, constituting 45,500 pages. I started the year with Martin Rowson graphic adaptation of Karl Marx & Friedrich Engle’s “The Communist Manifesto” & ended it with Seth Wickersham “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback.” 1/

I was thinking about what gifts people used to give to readers (besides gift editions of famous poets' work and illustrated histories of wars and such), and while I was thinking about it, somebody brought a book to the counter.... (1/10)

On the latest episode of This Ain’t It, @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I give a year end roundup of people getting into good trouble this year. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

Mikaël’s Harlem, a fictionalized narrative about Stephanie St. Clair, explores the history of white supremacy in the United States, colonialism, sexism, and structural issues that impact Harlem and its citizens. ijoca.blogspot.com/2025/12/grap...

I planned to take two weeks off for the Holidays, but since Clair Keegan's "Small Things Like These" is a holiday novella, I thought I'd go ahead and do one more post before the new year. @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social @americanstudier.bsky.social interminablerambling.medium.com/how-do-we-lo...

Started this way back in January and finally finished it last week. Gotta say, reading these first fifty issues of GI Joe now, in 2025, is a reminder of how good they are.

People are rightly disgusted by this speech, but it’s a measure of fascism’s normalization that many see this as more of the awful same rather than what I think most of us who’ve been reporting this beat hear it as: a significant calculated escalation. Full alert stuff.

“At my school…you see this tremendous and terrifying impact on children and on families….A third grade boy…confided in his teacher. He said, ‘Well, I don't want to type in my lunch code….I don't want ICE to know where I am, or to know my family is.’”

I’m on pace to read 185 books this year. Here are some of my favorites. What books have impacted you this year? interminablerambling.medium.com/what-did-i-r...

legitimately love this guy.

This week on This Ain’t It, @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I talk about healthcare. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

This week on This Ain’t It, @underapurplesky.bsky.social and I talk about healthcare. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

“Everything Burns”: Facades and Identity in S.A. Cosby’s “King of Ashes” Last year, I read three of S.A. Cosby’s novels (I still need to read Blacktop Wasteland), and I was instantly hooked. When I heard about his latest book, King of Ashes, I knew I had to pick up a copy and read it right away.…

Recently, I read Kailua Yu’s “Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty” and there’s a lot here. One thing that really stood out was her discussion of the fetishization of Asian women in music. interminablerambling.medium.com/music-and-th...

Recently, I read Kailua Yu’s “Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty” and there’s a lot here. One thing that really stood out was her discussion of the fetishization of Asian women in music. interminablerambling.medium.com/music-and-th...

Actively Ignoring and Unknown Ignorance of Fascism in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has been on my to be read list for a while now, and recently, I finally pulled it down from the shelf and read it. From the opening sentence, when Offred tells us,…

Reading through the original GI Joe and this from the Soft Master on guns in issue #32.

Not a “good guy with a gun” — a brave soul who *took* a gun from a murdering fool who may imagine *he’s* the “good guy with a gun,” and then the real hero did not use it for more killing but *put the gun down.* Let’s put the fucking guns down. Every last idiot bang bang stick in the world.

1995 was a great year for music with releases from Hum, MXPX, Team Dresch, Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters, and many more! interminablerambling.medium.com/some-of-the-...

Great & smart that we live in a country where we require vaccines for dogs & not for people.

Today is Lillian Smith’s 128th birthday! If you’ve never heard of her, you need to. Here is a piece I did a couple of years back for @bittersouth.bsky.social bittersoutherner.com/southern-per...

In the latest episode of “This Ain’t It,” @underapurplesky.bsky.social & I finally talk about immigration & Christianity, specifically about rhetoric like this from Andrew Clyde. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

& I wrote about Lillian Smith here, inspired by my connection to her through @silaslapham.bsky.social: www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/11/cons...

Lillian Smith, the Civil Rights activist who Martin Luther King, Jr. called “one of the brightest stars in the human firmament,” was born on this day in 1897 in Jasper, Florida. I could go on and on about Smith, a white, queer southerner who fought her whole life for civil rights.

The Stealing of One’s Voice in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface” Is it literary theft when Harriett Beecher Stowe takes Josiah Henson’s real-life story of escaping enslavement and crafts Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Or, is it literary theft when she does this and does not acknowledge Henson’s inspiration? Is it…

1995 had some great albums from Rancid and Radiohead to Sunny Day Real Estate and Hayden interminablerambling.medium.com/some-of-the-...

A few weeks ago, @chanda.blacksky.app pointed out that the Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness is 30 years old this year. I had been planning to write a couple of posts about the music from 1995 that shaped me, & her post led me to finally do it. medium.com/@interminabl...

A few weeks ago, @chanda.blacksky.app pointed out that the Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness is 30 years old this year. I had been planning to write a couple of posts about the music from 1995 that shaped me, & her post led me to finally do it. medium.com/@interminabl...

Doing a classic today! Stavesacre forever!

Is It Literary Theft?: Looking at Writing in R.F. Kuang’s “Yellowface” I read R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface over the summer, with the intention of adding it to my “Lost Voices in American Literature” course. After reading it, I was very interested in the discussion that would arise when we finally…

Just finished Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These.” It’s a powerful, tight novella for the Christmas season.

For readers everywhere. #BookSky

Language conveys meaning to others and shapes our world, but it also serves as a means of control and power, as @nkjemisin.bsky.social & Jamal Campbell point out in “Far Sector.” interminablerambling.medium.com/language-and...

This week on This Ain't It, we're talking about the newest culture-war claim: that empathy is dangerous, unbiblical, or even a sin. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...