My son & I just went to a #Chicago @carleton.edu winter gathering where we met so many interesting alum & current students. Then I hop on Bluesky and think it is pretty cool that @ezralevin.bsky.social and @leahgreenberg.bsky.social of Indivisible are both alum! Such a great learning community.

Go see this #art exhibition at @artinstitutechi.bsky.social by Jan 4 2026: Elizabeth Catlett: “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” Stunning. She was a fascinating and kick ass woman. #Chicago #Mexico www.artic.edu/exhibitions/...

One Hundred Famous Views of Edo exhibit at @artinstitutechi.bsky.social runs through Jan 4 2026. Beautiful. Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) stands as one of the most celebrated designers of ukiyo-e prints. #art #japan #Chicago www.artic.edu/exhibitions/...

Unreal. Sue Tincher, a white woman in her mid-50s who stands 5 feet, 4 inches tall, was detained for hours by agents who also cut off her wedding ring, for standing outside her Minneapolis home and asking questions. (1/2) www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...

This is really solid investigative reporting from the Sun-Times. And a brutal expose of Greg Bovino, the cosplaying tough guy who has terrorized so many immigrants in Chicago. Read it all. chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

A very happy 100th birthday to the legendary and supremely talented Dick Van Dyke. 💙

Chicago sidewalks are too narrow, example 74 Coco and Jodi meet on Randolph St

I’m so proud of the talented Leo High School Choir and all they are doing to represent the South Side of Chicago!

My son found this Sink or Skim BBC documentary about a rock skipping / stone skimming competition in #Scotland. I am so intrigued by very specific communities like this. A fun watch! Directed and Produced by Austen McCowan and Will Hewitt youtu.be/l5gEI33klgI?...

continuing to step aside - Harold Jarche @harold.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy It is becoming more evident that human skills & human connections are valuable, beyond the transactional economy. Generative #AI is showing that transactional relationships are easily replicable. jarche.com/2025/12/cont...

Their closing message to Indiana: change your maps to artificially benefit the President's political party or 'roads will not be paved' as punishment. They are openly saying this. Who would want to live in a country that works like that?

Beautiful mistake #photography #Christmas

I think we should put 1 pencil in each stocking for Christmas this year. That’s it - only a pencil. ✏️ That will significantly help us with our ability to afford holiday food.

🇨🇦🇨🇦 Just announced: a massive new program from the Canadian govt, separate from the well-known CRCs and CERCs, to recruit foreign scientific talent Canada was already a destination for scientists but whoa. Real impressive for a new govt to back political talking points with serious investment

“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.” Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻

I also recommend Everybody's Busy as an experience, but you've gotta be social - they're appointment only, located inside Mana Contemporary.

I’ve been curating Chicagoans to follow on Bluesky and it is starting to pay off. Am starting to learn cool new things about our city and am engaging in various ways. I keep thinking about sharing a time/place to meet up and just see who shows up. Who is in? #community #Chicago

South Side coffee shop watch: the writing has been on the wall for awhile now, and Sip & Savor has officially announced that their location in Rosenwald Courts (47th & Michigan) is closing to the public and will be used solely as an event venue from now on. It has long struggled with low traffic.

“Simplicity and clarity should be your theme in dress.” This is the strangest fortune I have ever opened.

🇺🇦☕️A Ukrainian colleague from Ternopil told me about a new cafe in Lincoln Park #Chicago called Soloway Cafe. The beans are roasted in Ukraine. I highly recommend the srynyky (sweet & savory). Delicious! In Ukrainian, Soloway means Nightingale solowaycoffee.com/pages/solowa...

“Prose is vital to Democratic societies”

This is why: 1. Never stop writing. If you are using AI only use it as a light editor. 2. Politicians should write the first draft of all their speeches to organise their thoughts. 3. Prose is vital to democratic societies.

My teen, who had dreamt of being an astrophysicist, just told me he wants to go to law school because, “Science isn’t going to be a priority in the US in the future…I don’t want a job where I’ll be constantly worried my funding will be taken away.” Gutting. How many future scientists have we lost?

