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Reuben Gelley Newman

@joustingsnail.bsky.social

1.2K followers 610 following 330 posts

Poemsong person! Librarian-in-training! Singing C2s in NYC DEAR DEAR forthcoming from @triohousepress.org in 2026 Chap FEEDBACK HARMONIES out from Seven Kitchens Press reubengelleynewman.com

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · Nov 15

Oh wow so many people! Hiii!!

You'll find me here sharing poems and being gay, gabbing about Baroque music and fangirling about Arthur Russell

In Sept. I wrote a review of Richard King's new Russell biography, TRAVELS OVER FEELING, for The Brooklyn Rail

Link below/in bio

The cover of The Brooklyn Rail, September 2024, with an impressionist painting of a blue and gold cafe with round and square tables covered in white tablecloths

In Travels Over Feeling, we meet all of Arthur Russell's friends at once, to echo his 1982 disco hit "Go Bang! #5", and make a few of our own, too. Welsh music journalist Richard King tours the avant-garde cellist and composer's life, presenting a panoply of letters, postcards, musical scores, and photos alongside insightful interviews with over twenty of Russell's companions and colleagues.

Richard King Travels Over Feeling: Arthur Russell, A Life Anthology Editions, 2024

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Workshops4Gaza @workshops4gaza.bsky.social · 23h

The Sameer Project’s donations are down 45% today but their work is unfortunately far from over. Give to the South campaign, which supplies 200,000 liters of water a day: chuffed.org/project/1132...

South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water

**With Famine on the rise, we will significantly lower tent purchases and focus on food (rice and bread) and water over the next couple of weeks**

chuffed.org

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 21h

I just donated $25, can five friends join me?

Workshops4Gaza @workshops4gaza.bsky.social · 23h

South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water

**With Famine on the rise, we will significantly lower tent purchases and focus on food (rice and bread) and water over the next couple of weeks**

chuffed.org

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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 2d

"The chatbot struggled to correctly answer questions about books . . ."

This would be hilarious if it weren't for the fact that the authors, and many library administrators, weren't still insistent that chatbots are something libraries should implement. 📚

preprint.press.jhu.edu/portal/sites...

preprint.press.jhu.edu

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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t exactly how to phrase this, but like… is autism that bad???? Like, why is it such a source of fear??? Of course there are challenges but you can be autistic and have a rich, fulfilling life! Many people do! I don’t understand the preoccupation.

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Alina Stefanescu @alinaetc.bsky.social · 4d

This Friday, a free @sarabandebooks.bsky.social zine workshop for yr lunch hour. My heart in that postscript. 🖤 We will wander through John Berger, little birds, and Rosa Luxembourg to write a p.s. zine. Register below. Come do words with me.

us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Meg Reid 🦦 @megireid.bsky.social · 4d

A depressing update we've seen coming for a long time, with numerous impacts. Namely, even less competition for library acquisitions and wholesale, publishers (including Hub City) left with unpaid bills, and small presses left high and dry, and vanishing distribution options.

"Baker & Taylor will be closing their business, after a planned acquisition of their assets by Readerlink fell through last month. Operations will cease by January 1, according to online posts from former employees. Employees were informed yesterday that their positions will be eliminated. A local newspaper in Illinois reports that 253 of the 318 staffers at the 379,000-square-foot distribution center in Momence were let go immediately, as 62 others will stay on to assist with "wind[ing] down" the business until late December, with the last three employees departing January 3.

A report from Illinois' Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act explained that the closure is due to the termination of the Readerlink sale, which "would have resulted in the continuing employment of all Baker & Taylor employees."

"Despite Baker & Taylor’s subsequent efforts, it was unsuccessful in seeking a path to continue its business operations," the report continues.

B&T was the largest supplier of materials to libraries, and B&T Publisher Services distributes books from more than 250 small presses. Small publishers are particularly in need of distribution services after the closure of Small Press Distribution.

B&T did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is headquartered in Charlotte, NC."

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 4d

I love this Alina!!

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 4d

"It might ask instead:

Why lower the rarefied
to regular volume?

Why refashion the sacred
into a vibeless ornament?"

🪩

alina pleskova @alinapleskova.bsky.social · 5d

it's been a minute since i've sent/published new poems anywhere— hope you like this one, written for the At What Cost catalog's Style issue, curated by Jessica Scicchitano

style.atwhatcost.me#alina-pleskova

ALINA PLESKOVA
FOR CONSIDERATION
I aspire to compete in the international space-out competition
which I've unwittingly trained for all this time-
tenderized by blush-hued mushrooms, elderly metalheads,
the time Rachel said the sky over the highway looked like a wrinkled sheet & Dylan said
I was just about to say that, & I didn't take a photo
because I wanted to recall it only so
My practice is rooted in wondering how the same ingenious species that invented concertos, disco balls,
& broccoli - all seemingly for the hell of it - can't endeavor to dismantle the despotic state apparatus threatening its joy & survival, or at least take cues from the birds who repurpose anti-bird spikes for nest-building
My work doesn't interrogate the tension between tempering a certain shame to make one's art more lucrative & knowing your art makes

your friends cringe
It might ask instead:
Why lower the rarified to regular volume?
Why refashion the sacred into a vibeless ornament?
A mote on the stylus of my consciousness messes with the pickup

O accolade-patterned bio-
O frosted plaque of competency-

I've sensed an emptiness at the back o
f your gaze

How else do we intend to carry out
our absurd impermanence?

