Remember vile Orval Faubus targeted black students, the Little Rock Nine? Carlotta Walls’ house was bombed a month before her graduation. She believed "her chemistry teacher had helped other students build the explosive that targeted her.” A must listen, and must read. from @dfelsenthal.bsky.social
And I’ll add that I have never read anything like @dfelsenthal.bsky.social review/essay/sonorous exegesis of @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social ’s fat and hairy new book. Can’t wait to dive in.
Tonight I made the winter chicken soup my imaginary Taiwanese mom or dad would have: TAIWANESE SESAME OIL CHICKEN SOUP (台湾麻油鸡汤). No photos. Broth memory.
"Queer trickster” Kevin Killian was mentor, novelist, memoirist, playwright and and supreme poet, as this astounding essay by #dfelsenthal.bsky.social makes clear: "In these poems, culture is the lens through which survivors understand their own desolation…"
www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/176...
My husband @jiweinste.bsky.social , a legend of food writing, is back in @thebaffler.com with this skeptical, humane, hilarious and exuberantly written exploration of a certain class of upper crust east coaster’s favorite supermarket. A critical piece like no other thebaffler.com/latest/wegma...
Quote on the graphic reads "Critics and reviewers dedicate themselves to the art of writing, to the cultural and social meanings of books. They create a necessary and important dialogue between writers and readers. We writers usually work in solitude, though writing is never a singular pursuit. What we write comes from the world, not only from the world inside us, but also from the one outside us, and from other lives. Critics help writers understand what our writing might mean to others" by Lynne Tillman. Illustration is by Colleen Tighe, showing a cartoon person seated in front of a laptop surrounded by a toppling pile of books. FSP-NWU Book Critics Working Group is noted at the bottom left
Criticism is a crucial and democratic counterforce in the face of marketing budgets and recommendation algorithms. Help FSP-NWU fight for better rates! nwu.org/join
Illustration by @colleentie.bsky.social
A wise and gorgeously written essay about the new MG album: "Death may be inevitable, but Darnielle casts out lifelines in his work, rescuing old motifs in order to refuse simple interpretations, tidy conclusions, and despair."
What a find.
Hello friends! I’m a New York State “ambassador” for PrEP Aware Week.These amazing drugs prevent folks of all genders and ages who have sex from becoming infected with HIV. But with health care under attack, we must fight for access. #PrEPRevolution #PrEPAwareWeek2025
youtu.be/Yc65c2CN7mU
PrEP Revolution!
PrEP is for everyone, and PrEP is Revolution!
#PrEPRevolution
#PrEPAwareWeek2025
Hi everyone. This is PrEP Aware Week and I’m spreading the word that PrEP saves lives. #PrEPRevolution #PrEPAwareWeek2025
Note to folks who also use X/Twitter. My X account was hacked and my request to get it back was quickly denied, for no good reason.
Powerful analysis of a political culture that uses Barkan's book as a series of writing springboards.
Essex Hemphill’s thrilling work has been almost impossible to find, but a new, crucial reissue of his erotic, affectionate, even intersectional poetry is available, and this Nation essay by Daniel Felsenthal explains in gorgeous detail why it can’t be missed.
Here’s a personal, precise, anger-making analysis that examines a group show as clues and cues that unravel the terror and sadness of surveillance-state education. I can’t recall "art writing” quite like this. Bravo Daniel, and Baffler.
The Daily News Union mourns the passing of Tom Robbins, brilliant journalist, beloved colleague, friend and mentor to many, and ally to this union. He will be missed.
Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia University, was met with a chorus of boos on Wednesday from some of the 12,000 graduates at the school’s main commencement ceremony as she took the podium to deliver remarks.
Terri L. Wilder of SAGE and I talking about the threat of funding cuts to HIV prevention:
kstp.com/kstp-news/to...
Another Felsenthal must-read — and do listen to the later albums recommended, you may be completely surprised.
This fantastic panel I've helped organize with FSP's Book Critics Working group and the National Book Critics Circle is happening next week! RSVP info in original post ✨
Wrote for @pitchfork.com about an album that's an early contender for my fave of 2025, the devastating and sometimes hilarious new Joe McPhee record pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
Was so thrilled when Gay45, the estimable and long-running pan-European queer publication, asked me to send them some poems, including the first poem I wrote in adulthood (back in 2021), among others. Read ‘em here: gay45.eu/daniel-felse...
Insane, evil to use a federal attack on DEI initiatives in order to prevent researchers from uncovering the extent of Harvard’s link to the slave trade—timing isn’t a coincidence! Harvard is just a business using consultants to pad its bottom line, not a university www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Please, listen and then read, or read and listen. It’s a laugh and cry wonderment.
How did I never know about this word-smitten omnivore, who gave the same (or more) respect to a smoothie blender than to "Bonjour Tristesse?” Nibble, bite, devour, both his essay-reviews and this gorgeous bow to it all.
This piece — about his collected letters — finally opened my Joe Brainard door, much wider than I ever expected.
It was a strenuous and illuminating shoot.
🚨 Are you a dues-paying member of a union? You can get a year subscription to @inthesetimesmag.bsky.social for free. Thanks to my fellow FSP member Pete Tosiello for the tip! w1.buysub.com/pubs/IF/ITT/...
I’m the husband, not 33. Brave eye-opener by darling Daniel.
First Bluesky post.