“Historicizing the present robs it of its sense of inevitability, and restores its sense of human agency” ~Mike Wallace

Congrats to Mike Wallace, NYC historian extraordinaire, for a lifetime of work & his new book Gotham at War. Gotham Center @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social - what a rich legacy 🗽

no words

our Assata obituary by Marian Jones is up now @teenvogue.com.

"Shakur was a militant Black revolutionary who rejected the doctrine of nonviolent civil disobedience... a symbol of 'revolutionary Black feminist agency, a living embodiment of successful resistance to anti-Black state repression.'"

Think about ways to expand what's good and improve on the good.

#Brooklynites #FreeBlackCommunties #NYCHistory

Ending this thread with my brilliant friend & colleague Tracee Worley of Radical Futures Studio (+ one of the many collaborators on the original public history project) talking about better futures here ✨

www.instagram.com/reel/DN24tte...

+ museum educators✨ some of first cultural workers laid off in 2020 even as our city’s orgs streamed their education offerings online. They work daily w/ NYC schools, so our stories are told to next gen. Tracee Worley’s K-12 plans for Brooklynites here @bklynlibrary.bsky.social rb.gy/1uvn3t

Colleagues & mentors deeply committed to Public History practice:
✨ Cynthia Copeland Cynthia Copeland youtu.be/fEt5V-YCtEI
✨ @ekwashington.bsky.social www.ekwashington.com
✨ Kamau Ware blackgotham.com/about/
✨ Suzanne Spellen (designed the project’s walking tours) open.substack.com/pub/suzannes...

✨ Dr. Joan Maynard #weeksville
youtu.be/dZSv-gf9Uvs

✨ Robert Swan www.proquest.com/openview/f25...

✨ Harold X Connolly archive.org/details/ghet...

✨ Benjamin Quarles www.dacapopress.com/titles/benja...

✨ Erica Armstrong Dunbar ericaarmstrongdunbar.com

✨ Leslie Harris history.northwestern.edu/people/facul...

✨ @profmsinha.bsky.social manishasinha.com/publications...

✨ Saidiya Hartman wwnorton.com/books/978039...
✨ Craig S. Wilder history.mit.edu/people/craig...
✨ @lesliemalex.bsky.social drlesliealexander.com/publications-1

More brilliant scholars to read ⬇️

✨ Ruth Wilson Gilmore “Freedom is a Place” 🖤 www.versobooks.com/products/261...
✨ Stuart Hall: www.dukeupress.edu/selected-wri...
✨ Paul Gilroy @bungatuffie.bsky.social www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

The book’s methodology is deeply rooted in Black Studies from which Public History (where the book’s research began) would grow. So the work is always in dialogue & community, presence not absence. Here’s just some of the brilliant souls & their work that are deeply embedded in Brooklynites:

“This is a story of land, home, labor, of New Yorkers past, and the legacy they left us. This is the story of Brooklyn.”

Brooklynites @nyupress.bsky.social came out a year (+1 week) ago. It honors ordinary New Yorkers organizing for better worlds & futures, & is one of hope rebrand.ly/brooklynites

🥴

I am advocating for you to be killed but I am using my inside voice you must debate me this is called democracy

Coincidentally, I think the lack of primary sources in history education, or the tendency to pick major speeches or turning points instead of asking students to consider daily aspects of life is probably the reason many people think that historical achievements were quick and simple

In case you are unaware of Red Channels, SJP co-director @netabomani.com made a short video to catch you up on the Black women in particular who were targeted: www.youtube.com/shorts/4Knk4... - this has relevance for our current era.

Oh HELL yes

Zohran wants universal childcare for everyone in this city and I hear people who NEED this asking 'OK but how will he pay for this?' I'm like 'bitch I haven't heard your ridiculous ass ask ONCE how the city is paying 11 BILLION A YEAR FOR COPS.' NOT ONCE. So damn demagogued.

The special section from our 50th anniversary issue, The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide, is now online.

Robin D. G. Kelley revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic argument, with @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social, Jennifer Zacharia, and @martinoneill.bsky.social.

“The lesson I take is that we will all have to be historians now, to remember that things were not always this way and to see through the growing morass of lies our government is propagating in public.” @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social

www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-re...

I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.

The only thing I can say about this paragraph is read it. Sit with it. Read it again. @michaelharriot.bsky.social

We do actually need to pay attention to the distraction when death and punishment is the way they’re distracting.