I endeavor to become lichen,
or the lone mail carrier for one of those seaside towns
built into cliffs-
toned calf muscles
gleaming in my wake

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Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 5d

Richard Siken

DOTS EVERYWHERE

I erased my legs and forgot to draw in the stilts.
It looks like I’m floating but I’m not floating.
Sometimes I draw you with fangs. I tell you these
things because I love you. Some people paint
with whiskey and call it social drinking. Some people
paint drunk and put dots of color everywhere.
In the morning the dots make them happy. I am
putting dots of color everywhere and you are sleeping.
Something has happened in the paint tonight and
it is worth keeping. It’s nothing like I thought it
would be and closer to what I meant. None of it is
real, darling. I say it to you. Maybe we will wake up
singing. Maybe we will wake up to the silence
of shoes at the foot of the bed not going anywhere.

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Nathan @nathandunbar.bsky.social · 8d

Never misses!

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 8d

On October 3rd, I’m asking you to register to vote.

zohranfornyc.com/register

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Gregory Crosby @monostich.bsky.social · 7d

I second this emotion.

poemakontsa @poemakontsa.bsky.social · 7d

I want to say this again. And I will again and again. You need to speak up against AI

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 7d

Aww I really appreciate it :))

Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 7d

Thanks so much!!!

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 8d

Gutted by today's gorgeous poem.
I recommend watching the documentary "Jim: The James Foley Story." I believe it's available on HBO, Prime, Pluto... I wasn't familiar with David Roderick till today. I look forward to reading his next book.
poets.org/poem/message...

Message for Jim in Syria [Fall fell wind-wise]

Fall fell wind-wise today— / trembles of dried lilac stalks, dead

poets.org

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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 9d

If you want to understand open adoption, it makes sense to start with birth parents—yet studies of them are few. 2+ yrs ago, I began talking w/ birth mothers to try to understand what living in an open adoption is like for them, and what rights or options they might have if challenges were to arise.

When Adoption Promises Are Broken

Many birth mothers hope to maintain contact with their child. But their agreements with adoptive parents can be fragile.

www.theatlantic.com

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Jake Romm @jakeromm.bsky.social · 8d

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 9d

Icymi :)

Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 10d

NEW POEM in the exquisites reading series anthology 💙

A cover for exquisites volume 5, with text on letter beads and a cyanotype of leaves as the image

Reuben Gelley Newman

Enharmonic

From the high island of his mind the boy attempts to whistle, to coax air at such speed, his lips at such curve, as to suggest pitch-a task he has failed at all his life-and with it to summon the languid dog of his dreams, who waits by the kitchen counter, begging for chicken stew, which he cannot give because in this incarnation he cannot cook, or eat, or sleep, or hold another man, or tether himself to anything but song-but that is not enough to live on-he cannot subsist on even the steadiest drone set from the accordion, nor the swell of a major triad, nor an array of intervals strung like lights between the trees, fluttering fifths, sevenths, octaves, tenths-not even a luminescent cluster of pitches so close as to be almost the same:

less than a half step, not yet a quarter tone, mere cents apart, and to think that once he wanted another man to reside as closely on this scale with him, their frequencies not just sympathetic but identical-he whistles, weakly,

after a surfeit of soundless air. The dog looks but does not come.

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 9d

University presidents it’s time for a united front. I mean, it’s past time. What are you going to do.

From the NYT: “The White House on Wednesday sent letters to nine of the nation's top public and private universities, urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump's political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds.”

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 10d

Thanks so much!!!

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Samuel Day Wharton @fakeourway.bsky.social · 10d

Great closing lines!

Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 10d

NEW POEM in the exquisites reading series anthology 💙

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 10d

NEW POEM in the exquisites reading series anthology 💙

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dylan baker @dylnbkr.bsky.social · 10d

$Across the top of the image is a fractured black rectangle where the left half is labeled "Frame: F is happening!" and the right side is labeled "Negation: F is not true!" left side of the box: "AI*" is so useful, it's revolutionizing everything. *massive, generative commercial "AI" models. right side of the box: "AI" capabilities are overblown, it's mostly slop. Below the box is a large image of Kirby, a pink blob inhaling and the "Frame F" fragment. In a box next to Kirby is the text: Kirby. K is happening. That's why they're saying F. In the pink box is the text: "AI" is functioning to fuel mass surveillance, exploitation of workers & the environment, and the consolidation of wealth and power on a massive scale.$

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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 11d

If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.

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Reuben Gelley Newman @joustingsnail.bsky.social · 10d

Lovely!!