Brian Halley

Thinking about the time as a federal worker that I had to get formal permission to attend an event because they would be serving cake.

Rebecca Solnit Says the Left’s Next Hero Is Already Here

“Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war. Too many people still expect it to look like war... I just want us to understand that most of the important change is collective.” Thank you, @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social

I cannot believe this is real. May Sinead O’Connor’s estate raise holy hell over this usage in a way that would make her proud. It’s shameful and pathetic.

I had never imagined a bat nursing home before but 😭

It's time to finish that project-in-progress!

The First Book Residency is open to writers who have not yet published a full-length manuscript. Each residency includes a stipend, private housing, Lyft credit, and much more!

Apply today: mccormackwritingcenter.org/residencies/

Really interesting! Thanks for this, I was hoping my writing here would elicit such resources. I added link as a comment to post.

The South End: A Lite Neighborhood History I have lived in the South End of Boston since 2003, with one year off (2008-2009, moved to East Boston). I have lived in the same apartment...

New post setting the scene: a little, brief South End history before we dive back into the radical book publishing the neighborhood hosted. #Boston #publishing #SouthEnd #gentrification

Getting emotional reading about Sgt 1st Class Nicole Amor, Capt Cody Khork, Sgt 1st Class Noah Tirtjens, and Sgt Declan Coady, four soldiers of six of US Army Reserve killed in Kuwait, among many deaths on both sides of this war. Feelings of guilt and just overall sadness.

Life expectancy gap grows between Black Bostonians and others A new Boston Public Health Commission report found Black women in Boston die at 80, on average, six years earlier than other women. Black men average nine fewer years of life than others, living to 72...

Report: www.boston.gov/sites/defaul...

"This unjust outcome is not primarily driven by biology or individual behavior, but by long-standing inequities rooted in racism, community disinvestment, and unequal access to resources that shape health across a lifetime."

#PublicHealth #Mortality #Racism

Who needs reporters

BREAKING: Trump has nominated Bradford P. Wilson, of the conservative, anti-LGBTQ+ and Opus Dei-tied Witherspoon Institute and the charter school organization Great Hearts Institute (and formerly Exec Director of Princeton's James Madison Program) to be Archivist of the United States.

🧵

“We are lying crushed under an immense manuscript of Gertrude Stein’s. I cannot brisk myself up to deal with it.” -Virginia Woolf as publisher at Hogarth Press, quoted by Francesca Wade in Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife (which I’m loving). Relateable, girl.

This has to get reposted and repeated and kept in the news and taken up by politicians like my own @warren.senate.gov & @markey.senate.gov & @pressley.house.gov and ICE must be held responsible. Horrifying.

The Dilley family detention center is run by CoreCivic, a major Trump donor who has raked in millions from federal contracts already.

Never forget who is profiting from this cruelty.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which directed federal funds to PBS & NPR, began to “wind down” in 2025 as the Trump administration sought to claw back $1.1 billion in funding thru FY27. They are twisting logic to their own ends and we have to keep an eye on them, as horrifying as it is.

A ‘Terrible’ Night: Harvard Custodians Say They Scoured for Places to Sleep During Latest Blizzard | News | The Harvard Crimson As a snowstorm engulfed campus late Sunday, Harvard custodians working around-the-clock snow removal shifts said they were left scrambling for places to sleep, even as the University provided…

As a snowstorm engulfed campus, Harvard custodians working around-the-clock snow removal shifts were left scrambling for places to sleep, even as the University provided overnight accommodations.

Taylor M. Bierwerth and Noah A. Ferris report.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

I hope that someday members of the US men's hockey team have to explain to their children how they celebrated one of their greatest accomplishments by partying with a protector of pedophiles and chuckling with a misogynisitc oaf.

The UT System's New 'Controversial Topics' Policy Is About Policing Knowledge When politically appointed regents and administrators determine which topics are “germane,” academic freedom quietly shifts into political compliance.

'In the UT system nearly 46% of the population is Latino. And where Latino students are the majority in public schools, calling the histories, literatures, and political realities of these communities “controversial” is not about neutrality. It is about deciding whose knowledge is expendable.'

🤓

UT Policy Asks Faculty to Avoid “Controversial” Topics The system board did not specify what topics are considered controversial or elaborate on how the policy will be enforced. The language echoes similar restrictions at the Texas A&M and Texas Tech syst...

More frustrations with my alum, the University of Texas, as conservative Board of Regents pass a policy vaguely but definitively infringing on the academic freedom of their faculty. I’m livid, and sorry for students who will get a lesser education for this.

Nina Simone: See-Line Woman YouTube video by Nina Simone

Every few months, I find reason to look up a new Nina Simone performance and am newly captivated, by her choices and her voice and her command of space, and people. Remarkable.

This book rules. It is the smartest analysis of platformised self publishing, written by one of the coolest people in the discipline.

Inequalities of Platform Publishing Uncovering race, gender, and sexual biases in popular self-publishing platforms The average reader need not go far in a bookstore before, knowingly or not, t...

Really eager to see more conversation / debate around a new book we published about the false promises of self-publishing, in our Page & Screen series at @umasspress.bsky.social! #publishing #books #selfpublishing

A "Jackson for President ’88" button, with some rust spots on it, showing candidate Jesse Jackson with a big smile

I've kept this for all these years because after we had endured the Reagan nightmare for eight years, he gave us hope.

Masked ICE arrests drive 12,000% uptick in Mass. lawsuits challenging detainments Massachusetts courts saw a 12,000% increase in habeas corpus petitions in 2025, which both the U.S. Attorney and immigration lawyers attribute to ICE arrests.

“The number of people in #Massachusetts contesting their detainments after masked men and women seize them off the streets has risen sharply over the past year … [with] a staggering 12,000% surge in habeas corpus petitions filed in Massachusetts federal courts in 2025.”

American Studies double major (with English) at @utaustin.bsky.social and very frustrated to read this news. Will seek out the Save UT faculty group referenced in article.

If this country was truly “pro-life,” we would have Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, gun reform, universal child care, and a living wage.

The right-wing agenda isn’t about “life.”

It’s about control.

Chilling.

Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.

More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...

C’mon man… I already cried to this yesterday, on another platform!