On what would have been his 68th birthday, the story of how Prince fought tooth and nail to retain full control over his directorial debut, which, 40 years later, demands new attention.

Wow. Totally true. Wot!?

Prince in mid air, London, 1986 Photo by Michael Putland

#OtD 7 Jun 2020 Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol, UK, pulled down a statue of enslaver Edward Colston and threw it into Bristol Harbour. Colston's Royal African Company transported more than 100,000 enslaved Africans in the 17th century stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1072...

Maybe Martina should explain why she is a transphobe 🤷‍♀️ www.advocate.com/news/people/...

AMLO and Claudia Sheinbaum have lifted 13.5 million people out of poverty in the last 8 years, but NYT wants us to know that Mexico “can’t go on this way.”

Two-tier policing is real and ever-present. Black and Brown people experience it. Women experience it. Pro-Palestine and green protesters experience it. But the last people who would ever experience it are right-wing white men. They are the people with whom the police instinctively align.

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) at work

🥹🥹 The little tail 😍😍

May 30th my short experimental film (Untitled)2025 screens in Berlin in the MANIFESTO program of XPOSED film festival. My film is an incantation to our trans and non-binary indigenous ancestors sacredness and respect for Earth. xposedfilmfestival.com/2026/shorts-...

Sidenote but the weird attempts by anti-trans obsessives to argue that biological essentialism is some kind of materialist class analysis is such a giveaway of a fleeting justification, b/c the idea your sex class is inherent & immutable is about as far from Marxist-inspired feminism as you can get.

The TERF movement has been going for decades and the GC movement has been funded by multiple billionaires for over a decade and they STILL haven't come up with a biological definition of female that includes all cis women and excludes all trans women. Maybe that alone should tell you something

With Palantir embedded with Network Rail and now with SpaceX being positioned as the primary train WiFi provider, we must ask the question: how much control is the US tech industry going to get over our railways?

"Black people get lower grades for the same work. They’re less likely to get job offers and are offered less pay for the same types of work, even with exactly the same skills and qualifications. They’re less likely to receive painkillers because of the myth that Black people experience less pain."

We're complaining to the Charity Commission about Sex Matters describing women who are trans using women's spaces as "deviants". The language is unacceptable (and the statement is wrong in law). We're looking for other examples of it (staff or Trustees) using inflammatory language. Share below?

We could have seen a nationwide programme of home insulation, going door to door, making sure every home can keep in the heat, so no-one would risk getting sick or dying because they can’t afford heating in the winter. Why is this Government running from crisis to crisis?

As an anthropologist, I endorse this message!

Happy birthday to a triple bill of horror royalty 👻 🦇 Christopher Lee was born today in 1922. 🦇 Vincent Price was born today in 1911. 🦇 Peter Cushing was born yesterday (close enough!) in 1913. Now that’s spooky…

Collins: Bezos said that you could double his taxes and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens. Mamdani: I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.

Everything in our culture has been turned into a competition. Our TV shows, even comedy shows, are now competitions. There has to be a winner and losers. And it’s encroaching on all aspects of our lives. It’s so tiring. I wish we could do things without constantly trying to outdo one another.

one of the very best films i’ve seen in the last year

In the 80s, she wrote a lifestyle column for R-18 trans tabloid The Transvestian. In the 90s, her ground-breaking novellas defined Black trans indie publishing. In the early 00s, she helped organize the TWOC community, inspiring Monica Roberts to write. This is the story of Roberta Angela Dee.

A very good movie!

When you read this stuff from people, whether it's about trans people or any other minority, how can you see anything other than someone just admitting they're a supremacist? Of course you think every member of the group you hate is disgusting, that's why you are what you are

If you think transphobia is about protecting women I have a patriarchy to sell you. It's a men's rights movement in drag. Always was. The Express on Andy Burnham and The Express on Reform choosing Robert Kenyon who said women can’t “ref, drive or give directions... I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”

Boots Riley is resolute in his belief that AI proponents and studio heads who say that gen AI is the future of filmmaking are simply lying. Read the full interview from @charlespulliam.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/entertainmen...

