Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 50m

Pretty effective for pant hems.

I’m not too proud to admit that I know from experience that a hair flat iron works well too.

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Capital B @capitalb.bsky.social · 1h

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capitalbnews.org

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Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio @rlmartstudio.bsky.social · 5h

This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.

A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 23h

It’s pronounced cyclist.

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

I’m not trying to give @pbs.org ideas for raising money—but I am. I would buy women’s fit T-shirts of all my favorite childhood shows. Reading rainbow, 321 contact, square one, zoobiliee zoo. I feel like two generations will run to donate even more money for shirts with Levar Burton on them…

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 1d

There are few more chilling phrases than “Children’s Detention Center.”

LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 1d

ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas

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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 1d

For more information about the Friday night massacre at CDC, I wrote up an analysis of who got terminated and what that means for public health.

Grateful to @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for supporting and amplifying. We are in really terrible trouble.

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-death-...

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 1d

www.torchliteraryarts.org/post/october...

October 2025 Feature: Patricia Spears Jones

Patricia Spears Jones is a celebrated poet, playwright, and educator. She served as the New York Poet Laureate from 2023-2025.Arkansas-born Patricia Spears Jones has lived and worked in New York City ...

www.torchliteraryarts.org

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 2d

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 2d

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

Wide shot of many people in inflatable costumes

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 2d

Oh what wonderful news! Congratulations. ✨📚✨

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers @blklibrarygirl.bsky.social · 3d

Remember when I said something nice was coming today? Well: I was asked to write the introduction to the new edition of Toni Morrison’s BELOVED! I’m so honored and happy! Here’s the new cover—that’s my name down at the bottom!!!!

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Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 2d

🚨🚨 @utaustin.bsky.social is working to eliminate its Black studies, Latin studies, and gender studies depts -- utterly reneging on its mission and depriving students of the full educational opportunities they deserve. Please--scholars AND publishers--share & write to UT leaders. #SaveUT

UT Austin wants to eliminate its Black studies, Latino Studies, and gender studies departments. Tell them you won't stand for it.
UT President, Jim Davis, president@utexas.edu
UT Executive Vice President and Provost, William Inboden, provost@utexas.edu
College of Liberal Arts Interim Dean, David Sosa, david_sosa@austin.utexas.edu
#EducationalLiberty #SaveUT

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 2d

This is a new primer. It's 15 minutes and you will leave better informed.

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 2d

2. Libraries 101 - An audio and visual follow up to our popular zine: www.librariesforthepeople.org/resources#10...

Resources — For The People

www.librariesforthepeople.org

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 3d

Drake lost that rap battle so badly that I wrote about it in my book about SPACE-TIME

A rap battle loss of literally cosmological proportions

Find out how by preordering a copy!!

The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 2d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 2d

Can confirm.

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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 3d

The work continues. The world continues. New issue of Utopian Studies is out! Special Issue on AFROTOPIA feat. my review of Ekow Eshun's otherworldly《In the Black Fantastic》 #SpecList #BlackSky

Table of contents from the journal Utopian Studies

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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · Apr 9

alt-text: black and white photo of a beautiful Black man with a short haircut wearing a suit, crisp white shirt, and a tie.
He is smiling.

Neckties of Noir @neckties-of-noir.bsky.social · Apr 9

#BOTD #PaulRobeson #filmsky #musicsky #polyglot #songsky

BOTD, Paul Robeson
Singer, actor, scholar, polyglot,
athlete, activist

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 3d

40 years ago, Philadelphia police & authorities waged war on a local community, including dropping a bomb that started a fire that destroyed an entire neighborhood. Remembering that tragedy reminds us of the eternal cost of "war from within."🗃️

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/10/cons...

Considering History: The MOVE Bombing and “the War from Within” | The Saturday Evening Post

The 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia lays bare the horrific and inevitable tragedies whenever we wage war from within.

www.saturdayeveningpost.com

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 6d

CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.

apnews.com/article/chic...

Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago

Activists, residents and elected leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest cit...

apnews.com

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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 9d

Audiofuturism: Science Fiction Radio Drama & the Black Fantastic Imagination will be available for pre-order in December.

fordhampress.com/audiofuturis...

Audiofuturism - andré carrington

A revelatory history of Black radio productions from the 1950s to the presentAudiofuturism uncovers the vibrant, overlooked history of radio adaptations that placed Black speculative writing before ma...

fordhampress.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3d

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened.

This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3d

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 4d

Virginia State Senate Dems just brought down fire and fury regarding the “Compact,” notifying the President and Rector that UVA would lose ALL STATE APPROPRIATIONS if it signs and cedes the University to “federal political control.” Notably, their letter directly restates points made here by @siva.

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 4d

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 3d

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Robert Daniels @812filmreviews.com · 3d

If you want to see Regina Hall at her absolute best, watch HONK FOR JESUS, SAVE HER SOUL. Her range is immense in it as the wife of a disgraced mega church preacher.

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