Breaking News: Will Lewis stepped down as the chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post days after it laid off hundreds of journalists.

“That’s what a notebook is: a break from your own voice. If diaries are where we willfully perform ourselves, notebooks project a slanted light onto our days, revealing a shadowed grain and texture that we otherwise might not notice.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/m...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Judge orders US to release father and 5-year-old taken into custody during Minnesota immigration crackdown.

“This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

Don was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles.

NEWS: The Trump regime has arrested Don Lemon in its latest crackdown on journalism after he reported from inside a church protest in Minnesota—despite a magistrate judge previously rejecting the case against him as unsupported by evidence.

Independent journalist Georgia Fort was also arrested by federal agents earlier for reporting on the church protest in Minneapolis. She was live streaming when agents arrived to take her into custody.

“She had a way of saying, —Uhm, and stroking her throat and letting her right hand eventually find her necklace, the choreography of reflection.” — Darryl Pinckney #SundaySentence

“Altadena offered a specific California rhythm, mood—a ‘protect at all costs’ way of life. Now it was chaos and ash and, along some stretches, fully unrecognizable,” @lynellgeorge.bsky.social. www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...

It has been a year like no other. Today is the anniversary of the LA fires. I write about what the year has been like here in Altadena post Eaton Fire. www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...

‘This is where it all started’: Nina Simone’s childhood home gets long-awaited rehabilitation 'North Carolina home preserved to commemorate legendary musician and civil rights activist, and to serve as arts hub' www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

In 2026 I want all of the decent people to remember one thing. You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics. That is all.

“People are seeing themselves reflected in him and in his energy, and that’s just like medicine to them,” Mr. Eady said in an interview. “That energy allows people to keep going forward, not to despair. I’m hoping that the poem reflects that kind of moment.” #BlackskyNews

My latest for Alta: “The most learning that all of us got was when the gig is over & you’re sitting with Billy Higgins. He’s just talking. I went to the College of Billy. It’s like a fountain of knowledge you don’t ask the water to turn on & off.”Darryl Moore on LA’s magic World Stage bit.ly/3LqeEBp

For the latest @altajournal.bsky.social, I stitched together an oral history focused on West Coast Jazz and the role that Leimert Park’s World Stage has played in ushering the echoes of Central Avenue’s sounds forward to new generations. The print version has just landed.

My Map to a Literary Life in Los Angeles | @lynellgeorge.bsky.social Making Community in Bookshops, Cafes, and Bootleg Backroom Venues www.zocalopublicsquare.org/map-to-liter...

JUST IN: Betty Reid Soskin, the beloved former park ranger with the National Park Service, has passed away at 104.

Frank O. Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/a...

Venice Bakery is remembering those that have died in ICE custody this year by adding them to their community altar for Dia de Los Muertos. By @eltragon.bsky.social

Steppenwolf is embarking on its 50 anniversary season as one of America’s pre-eminent theater companies. Laurie Metcalf, Gary Sinise and other members of the Chicago company reminisce about unexpected performances, stunning monologues and career-changing roles.

“Able to bring dynamic, highly musical playing to open-minded free jazz, R&B-leaning instrumental grooves and everything in between, DeJohnette is perhaps best known as the drummer in Miles Davis’s fusion period, contributing to albums such as Bitches Brew…” www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Jack DeJohnette 📸 Jimmy Katz, as seen in Galleria Nazionale Dell’Umbria, Perugia, Italy

“To look for lessons in what Baldwin wrote makes him a figure like Walter Benjamin or Michel Foucault or Frantz Fanon: we find in him what we need to.” —Darryl Pinckney

“His voice never aged, the cat on the café terrace staring down the moon when all the squares have gone to bed. For all his keenness of observation and sympathy…his was not the voice of a generation. He belonged entirely to himself.” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

LOS ANGELES, CA—Headed now to DTLA to begin today’s coverage of the LA #nokings protests. There are big ones and other auxiliary protests scheduled until well past 6 so I’ll be threading things service permitting to this account all day. The train has a decent amount of folks w/signs and costumes

“There comes a moment during most LA evenings when the heat gives up; it happens in an instant.” — Angela Flournoy #SundaySentence

My piece for Sierra magazine, “The Burn Scars of Altadena,” was included in this list, from the LA Times, enumerating stories that trained their focus on the fire storms of January. www.latimes.com/california/n...

