Nana and I had a good time over the weekend. Don’t forget to like, share, and click the subscribe button. I appreciate you. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

The timeline is upside down and still I write. At first I thought the essay was late but New Year’s Eve was just yesterday, right? open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

I had to laugh at myself as I shared this little piece. We need more laughter right now. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

I had to laugh at myself as I shared this little piece. We need more laughter right now. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

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.

If anyone would like to support my writing/publishing journey and has spare change leftover from the holiday season, a coffee (or two) may keep the writer’s block away ✏️ 🥰 ko-fi.com/jklambo #booksky #blackbooksky #writingcommunity 💙 📚 👀

My last essay of the year. I shared last week. I think it was last week. What is time? Anyway I want to share again before we enter this new year. Thank you for your ongoing support. Don’t forget to like, share, and click the subscribe button. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln... #BlackBookSky

If this season can be hard for you, here are my presentation slides from Holding Space for the Holidays, which offers some ideas for coping if your life does not resemble a Hallmark movie! 🫂 docs.google.com/presentation... Holding Space for the Holidays Bingo Card! ✨ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

More backlist books please. I’m excited more people are talking about Toni Morrison, the editor. Through these conversations they are also learning about the great works of Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones. #BlackBookSky #BookSky

2025. Here is my last essay of the year. Thank you for your ongoing support. Don’t forget to like, share, and click the subscribe button. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

I read Elite Capture by myself the first time. Now I am reading it with community members as we continue to learn how to work across our different identities. #BlackBookSky #BookSky

Read my cozy plus size m/m romance 'More to Love right now for FREE on Koboplus or Everand. Wrestling coach Emmy Park is content living romance through books—until he meets Jamir Cunningham, the charming owner of his favorite shop. bit.ly/moretolovero... #blackbooksky #romance #mmromance

2025. Here is my last essay of the year. Thank you for your ongoing support. Don’t forget to like, share, and click the subscribe button. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

#BookSky 💙📚 #BlackBooksky #Wishlist

Trump’s America. Mubashir is a 20-year-old Minneapolis resident and a U.S. citizen. ICE assaulted him and grabbed him off the street anyway. Cruelty and incompetence, and an unlawful detention. A kidnapping. ICE gets to do this with zero accountability. 1/2

Ryan Coogler explains why he declined the invitation to join the Academy www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/m...

More special announcements will be disclosed soon. We ain't done yet. Apply ASAP. It's only me working behind this laptop and I'm reading everything.

What does it say about this country that that the kind of open, rank bigotry Trump administration officials regularly express towards black immigrants apparently has no social cost because of the number of Americans who quietly agree or don't care.

Black Friday reminder: You can support independent bookstores and get great deals without lining the pockets of billionaires 😌

While most folks were kicked back enjoying their feasts & family, a lot of Natives are out here suffering on our own homelands: homeless, health crises, barely surviving as our lives slowly implode. #Share my cousin’s post and #help in any way you can. She’s entering winter life in a car with 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛

Price updates for Black Friday! Please consider supporting an independent author! Sci-fi short stories: Paperback - $5 / eBook - $1 | Children's book (paperback) - $10 Pick one up today, tomorrow, whenever you like! #SciFi #SelfPublished #booksky 📚🤏 #BlackBooksky 🔗 books.kielenking.com

Reviews like this are great reminders why we need Black writers and critics to properly analyze Black art www.vulture.com/article/revi...

Patricia Smith just won the National Book Award for Poetry for this collection. The first couple of poems had me in a chokehold. Smith is giving me new life right now.

Nana turns 92 years old today. I wrote this last year but it still holds true. “I see my love reflected in the face of the woman who not that long ago yelled across the hall “Nikki are you still there?” “I am here.” open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

Looking for a way to help this holiday season? The fabulous Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (FRIDAY BLACK; CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS) and Proyecto Faro are raising money for families in Spring Valley & Rockland County, NY, who've been targeted by recent ICE raids. Learn more and if you're able, donate here:

Not official yet, but there will be a tenured or tenure track teaching position in Fiction at Bowling Green State advertised soon. Please share. #writingcommunity #booksky

A bill regulating certain medications, which could include medication abortion drugs, was passed out of an Ohio House committee on Wednesday, on its way to a full House vote. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/19/b...

Despite Ohioans overwhelmingly protecting access to abortion, Republican lawmakers are moving to restrict the procedure by ending telehealth prescriptions and mail-order pills ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/18/o...

