Stop Asking Me If I’m Okay
In a time where Black people are experiencing new and old collective trauma whenever they scroll through Instagram, please stop asking us if we’re okay. We are not.
Bed-Stuy Strong: How to Start a 3,000-Member Neighborhood Mutual Aid Network
“Nobody may come to help us in time; we are all we’ve got. We need to organize, quickly, online, and geographically.”
A Black, Queer Reflection on The Civil Rights Movement and the Unfinished Project of Freedom
The work of civil rights history is queer and feminist. It’s also a hard, rough, incomplete project.
Black August: A Feminist and Queer Syllabus for Black Liberation
There’s a long and proud Black radical history of fighting back against the prison industrial complex and criminal (in)justice systems. So why is it that most of the voices that are upheld come from cis men?
How to Never Call the Cops Again: A Guide with a Few Alternatives to Calling Police
If we want to move towards a police-free, abolitionist future, we have to do everything we can create an abolitionist reality right now – which starts with not calling the police into our own communities.
#BlackLivesMatter: A Longform Reading List
Fifty years of words I liked reading and you will too! Authors include James Baldwin, bell hooks, Kiese Laymon, Roxane Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Toni Morrison, Bayard Rustin and Dr. Brittany Cooper.
Also.Also.Also: Police Brutality Rages at Protests Against Police Brutality — What’s Happening Now and How To Help
In today’s Also.Also.Also link roundup: many accounts of police violence against protesters, and resources for educating yourself, supporting black businesses, providing jail support, donating to mutual aid funds and more.
Keep It On The DL Encourages Community Members to Share Tips and Resources for Distance Learning
All people deserve the right to continue their education regardless of their ability to sit in a physical classroom. Accessibility should never determine a child’s ability to learn.
Police and Prison Abolition 101: A Syllabus and FAQ
The work around decarceration has been some of the most successfully documented, accessible, and digitally interactive of any movement. This is a guide to guides, organized loosely by some of the main questions and thought processes that often come up around entry into abolitionist thinking, offering resources addressing some important ideas.
74 Bail Funds You Can Absolutely Support Right Now
Donate to a bail fund. We don’t have to wait for others to commit to upholding the value of Black life and materially improve the lives of Black people. We can take care of each other instead.
NSFW Lesbosexy Sunday Is Having Phone Sex
Sex work in a pandemic, flirting by text and voicemail (not to mention, phone sex!), whether disaster brings us closer and more.
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: May’s Burst of Light
“I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes — everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
Things Are Hard! Here’s Some Queer Coloring Pages!
Times are rough, all around. Instead of my regular Grease Bats, I’m sharing some coloring pages that were rejected last month after an editor was “slightly offended” by the images. Enjoy homos!
Boobs on Your Tube: That “Vagrant Queen” Slow Burn Got Turned All the Way Up
Plus updates on Betty, Burden of Truth, The Baker and the Beauty, In the Dark, and Siren.
Asian Communities Must Desert the American Empire and Protect Black Lives
We have been drafted to protect white institutions that come at the cost of Black lives. We have been named a “model minority” to convince us that we’ve been saved a seat at the table among white peers — but that table was cut, assembled, and varnished by Black slaves. Asian Americans should look into the face of Tou Thao and see their own brother. It is our responsibility to bring him to justice, because he is not the only one.
What Do We Do Now: An Open Thread on May 29, 2020
There is so much to feel. There is so much to be done. What are you doing, today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next?
Extra! Extra!: There Must Be an End to the Long List of Names We Memorialize
This week’s Extra! Extra! honors all the victims – past, present and future. Oh it needs to stop – there must be an end to the long list of names we memorialize. But I’m not naive enough to think more lives won’t be lost before we reach that point.
The Comment Awards Are Running Laps Around the Garden
“When life gives you Leonards, make Leonard-ade.”
S L I C K: Sad Girl Cruising
Sad girls trying to cruise in an all-girls Catholic School down in Bogotá.
Also.Also.Also: We Can’t F*cking Breathe
With the murder of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tony McDade by the police and the threatened lynching of Christian Cooper weighing heavily on my mind, in lieu of our “traditional” twice-a-week link roundup, here are some really smart reading about blackness, mourning, state violence, and rebellion that have gotten me through.