niv sekar
LightNews LightNews
banner
nivnotes.bsky.social
niv sekar
@nivnotes.bsky.social
130 followers 110 following 16 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
nivnotes.bsky.social
My friend needs help perusing their writing life! Please help if you can and share widely ❤️
crsutton.bsky.social Chelsea Sutton @crsutton.bsky.social · 8d
LP is working hard to complete their BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago, but financial hurdles are making it tough. Every donation helps cover tuition. Please consider contributing or sharing this campaign to support their journey. Every bit counts!

www.gofundme.com/f/keep-lp-in...
Donate to Keep LP in School Spring 2026, organized by LP Kindred
Hey y'all, I'm LP Kindred, a Chicagoan-Angeleno writer/editor/teaching artist/culture work… LP Kindred needs your support for Keep LP in School Spring 2026
www.gofundme.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
chanda.blacksky.app
Sharing this post from Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha about the absolute moral bankruptcy of the NYT’s coverage of the genocide in Gaza

Full post here www.instagram.com/p/DMYha-ESnN...
mosab_abutoha On July 11, I asked Patrick Kingsley, the New York Times' Jerusalem bureau chief, whether the paper was going to cover the news of a beheaded fetus killed by an Israeli airstrike in Shati Camp alongside his parents and 3-year-old sister, on July 9. He thanked me for the "suggestion." Because I hoped against hope he would bring light to this horrific crime, I chose not to name him when I posted screenshots of our exchange. It was a Friday when I reached out. Not a single outlet had reported it yet. I offered to help connect him with people on the ground to facilitate coverage. He thanked me again and said, "We have a great team." I asked if that meant they were pursuing the story. He didn't respond. I followed up with him days later, sharing more updates. Still, no reply. It wasn't until today that I felt true rage. This same bureau chief just published a story about the killing of more than 100 people who were shot while trying to get food over the past two days. He framed the massacre not as a war crime, not as state terrorism —but as an example of "Israel's failure to plan for a power transition in Gaza." My cousin Ali was among those killed yesterday. He had five small children. His violent death, like the deaths of so many others, was not acknowledged as a crime. Just a "failure," another "episode," another instance of poor planning. How do I know this man and have his number? He visited me at my home in 2021 to write a profile of me, which he never published. I hope he never does. 5 hours ago
July 22, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by niv sekar
tkrex.bsky.social
“Centipede Station,” to me, feels like stepping into a new region of a gorgeous open world RPG where everything is monumental & mysterious. You can’t help but look around in wonder, while the quest sneaks up on you.

It’s free to download until 5/6 🌿

#solarpunk

susankayequinn.com/books/centip...
April 23, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
chrysaora.bsky.social
Alt texted version of Mahmoud Khalil’s statement, dictated over the phone to his family and published by @ccrjustice.org
samhalpert.bsky.social Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · Mar 18
Very good point.
Letter from a Palestinian political prisoner in Louisiana dictated over the phone from ICE detention March 18, 2025 My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law. Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn't the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn't the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing. Justice escapes the contours of this nation's immigration facilities. 1/5 On March 8, I was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant, and accosted my wife and me as we returned from dinner. By now, the footage of that night has been made public. Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car. At that moment, my only concern was for Noor's safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours - I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation. At 26 Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the ground and was refused a blanket despite my request. My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January's ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom. 2/5
March 18, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
davidmariotte.bsky.social
Today, officially is the launch of Samidoon: Comics for a Free Palestine. This volunteer charity comics project is the long-gestating effort of Palestinian comics creators and their allies to tell some important stories of resistence, resilience, joy, and life! www.samidoonanthology.com
SAMIDOON: COMICS FOR A FREE PALESTINE
www.samidoonanthology.com
March 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
resharing with alt text. truly terrifying shit

in addition to my fear, I feel fury

both at the perpetrators and all the facilitators who greased the wheels
Amy E. Greer is an associate at Dratel & Lewis and issues this statement: Last night ICE agents wrongfully arrested Mahmoud Khalil, claiming his student visa was revoked -- even though Mahmoud is legal permanent resident (green card) and not in the U.S. on a student visa. Confronted with that fact, the ICE agents detained him anyway. Overnight we filed a habeas corpus petition on Mahmoud's behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention. Currently we do not know Mahmoud's precise whereabouts. Initially we were informed this morning that he had been transferred to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, when his wife -- a U.S. citizen who is eight months' pregnant and was threatened with arrest as well by the ICE agents last night -- tried to visit him there today, she was told he is not detained there. We have subsequently received reports that Mahmoud may s be transferred as far away as Louisiana. We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud's rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable - and calculated - wrong committed against him. ICE's arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza. The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech. Many individuals and organizations have expressed support for Mahmoud and outrage at the government's conduct, and have offered their assistance in the legal proceedings. Mahmoud greatly appreciates all of that support, as do we.
March 9, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
prioryruins.bsky.social
DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! 2: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GAMER POETRY is available in digital, paperback, and hardcover formats from @cbdroege.bsky.social!!!

"ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND LEGENDS AND THE LONGING UNDERNEATH," my #zelink poem, is featured in this volume. NEVER SHY AWAY FROM UR DREAMS!

payhip.com/Manawaker
Graphic of a hardcover edition of "Dangerous to Go Alone! 2: An Anthology of Gamer Poetry" from Manawaker Studios. A called out excerpt reads: "I. I died for you. I should remember you. Let me start again. Once there was the sky, and the two of us in it. Your hands balancing a harp. My hands balancing a blade. The thread between. Fate pulled. You fell. I followed." The poem is titled "ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND LEGENDS AND THE LONGING UNDERNEATH" and is about The Legend of Zelda.
February 4, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Reposted by niv sekar
sna1l.bsky.social
from Kingdom of Uranus, my comic about how much I love my wife, dedicated to all the things we'll never have and the world we made anyway
January 31, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
tommchenry.bsky.social
double drudgery

www.noncanon.com/comics/2025-...
PANEL 1: A rat sits on a stool and a duck reclines in a big green void. RAT: "I'm so tired of the double life. Terrified of the future yet performing that I believe it'll arrive just as it has." PANEL 2: Rat in close up. RAT: "'Despair is how they win' and 'Don't comply in advance' and 'Call your reps every day' except also meal plan for next week, imagine a vacation, schedule your next haircut." PANEL 3: The rat, dejected on the stool, the duck more fully sprawled. RAT: "And none of it does anything but get me more drudgery to stagger through, pretending that the house is not on fire, my friends and family not at hazard." PANEL 4: The duck sits up. DUCK: "The drudgery is just a story you're telling yourself about the past like the fire is a story you're telling yourself about the future." PANEL 5: The rat and the duck again. DUCK: "You almost certainly have no control over any of it and will almost certainly continue doing the right thing more out of inertia than vigilance." RAT: "At least vigilance feels like *doing* something." BOTTOM TEXT: And doing something feels like drudgery.
February 4, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
definitelyvita.bsky.social
Hello, all. In a time where everything is so much for so many people, I feel guilty asking but my family and I are in need of help.

Even if it is a signal boost, any help is appreciated.

I love you all, and I hope you are all safe.

gofund.me/980022e5
Donate to Support Vita Ayala After Fire Displacement, organized by Tini Howard
Hi everyone, I'm Tini Howard, and this is for my friend, and your favorite comi… Tini Howard needs your support for Support Vita Ayala After Fire Displacement
gofund.me
January 29, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
thecosmicbgr.bsky.social
Hey all! We had some delays in energy pushing our kickstarter since one of our team is out in Los Angeles (sending love to our LA fam!) BUT reality is we got 5 MORE DAYS TO GO WITH OUR KICKSTARTER and only $1200 away from our goal.

So a highlight for you...Signed, Really, Shockingly Bad Things!
Pile of books of "Really Shockingly Bad Things and Other Stories"
January 11, 2025 at 3:52 AM
nivnotes.bsky.social
One of my favorite collaborations ever, help @thecosmicbgr.bsky.social fund another year of strange, moving, scary, surprising flash fiction!
thecosmicbgr.bsky.social The Cosmic Background @thecosmicbgr.bsky.social · Jan 1
Happy 2025 to all those who celebrate the passage of time. We are fresh from the bowels of the other place and happy to be here. Also our second year Kickstarter is up and running! 15 more days to get to $5K!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/the...
The Cosmic Background Kickstarter
January 3, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by niv sekar
vajra.me
Will you, if you're lucky, if you endure, sometimes find tremendous joy in the making of your art? Nothing is guaranteed; do you still want to play this game? Even I surprise myself by how quickly I say yes.
October 11, 2024 at 4:09 AM
nivnotes.bsky.social
I have a new comic in the @shortboxcomicsfair.bsky.social! "Wednesday's Child" is an all new, all color, 18 page story about Pihu, who wakes up one day after a night out and feels... fine? Where are all her usual feelings? Buy it here: www.shortboxcomicsfair.com/shop-sq4wj/p...
October 1, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
melissagiragrant.com
With NYS Sen. Jessica Ramos in the NYC mayor’s race, we have a candidate who 100% supports decriminalizing sex work, but also sees sex workers as her neighbors. Here’s what Cecilia Gentili (a powerhouse, who we lost too soon this year) told me in 2019 about Ramos: newrepublic.com/article/1541...
Advocates don't expect a vote on the measure this session-but they note that the rapid movement toward full decriminalization is unprecedented. What's behind this sudden push? "I believe it was necessary for these two new women elected officials to make this kind of statement," said Cecilia Gentili, a steering committee member of Decrim NY and a former sex worker. Gentilli was referring to senators Ramos and Salazar, who arrived in the state legislature in Albany as part of a wave of left-leaning lawmakers who won election last November. "That new blood infuses the Senate," she added. "A Latinx person like Jessica giving this bill shape is what makes it unprecedented." Ramos is also among the first state lawmakers to refer consistently to sex workers as her neighbors. "She knows US," said Gentili. "She's been walking home from the train and walks by a sex worker, specifically a trans sex worker." The Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights, which Ramos represents, has long been the center of anti-sex work policing that disproportionately targets immigrant trans women. But immigrant trans sex workers remain a visible and organized part of the community.
September 13, 2024 at 3:10 PM
nivnotes.bsky.social
First story alert! "Split Tongue" is a story about loss, sisters, mothers, and a house with a mouth (and a tongue). How do we reckon with the impossible nature of grief?

joylandmagazine.com/fiction/spli...
An image with the text "Split Tongue" hovering over an illustrated mouth with its tongue out, a dark line down the middle.
September 13, 2024 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by niv sekar
ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app
I'm funding an annual $2k grant for Palestinian artists working in speculative genres. There's a matching campaign to which you, dear reader, can contribute to fund a second winner. In case you were looking for an opportunity to do something. givebutter.com/IA1PTE
2025 Watermelon Grant
By Dream Foundry
givebutter.com
August 29, 2024 at 12:58 AM
nivnotes.bsky.social
My friend LP is in need right now -- I'd love for us to get him some peace of mind and security! If you can't donate, please share around ❤️

www.gofundme.com/f/support-lp...
Support LP Kindred's Journey in Chicago, organized by Clarion Ghosts
The Clarion Ghosts are rallying to support our fellow writer LP Kindred, the Ch… Clarion Ghosts needs your support for Support LP Kindred's Journey in Chicago
www.gofundme.com
August 7, 2024 at 2:33 AM