Hello! Please help and share for my friend! www.gofundme.com/f/support-my...

It was announced on October 16, 2025 that VIBE was "joining forces" with Rolling Stone. As a result, the majority of VIBE employees were laid off. If you have the means to give, this team could use the support! www.gofundme.com/f/support-vi...

May my friend @sfdirewolf.bsky.social rest in power. I will especially miss texting with her about Star Trek. We were lucky, all of us, to have Alice and her warmth and enthusiasm. www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...

So many vulnerable people were hurt, harassed and raped by these ghouls and now—I’m worried—it’s gonna become hehe haha lurid internet circus instead of a long overdue moral reckoning. I’m scared of who we all are becoming. That man has brought us ALL low.

Reading and writing are helping me stay grounded right now. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

not snark, actually asking: after pushing a comma strategy that focused on health care, what is the case for the Democrats making a deal to end the shutdown now that doesn't involve a win on health care?

Transphobes are already targeting the biggest star in women's soccer and baselessly alleging she's a man because she's Black. This is what trans people warned would happen. Gender policing that becomes explicitly racial. www.outsports.com/2025/11/6/24...

Fresh off Election Day, the Statehouse GOP is hearing SB 293, a bill slashing early voting via mail, popular among all voters. This is the 2026 (& beyond) playbook. Politicians in power are deliberately making it harder for you to vote, for 100% political reasons.

I was loving my body on Friday and by Saturday I felt a little indifferent. Both of those feelings are okay. Writing keeps me grounded so I have been writing about this evolving relationship with this body of mine. Don’t forget to subscribe, like, and share. open.substack.com/pub/crystaln...

TW: Suicide Realizing that I was trans saved my life. People underestimate the power of social transitioning, but social transitioning is the reason I am still here.

What most people outside of what passes for a safety net in the US don’t understand is that the late fall and early winter are the busiest, hardest moments for new crises. This couldn’t happen at a worse time as clinics, shelters, and food pantries are already bursting at the seams from demand.

Nana and I needed to ground ourselves in something familiar so we are reading If Beale Street Could Talk. We are wondering what you are reading this evening. #BlackBookSky #BookSky

Immigrant women are overrepresented in jobs that have a higher exposure to chemicals that cause breast cancer, according to a new study by the Silent Spring Institute, a research organization focused on uncovering the environmental causes of breast cancer. https://bit.ly/4huUeTj

I went to bed thinking about this essay. The work has never stopped so I write about joy and sorrow. Labor and rest. My neighbors are losing their health insurance and the ability to feed their families. Systems aren’t concerned about our wellbeing so community fills gaps. It has always been us.

As we approach the end of the year and you have some potential disposable income to share, consider supporting your local mutual aid projects. This year has been rough but next year promises to be even more difficult for people. There are definitely orgs in your communities that can use support.

ICYMI: One small-town Ohio hospital sued 2,700 patients in two years - garnishing wages and charging steep interest on families already struggling. This powerful reporting shows how medical debt is devastating Ohioans and why our bipartisan Ohio Medical Debt Fairness Act is urgently needed.

It is Banned Books Week. The Bluest Eye was my first novel by Toni Morrison. It is beat up and the pages are yellow but still one of my all time favorites. What is your best banned book? #BlackBookSky #BookSky

Be prepared: The Trump administration says ICE will be at the Super Bowl. "I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless they're law-abiding Americans who love this country," Kristi Noem told a podcaster.

Got our morning coffee and watching Reading Rainbow!!! ☺️📚💖 Literally tearing up this brings so much joy!! Thank you @mychal3ts.bsky.social !!! You are an incredible host for this show!! ❤️ #BookSky #BlackBookSky #ReadingRainbow youtu.be/gHAIjSkmnYI?...

📖 All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby is our next pick! A gritty Southern Gothic thriller with blood, secrets, and justice on every page. 📅 Starts Sunday, Oct 5 📍Join us on Discord: discord.com/invite/gWpK3... 🩸 #AllTheSinnersBleed #SpokenThoughts #BookClubReads #BlackBookSky #BlackSky #BookSky

Trump's FCC yesterday voted to kill a program that provided free Wi-Fi to rural school kids at no cost to taxpayers, falsely claiming the program was "illegal" and was being used to "censor Conservative ideology."

To many, the notion that the “able-bodied” must work sounds reasonable on its face. But in reality, work requirements don’t ­meaningfully boost employment. And for people with invisible disabilities that can make work extremely challenging, the framework can unfairly cast them as lazy.