Dearest June - Teachers & Writers Magazine Reflections on the early teaching diaries of June Jordan.

I had the honor of sitting with June Jordan's teaching artist diaries, wrote this reflection, was given the privilege to select nearly a chapbook's worth of her archive with Teachers & Writers Collaborative that hadn't been published before today!
Enjoy!

teachersandwritersmagazine.org/dearest-june/

“How Can the Holy Be Its Own?: An Interview with Trace DePass on BOOTless, Lineage, and the Shape of Breath” —Curated by Darius Phelps" There are some books that don’t simply speak—they breathe. Trace DePass’s BOOTless is one of them. From the opening page, the collection feels like a body learning itself again—trembling, contracting,...

"There are some books that don’t simply speak—they breathe. Trace DePass’s BOOTless is one of them. From the opening page, the collection feels like a body learning itself again—trembling, contracting, releasing—moving toward a truth that’s been waiting beneath the skin."

--Dr. Darius Phelps

Dearest June - Teachers & Writers Magazine Reflections on the early teaching diaries of June Jordan.

I had the honor of sitting with June Jordan's teaching artist diaries, wrote this reflection, was given the privilege to select nearly a chapbook's worth of her archive with Teachers & Writers Collaborative that hadn't been published before today!
Enjoy!

teachersandwritersmagazine.org/dearest-june/

Book cover for God-Damned Eden by James Daniels (Bull City Press): Selma is a community that, despite its pain, holds a depth of spirit that deserves love and care, a place where redemption is sought through the resilience of its people. God-Damned Eden speaks to the tension within a place that is both deeply flawed and deeply loved. Like the fallen earth in scripture, Selma is marked by human shortcomings and struggles, yet it remains beloved, resilient, and layered with beauty. This Eden-like quality isn’t pristine; it’s a paradise that bears scars—a place both blessed and “damned” by the realities of history and hardship. Yet, within those imperfections lies the work of restoration, an ongoing call to see and honor the beauty that persists. https://bullcitypress.com/product/god-damned-eden-by-james-daniels-inch-65/

Book cover for BOOTless by Trace DePass (Diode Editions): BOOTless: an archaic word also meaning ineffectual, is a black poet’s psychedelic meditation on gentrification, climate change, & post-pandemic grief, pointing its arrow back at its country that has stacked colonization on genocide & monopolized colonization & genocide. The book laughs at an oppressor’s self-elected right to canonize its theft & winning rhetoric under the guise of calling it history. This book may indict Whiteness, if not English itself, as using language built on oppression (a Deleuzian desire-machine sewn together by other languages) in order to create indefinite law on stolen land with indefinite marginalization for the people on it. https://www.diodeeditions.com/product-page/bootless

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: BOOTless (by @tracedepass.bsky.social, @diodeeditions.bsky.social) & God-Damned Eden (by James Daniels, @bullcitypress.com). See alt-text.

#DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #BlackHistoryMonth #bookish #booklovers #BooksWorthReading #readingchallenge #readingcommunity #booksta

“How Can the Holy Be Its Own?: An Interview with Trace DePass on BOOTless, Lineage, and the Shape of Breath” —Curated by Darius Phelps" There are some books that don’t simply speak—they breathe. Trace DePass’s BOOTless is one of them. From the opening page, the collection feels like a body learning itself again—trembling, contracting,...

"There are some books that don’t simply speak—they breathe. Trace DePass’s BOOTless is one of them. From the opening page, the collection feels like a body learning itself again—trembling, contracting, releasing—moving toward a truth that’s been waiting beneath the skin."

--Dr. Darius Phelps

Activist Chris Smalls released from Israeli custody The labor activist was reportedly singled out and beaten by Israeli forces while trying to reach Gaza with supplies.

Labor activist Chris Smalls has been released from an Israeli prison, a spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said

September 30!

A photo of Viola Ford Fletcher with her hands clasped

Today is the 111th birthday of Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre

4pm Sharp on Memorial Day "An afternoon of poems @Guggenheim" Including black & white photos of Imani Waweru, Ehime Ora, & Trace DePass (with pink highlights in their photos)

Memorial Day Monday, May 26th at 4pm, I'll be hosting + reading at the Guggenheim alongside Imani Waweru & Ehima Ora for Rashid Johnson's Guggenheim Exhibit: A Poem for Deep Thinkers.

National Endowment for the Arts rescinds grants, dazing publishers and theaters Arts organizations across the country saw their grants pulled with little explanation, while a proposed federal budget sought to eliminate the arts funding agency altogether.

