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.

“This book is unique among the books written about #OctaviaEButler because of @lynellgeorge.bsky.social's envisioning of Butler’s daily life. It’s an opportunity to get to know Butler and an invitation to pay attention to the world as she did.” ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/07/08/a... #BookSky

Malcolm-Jamal Warner has died, according to multiple reports. He was 54

“I’ve sown a lot of beautiful chaos,” he says. “And a lot of it not so beautiful.” www.nola.com/news/katrina...

"Sixty years ago, the Stax Revue landed in Los Angeles, mere days before Watts lit up in a historic rebellion that captured the world’s attention. The performers had been scheduled for two nights in early August 1965 at the 5/4 Ballroom," @lynellgeorge.bsky.social. www.instagram.com/p/DLQVTHwygxy/

"Working for much of her career with John Martin of Black Sparrow Press, [Wanda] Coleman’s earlier books are the elegant hardbacks of Black Sparrow’s heyday, many adorned with cover art by Barbara Martin, John’s wife." www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/153...

Even now, I can visualize Wanda Coleman at podiums cradling hardcover Black Sparrow editions of her work. "He began collecting first editions by writers he admired....That collection spawned Black Sparrow: He sold the books in 1965 to UC Santa Barbara for $50,000 & started the publishing company."

After Bass spoke with what I assume is a DHS rep, they packed shit up and headed out. The whole neighborhood turned out to chase them out of the park. Some fruit was thrown, alot of yelling

NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary turned prize-winning TV journalist, has died at 91.

Remembering Octavia. Born #OTD in 1947.

Octavia E Butler would have turned 78 today. Here are a few ways to celebrate her imprint and literary legacy. www.pasadenanow.com/weekendr/pas...

“[Kaye] says not only is she not going to the ceremony, she’s declining induction into the Rock Hall because it doesn’t reflect the spirit of teamwork that went into her career as a session musician.” www.stereogum.com/2312231/caro...

"i asked grok" "i asked chagpt" yeah well I asked a rare books librarian and they found things I didn’t even know I was looking for, while answering questions about provenance

Norma Swenson, who was a proponent of natural childbirth when she joined a group that produced what would become the feminist health classic, “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” died last month. She was 93.

“I remember telling Joan, ‘You have a lifestyle not a life.’” — Noel Parmentel From “Didion & Babitz” by Lili Anolik #SundaySentence

Breaking News: The U.S. military is deploying a battalion of 700 Marines to Los Angeles amid ongoing protests to immigration raids. Follow live updates.

Thanks for all the joy. www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

"To the fans, all the fans out that made one song from War their favorite song, remember this: Share that song with somebody else and we'll unite the world. Share the song that you love with War around the world." www.audacy.com/knxnews/news...