Today is a good day to buy a book.
Posts by Ashawnta Jackson
Also, today (and every day) is a good day to listen to Country Preacher by Cannonball Adderley youtu.be/gByDuEwgE6U?...
Everything always seems to come back Roberta Flack for me. Go Up Moses, co-written by Flack, Joel Dorn, and Rev Jesse Jackson youtu.be/hZ3yfsDfvGM?...
My grandparents grew it on their farm and whenever we would visit, my uncles would cut stalks of it for us. It's one of my favorite memories
Readers: keep buying, sharing, and talking about books, esp by marginalized authors. Put in purchase requests at your library. Buy from your local bookstore. Preorders are ideal. Don't wait for the series to finish before buying. Read widely and more often. Read trad pub, small press, and self-pub.
Here are your rights if ICE knocks on your door
When women vanish from history, it’s rarely because they weren’t there. More often, their work was ignored or erased. Recovering women’s history means reading sideways, piecing fragments, and asking: whose voices were recorded—and whose were silenced? 🗃️
Do you have someone we all need to know about?
"The difference isn’t in the quality of the music, it’s in who was listening." This whole project is amazing, but this line is so perfect and just gets to the heart of it. Jazz is beautiful and so very American in all the best and worst ways
I meant to listen to Many Rivers to Cross over and over today but it wasn't the best day to bring myself to those particular depths. I went with Jimmy Cliff's version of Guns of Brixton instead Great cover, great voice. Thanks for the music, Jimmy youtu.be/x5YTKzVvTTM?...
Here's where I admit that I don't know a thing about Harry Potter. Never read the books. Never saw the movies. I guess I always thought that they took place in ye olde times? I think that's because of the capes. The ye olde times are the 1990s??
dora.nyc
this is OUTSTANDING. super navigatable directory for food distros, resources. and easy to remember because it’s like the explorer but also—
directory
of
resources &
aid
congratulations!
It's amazing music. And yeah, having a term to describe it all is tough. People have been batting around soul folk as a genre name for a long time, but it hasn't really stuck. As a label, I think it's both too big and too small for this music
No, unfortunately. It would have been amazing to see him live
Me too! He started me down this soul-folk path
Also, be sure to check out my website for a listening guide for the book. Lots of good music there (and I'm kicking myself for not including something from Givin' It Back!) www.heyjackson.net/listener-gui...
ICYMI: I was interviewed by @natalieweiner.bsky.social at Don't Rock the Inbox about my book Soul-Folk (@3313books.bsky.social). Among the many, many things I hope you take away from it is that you need to listen to the Isley Brothers' Givin' It Back www.dontrocktheinbox.com/on-soul-folk...
I absolutely loved talking with Natalie! Thank you so much for having me. And if you don't already, be sure to subscribe to Don't Rock The Inbox when you head over there!
Cambridge and Boston folks,
Steve McQueen is 2025-26 Norton Professor of Poetry
Norton Lecture 2 of 6: Small Axe is TODAY
Discussants: Tracey Scoffield, Producer;
Hazel V. Carby, Yale University
Moderator: Ashley Clark, Criterion
Tickets free mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu/steve-mcquee...
🎬
Ten years after losing a close friend to suicide, Desmond Carter turned pain into purpose.
Through his group Mental Health is Real Wealth, he’s giving men a space to be honest and unguarded.
My latest story explores how Carter’s work helps men heal.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I am ready for Tilted to give me some proper ear damage. You can only do so much at home
after kent state only to keep his little fear he kills his cities and his trees even his children people white ways are the way of death come into the black and live
A good time to re-read this Lucille Clifton poem, always a good time.
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
Thank you! Enjoy!
I grew up in a tiny town but knew the big city was for me because of Sesame Street. We didn't have buses (except for school buses. the bus stop was the end of my driveway) but I couldn't wait to ride one because of this song. A bus! To the zoo! Yay for public transportation! youtu.be/mMgqQkZtjyY?...
I know that you can't generally tell goodness/badness just by looking, but it's really something that every person currently making life miserable looks like a villain trying to shut down a community center. And if 80s movies taught me anything, it's being able to spot those folks from a mile away
Let the bonding begin youtu.be/2dm5gXcVEuA?...
I'm looking to speak with a Detroit historian (early-mid 20th century, particularly Black history). Bonus if you know a lot about music. I had someone lined up, but that fell through. We wouldn't need to talk very long unless we end up bonding over Frank Wilson's Look Out Your Window, then who knows
Even if you can’t give… do me a solid
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