Arts organizations across the country saw their NEA grants pulled with little explanation, while a proposed federal budget sought to eliminate the arts funding agency altogether. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Trump Proposes Elimination of NEA and NEH The administration’s 2026 budget comes at a time when the future of NEA staff and grant programs remains in doubt.

Trump Proposes Elimination of NEA and NEH www.americantheatre.org/2025/05/02/t...

NEW YORK (AP) — Rite-Aid files for bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years.

My piece is featured in Okay Donkey's March newsletter.
"The Emmy Goes to the Seagull Flying off with a Hot Wing in front of the Chicken Spot?" Is honestly one of my favorite pieces.

Catch me performing this and more pieces this summer near your picnic benches.
okaydonkeymag.com/2023/01/27/t...

You and millions of other people rely on the NPR Network for trustworthy journalism.

NPR’s editorial integrity and independence are non-negotiable. It’s a promise we make to you – a promise we will fight to keep. Now, we need your support.

Donate today: n.pr/3EYClNR

That’s terror you’re feeling.

Please watch, share, do what she suggests… it is indeed v v urgent

Alexis Herman, the first Black secretary of labor in U.S. history, dies at age 77 Civil rights groups, labor organizations and politicians praised Alexis Herman as a "trailblazer" who fought for the rights of women, Black people and American workers over the course of decades.

Civil rights groups, labor organizations and politicians praised Alexis Herman as a "trailblazer" who fought for the rights of women, Black people and American workers over the course of decades.

‘We All Talk to Spirits When We Are Identified as Numbers’ Tony Koji Wallin-Sato’s poetry asks what it means to be free and reckons with the legacy of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Tony Koji Wallin-Sato’s poetry asks what it means to be free and reckons with the legacy of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Prolific blood donor who saved 2.4 million babies dies at 88 James Harrison of Australia, whose blood had a rare antibody, donated 1,173 times over six decades, potentially saving millions of lives. He said he hoped someone would break his record.

James Harrison, whose blood contained a rare antibody that helped him save more than 2 million babies through decades of blood donations, has died

Today is the publication day for Essex Hemphill's *Love Is a Dangerous Word: Selected Poems," out from @NewDirections, which Robert Reid-Pharr & I coedited!

Essex Hemphill's work speaks both to its time & compellingly to our current moment. Please order a copy!

www.ndbooks.com/author/essex...

Trump's Mass Anti-Immigrant Raids to Begin Here are action items to protect your immigrant neighbors, answers to common FAQs, and insights to debunk anti-immigrant propaganda

In his inauguration speech Trump announced his fascist anti-immigrant raids and mass deportation attempts.

We are not helpless. Here are 7 action items you can start to take now to help protect our immigrant neighbors: www.qasimrashid.com/p/trumps-mas...

Hi, I'm Nic, and I'm happy to share that I'm now cancer-free. 

But I recently learned that I'm ineligible for disability pay at my job.

Donations will reimburse expenses and pending medical bills while on leave. 

I'm grateful for any support.

(Link in Bio)

My friend for over a decade recently beat cancer after I cannot express it enough *MONTHS* of self advocacy against medical professionals who refused to conduct the tests to find the cancer in the first place. Consider donating/sharing their recovery
gofund.me/794a2b24

Under fascism, no one is safe.

Universities stayed quiet as the admin targeted DEI & foreign aid, censored research, etc.

Now, they face devastating cuts to indirect cost rates, threatening research & operations.

Silence won’t protect institutions. It won’t protect people; it never does.

Louisiana coerced unhoused people into an unheated warehouse – and paid $17.5m for it Dozens of New Orleanians were bused to a site with insufficient heating and blankets days before the city is to host the Super Bowl

In preparation for today’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, state police forced over 100 homeless men and women onto buses under threat of arrest, dumping them in an unheated warehouse. Tents destroyed, belongings lost. Press are barred from the warehouse.

The price tag for this cruelty? $17.5 million

We need to pay attention to this now before it’s too late.

@ocasio-cortez.house.gov

If you’re a federal employee, you should know this is a lie. Congress hasn’t appropriated these monies and so it’s literally not there to be spent. Also, federal agencies are limited by law to a max $25K payout in the case of restructuring.

Trump's 'stop-work' order for PEPFAR cuts off anti-HIV drugs for patients As a result of the new administration's actions, health centers funded by PEPFAR, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, are closing their doors and no longer dispersing medication.

NEW: The U.S. just stopped giving out HIV medications to 20 million people around the world — even though clinics still have meds on the shelves. My latest for @npr.org:
www.npr.org/sections/goa...