The suspect accused of igniting the fire that destroyed LA's Pacific Palisades neighborhood allegedly used a ChatGPT prompt to show "a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it," months prior, officials say

ABC has posted the first 28 minutes of @jimmykimmellive.bsky.social WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tj...

Pray for your teacher friends. The load is heavy right now. Teaching in this political climate is a LOT.

This week's @altajournal.bsky.social Book Review features my Q & A with author Susana M. Morris about her new book Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler—which explores the worlds that shaped Butler and how they influenced her imagination. www.altaonline.com/books/nonfic...

Gratitude and love to Paul Yamazaki, City Lights's longtime book buyer, who will receive the Northern California Book Awards GROUNDBREAKER AWARD at their ceremony this Saturday, 2pm, held at the SF Main Library’s Koret Auditorium. It's free to attend. See you there? poetryflash.org/programs/?p=...

“Among Polidori’s…photographs, I identified places in my very neighborhood. I certainly never expected to stand elbow to elbow w/ tourists in the Met to look at images of these streets lined with humble homes. Only in ruins could they hang on these hallowed walls.” oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/what-...

Black Star: The Life and Work of Octavia Butler --essay by Michael A. Gonzales crimereads.com/black-star-t... via @crimereads.bsky.social @amistadbooks.bsky.social @lynellgeorge.bsky.social

Small crescent setting over Orleans street, New Orleans

After the rain, Royal and Dumaine, New Orleans

“It was like watching the development of a photograph in reverse: the moment my boyhood sensations became identifiable was the instant they disappeared.” — Keith McNally From “I Regret Almost Everything” #SundaySentence

#Baltimore #arts

Zócalo's latest miniseries explores L.A.'s Literary Public Square. Read from @davidulin.bsky.social on his journey from NYC to L.A., Brittany Menjivar & Sammy Loren on the "alt-lit" scene, @lynellgeorge.bsky.social on making literary community, and John Szabo on libraries. zps.la/LitLA

Many years ago, I set out to map out a collection of LA literary spots that held meaning. Many of those places are gone, but the connections — and memories — are still vividly alive. My latest for @zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social

Mal Waldron was born in New York City on this day in 1925. 📸 Frans Schellekens/Redferns, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 1995

After losing the family home and studio in the Eaton Fire, John Outterbridge’s daughter, Tami, borrowed a page out of her father‘s artist guidebook, and took the disaster as a challenge to pull together community and make art. My latest for LA Times: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

For Sidney Clifton, it had always been a dream to make things right. Her parents—poet Lucille & artist Fred—lost their family home, 40+ years ago due to foreclosure. In 2019, she reacquired the property: The Clifton House is now an artists’ creative hub. My latest: savingplaces.org/stories/lite...

On this day in 1958, Art Kane photographed 57 musicians at 17 East 126th Street in NYC for Esquire magazine. It was a Great Day in Harlem, 67 years ago today. Sonny Rollins is the only musician from this photo still living. #SonnyRollinsBridge

Just Released! This 60th anniversary set showcases lost recordings, archival photos & memory- unlocking ephemera with liner notes from the set’s producer, Alec Palao and me on the history of the old 5-4 and the revue’s whirlwind showcase here in LA just days before Watts lit up.

"There’s an intimacy and authority of place—of life—that energizes the [CAAM] show. 'Ode to ’Dena' showcases over two dozen artists of varying disciplines who have been in some way touched or shaped by the community.” @lynellgeorge.bsky.social: www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a... #Altadena

In my latest for Alta journal I write about “Ode to ‘ Dena,” a sweeping exhibition now up at CAAM the traces, the deep, rooted history of the African-American, artistic community in Altadena www.altaonline.com/preview/disp...

VROMAN'S SUMMER SALE JULY 26 - AUGUST 3 The Store’s annual Summer Sale starts on this Saturday, July 26th! Located upstairs in the Event Space. Sticker prices up to 75% off original price + an additional 40% off at the register! All sales are final. May not be combined with other discounts.