Fantastic. Mamdani admin will transfer ownership from bad landlords to non-profits. “For [chronically neglected] buildings, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards." This is exactly what should happen to bad landlords—take their shit away. therealdeal.com/new-york/202...

My associates and I are aiming to buy entire blocks of flats, enabling queer micro-communities to flourish. Get involved at www.essehouse.co.uk

Watch my interview with @AngelicaRoss.com, star of Pose, and American Horror Story! Subscribe and ENJOY: youtu.be/jnfO4tLob4Y?...

"I'm going to be singing Dreams and Rhiannon when I'm 75 - and that's just fine with me. I just hope my chiffon doesn't get tangled in my rocking chair." - Stevie Nicks The legendary Stephanie Lynn Nicks, singer-songwriter, solo artist & member of Fleetwood Mac, was born on this day, 1948.

Sun in an Empty Room, by Edward Hopper, 1963.

It's time to end Rip off Britain. For too long we've had people in charge of the decisions that affect our lives in the pockets of the super rich. The Green Party have two vested interests - protecting communities and our planet. It's time to tax the super rich.

ICE detention facilities are concentration camps with subhuman conditions. And somehow, the entire Dem caucus is not using its power and visibility to SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN! I cannot get my head around the silence and indifference of people who supposedly share my values.

A Labour minister unable to condemn Reform's plan for the mass deportations of our neighbours. Cowardly and disgraceful. Labour are incapable of standing up to Reform's divisive nonsense. Only the Green Party have the courage to do this.

I’m returning to Yorkshire next week, for a gig in Sheffield on Thursday 21 May! My band wormboys will be playing alongside Shrub at Alder – so if nothing else, you’ll leave the event very well-fertilised.

One of the last of the pantheon of true giants has left us. A great originator. You do not learn jazz without learning Sonny Rollins. We’re lucky that we had him for so long, but the loss feels tremendous.

Applications are now open for our Autumn edition of Outside Eyes which is in partnership with Bijli Productions! If you are a global majority artist and have a performance in your head that needs working out in front of an audience, then Outside Eyes is the place for you.

So long #SonnyRollins

It’s been depressing seeing seemingly reasonable people accelerate from “let’s think about inclusion in sports” to spending all day on the internet insisting that all trans women are predators Even more depressing to see polite society just nod along as if the two were the same thing.

“This is not a hypothetical. You are less free now. Your security, dignity, and safety is in the hands of nasty, petty, monumentally stupid bigots. They can take it from you at a whim. And that should bother you.” Save this article. Share it, again and again.

People who still think “gender criticals” are all basically liberals with reasonable concerns really should notice the language that is now being used and the demands being made and ask how this differs from what the American religious right says

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and Prof. Eyal Weizman have withdrawn from the Hay Festival in protest of its partnership with Airbnb, citing the company’s profit-making from illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land

The newly published EHRC Code of Practice leaves trans people in the UK today with less rights than they had prior to last year’s Supreme Court ruling. Read our full statement here: transactual.org.uk/blog/2026/05...

"we can always tell* as UK law bsky.app/profile/abra...

Just to be clear how little I’m exaggerating, in 2016, the UK Government actually advised trans people against travelling to certain US states due to the implementation of bathroom bans. @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social is now implementing those same bans across the UK. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-u...

Please check in on your Muslim friends, family and neighbours. We are being driven to be more divided in order for nefarious people to extract more from us and the earth.

Tomorrow 21st May MANCHESTER COME THRU! Also below are some of the lovely things critics are saying about the play SMOKE. Alexis Gregory is funny, dark and raw in SMOKE written and performed by him and directed by me. Post show discussions curated by You Are Loved. www.thelowry.com/whats-on/smo...

Next stop 21st May for SMOKE in Manchester. Surveillance culture, social media and a gay man grieving for his boyfriend. Dark camp humour with pathos from influencer loneliness. SMOKE is written and performed by Alexis Gregory and directed by Campbell X. www.thelowry.com/whats-on/smo...