The public library is an essential component of a 21st-century left political project as an example of both what is already available to us and what can be improved upon in the future. The library is a public good, and it is free as a public service. I want more people to make the connections.

"What are you already doing? What else can you do? What are you doing together with others?"

“The general strike…is the lever which will be used for introducing the social revolution. One fine morning all the workers in every industry in a country, or perhaps in every country, will cease work, and thereby compel the ruling class… to submit” -Engels, 1873

Happy to see a @hystericalblkns.bsky.social cameo in this week’s batch of The Critics’ Table reviews (in Zoë Hopkins‘ review of Torkwase Dyson’s Public Art Fund commission “Akua”) www.culturedmag.com/article/2025...

New Yorkers gave themselves a good day.

“a commercial sigh-painter” (good typo)

I feel like we need to keep saying this because it’s so insane: This is a legal U.S. resident who has been detained for over a month now for his political opinions.

entering the smuggling era (artworks on yachts, etc.)

Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.

"This photograph can't now be seen without Jenny Holzer's name being in the same sentence, and I am happy about that. I have looked her up like everyone else and am proud to be associated." www.georginacook.net/visionofsoun...

First time I’ve seen this photo

50,000

In the many comments on this and in the original, I don’t find a single link to the source. I see a Reddit noting it’s a conversation between Schumer & Bret Stephens but even a direct quote doesn’t easily turn up in a NYT search. It’s this piece: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...

World’s worst parent and it’s a high bar.

Same. Same. (Catastrophe) bsky.app/profile/haha...

With alt text:

DRIFTS in German is blowing up. So much so that there is a 9 minute TV segment asking renowned literary critic Insa Wilke, why are all the young writers of Leipzig obsessed with this book? www.3sat.de/kultur/kultu...

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is an independent federal agency that supports libraries, archives, and museums in all 50 states and U.S. territories. Trump just gutted the funding.

As the UAW has emphasized, the assault on First Amendment rights being jointly committed by the federal government and Columbia University are an attack on all workers who dare to protest, speak out, or exercise their freedom of association under the US Constitution.

In the latest assault on First Amendment rights, Columbia University has expelled and fired Grant Miner, President of UAW Local 2710, which represents thousands of Columbia student workers. The firing comes one day before contract negotiations were set to open with the University.

“It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,” said Joan Scott, a historian & member of the academic freedom committee of the AAUP. “Even during the McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.” apnews.com/article/colu...

Student union leader expelled on the day @uaw.org was to negotiate with Columbia. Welcome to the new full blown Red Scare, where universities are the first front, & students the appointed cannon fodder. From NYT:

Among the material devastation to everyday people, Senate Dems have now blown a hole in their ability to work with the House. We had an agreed upon plan, House took immense risk, then Senate turned around midway and destroyed it w/ a fear-based, inexplicable abdication. They own what happens next.

He honestly should publicly retract or resign

Wouldn't be surprised if Columbia University agreed to change its name to Trump University, with the way things are going.

Some reporting on today’s Trump Tower protest to free Mahmoud Khalil. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/u...

I reviewed the stand-out Julius Eastman & Glenn Ligon, 52 Walker show for The Critics’ Table. Here’s a peek on the archive in recent exhibitions & the work it’s doing here. SUBSCRIBE www.culturedmag.com/article/2025...

Italian HEROINES !!!

Providing an unpaywalled link here for a limited time. (But subscribe and support our work.) @zeets.bsky.social & @johannafateman.bsky.social www.culturedmag.com/article/2025...

What If NYC's Mayor Truly Cared About Tenants? Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants to revive the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants via Hell Gate hellgatenyc.com/zohran-mamda...

“We are the checks and balances,” says federal worker Chris Dols, who is organizing protests against mass government layoffs. Dols calls on the broader labor movement to get involved in opposition to DOGE’s power grab.

So “bookprotectors” isn’t about mylar sleeves to cover dust jackets? (Why is everything so stupid and violent at the same time?)

Accelerationism but through the worst formula: stupidity x cruelty A prime example: “Trump administration wants to un-fire nuclear safety workers but can’t figure out how to reach them”

Artists are always saying ‘let’s meet at my show and you can have a look’ but when I say ‘let’s meet at that one place that sells art magazines and you can have a read’ they don’t want to

New Yorkers: I don't care how much you (and so many of us) hate the established Democratic Party. PLEASE REGISTER AS A DEMOCRAT by this Thursday. It's the only way to vote in the mayoral and council primaries, which, as usual in NYC, is basically THE general election (in most of the city).

New TCT: Zito Madu's debut @zeets.bsky.social (on American Artist's installation based on Octavia Butler's novel, PARABLE OF THE SOWER), with Whitney Mallett on Camille Henrot at Hauser & Wirth, & @johannafateman.bsky.social on An-My Lê at Marian Goodman. www.culturedmag.com/article/2025...

“Israeli police raid Jerusalem bookshops and arrest Palestinian owners” A protester’s sign reads: COWARDS CONFISCATE BOOKS www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

bye girl nymag.com/intelligence...

Was wondering when we’ll first get reports of someone entering a gov’t agency pretending to be from DOGE (already itself a make-believe “Department”)

Major demo for trans youth coming up by Act Up, GLM, & Transformative Schools following numerous NYC hospitals preemptively ending gender-affirming care for minors in violation of New York state law, which this past election enshrined trans rights into law. Saturday at 1pm, Union Square.

Step away from the reactive outrage and root into a deeper engagement with history, with the possibility of seeding resistance within the institutions often founded & supported by oppressive forces, consider the possibility of making work that burrows deep into the landscape to be discovered later

Idee: Ich zeige euch Bücher, die mich in letzter Zeit bewegt haben. Ohne Kommentar, bloß mit dem Cover. Und ich freue mich, wenn ihr eure aktuellen Lektüren in den Kommentaren mit mir teilt

I open this up and just scroll through a highlight reel of dunks on Chuck Schumer.

The race for advanced AI is looking a lot like an arms race. Remember, the space race was always an arms race.

Join DSA, CIR-SEIU, and NY Docs for a rally tomorrow, Monday Feb 3rd @ 6:30PM at St. Vartan Park - East 35th & 2nd Ave to demand NYU-Langone reverse its recent decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to trans patients under 19. RSVP: actionnetwork.org/events/prote...