Kristi Noem came to Chicago for a Christmas propaganda video at Navy Pier. We were ready with our signs and our chants and our own special carols! 🎵❌️🧊

Addressing the claim that America was built by "hard working people" by reminding everyone that America was *actually* built on the backs of enslaved Africans and on the genocide of Indigenous people. Support my advocacy: www.qasimrashid.com/subscribe

This conversation is almost verbatim the lesson I tried to share with my students who objected to Muslim prayer calls as “un-American” and that Islam is “new to America.”

Spotify has laid off thousands in recent years, while reportedly paying artists $0.003 per stream. Spotify profits rose 28% in Q3. Its CEO is worth $9.8 billion. It's making money off ICE recruitment ads. Don't you think it's time put a wrap on corporate greed and exploitation?

Looking for a good #boardgame to give as a gift? Cartographers is what we are giving this year! We have played it so much this year. Really fun! Especially when you draw goblins on your neighbors map. 😈👿

👏 This is the energy we like to see! While Amazon, Home Depot, Target, and others cave to Trump, Costco is showing how companies can stand up to this regime.

“The decision was made to exclude me from the filmed production of Swan Lake because I was told my brown skin would disrupt the aesthetic.” ~ Misty Copeland When folks gripe about DEI, remind them who benefited from shutting out dancers like Copeland. That pattern runs through our whole history.

Social media feeds are full of people sharing their Spotify Wrapped, but Spotify is full of ICE recruitment ads. Cancel your subscription until Spotify stops helping ICE terrorize our communities. app.sosha.ai/s/T7ngbtyS

Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars. She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:

Applications are open for CPL’s Renaissance Project $4,000 microgrants to support new scholarship and storytelling around Black history and culture. Each of the 10 grants is funded by @mellon.org. Applications close Friday, January 7, 2026. chi.gov/mellonmicrogrants

What's happening with the Chicago Public Libraries right now is terrible. The proposed budget of the city would CUT 89 CPL positions. Importantly, 78 positions were lost LAST year. That would be 167 positions in 2 YEARS while COPS KEEP GETTING MORE MONEY. ENOUGH. SAY NO.

His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.

Also worth noting that from the time literally George Washington was president to 2021, Nashville was one Congressional District.

If you ever wondered what GOP gerrymandering looks like in red states with blue cities, I present:

A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them off to separate facilities. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i... @thecity.nyc @gwynnefitz.bsky.social

In Chicago alone, more than 22,000 people are living with HIV. Since President Donald Trump assumed office for the second time, the federal government has made major cuts and structural changes to both domestic and global HIV/AIDS funding. https://to.wttw.com/4rDw4uO

This combination of words was not on my bingo card for 2025

Northerly Island, Chicago. #XCSkiing #chicago

Just once I'd like to hear a TV news anchor say, "Sir, that's not true, and if you keep insisting it is, we're going to end this interview to protect our viewers from further disinformation. And we won't invite you back."

On “The Necessary Conversation” podcast, Chad’s Trump supporter parents tell him the military should follow Trump’s illegal orders and kill everyone in LA if Trump commanded it — even with him and his sister in the city😳

we got about a jar of giardiniera worth of snow in Chicago

“In 2009, Spread the Word was created to end the R-Word which is the most common phrase used to demean, insult, and discriminate against people with disabilities, and it has an extremely negative effect on social and self-esteem of people it’s used against.” www.specialolympics.org/spread-the-w...

I have been with my hairdresser for many years. After my appointment yesterday I was reflecting on what a special relationship it is. We get a window into our lives every 3 months. We genuinely care about each other. It is an hour without distractions - simple human connection.

Looking west from a southbound Red Line train pulling into Lawrence

🇺🇸 SEN. KELLY: “We said something very simple and non-controversial, and the president said ‘hang them’ — Hegseth is the least qualified Secretary of Defense in our history, and the president doesn’t understand the constitution.”

Millennium Park is magical in the snow

Eternal Silence in the snow, this morning at Graceland Cemetery