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Rachel Hands

@rachelhands.com

990 followers 560 following 5.4K posts

contains work, tech, books, good light, weird art and music. also sometimes cats. she/her. 🖤🩶🤍💜. opinions mine. mostly-work writing at the link: rachelhands.com

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · Aug 12

oh hey, it’s @microcosm.bsky.social newsletter official: they’re publishing an expanded (but still concise!) version of my Leading in Times of Crisis zine. plus a @portersqbooks.bsky.social shoutout!

I’m super proud of how this turned out-you can order here: microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zine...

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1h

on reflection, no, I timed this correctly

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1h

I can’t tell if it is good that I waited till my mom left to read Sea, Poison or if it would be better if someone were around to warn me that my face is going to get stuck like this

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

a few more hours of vacation left. LFG

a copy of Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin. the cover features a leopard sitting next to a printer. a sheet of paper with the title and author’s name is being fed through the printer, and next to the printer is another sheet of paper with a blurb by Catherine Lacey: “Caren Beilin is one of the most bizarre and fearless writers of her generation.”

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Reposted by Rachel Hands

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 5h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 7h

here’s that contact form: rachelhands.com/contact/

Contact

If you want to subscribe to receive new blog posts by email, you can do that here: If you’ve got a general question about my blog or booking me for a talk, feel free to use this form and I&#8…

rachelhands.com

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 7h

physical copies of Leading in Times of Crisis will be hitting shelves in about a
month! if you got the previous minimalist version and want me to send you this expanded version too, shoot me a DM or fill out my website contact form with your updated address. microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zine...

Leading in Times of Crisis: Holding & Sharing Power and Reducing Harm

In the face of big challenges, we don't have time to be stuck—so it's time to be brave! Whether you set out to be a leader or it just kind of happened to...

microcosmpublishing.com

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 8h

I have a pipe dream that part of the backlash to gen-ai will be a fresh surge of people getting interested in reading (and writing) for voice and tone

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

a few more hours of vacation left. LFG

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

one of the blurbs describes it as being like a Hieronymous Bosch painting and that’s correct

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

if you do please tell me what you think!

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

the Mónica Ojeda hive should not miss this one

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

“Luckily, we don’t understand and we can’t explain.”

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

it kind of feels like the only correct way to talk about The Endless Week is to post about it

The Endless Week by Laura Vazquez, translated by Alex Niemi

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

re-assembling the thread since one of them was met: bsky.app/profile/rach...

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 5d

this Somerville neighbor, taken by ICE earlier this summer, was denied asylum at his hearing yesterday. he’s going to be deported and now his family has to finish paying the lawyer: gofund.me/63eead5d1

Donate to Help Everton Get Home - Ajude o Everton a Voltar para Casa, organized by Gessiene Amaral

UPDATE: Everton had his court hearing yesterday, Oct 2nd, and… Gessiene Amaral needs your support for Help Everton Get Home - Ajude o Everton a Voltar para Casa

gofund.me

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

that broke the thread though lol so
i will have to collect them again

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

small pieces of good news: I was able to delete a post from this thread because the family got the support they need.

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 11d

gonna collect the various links into a thread I hope to never post to again :

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 11d

regular-posting for those with reposts turned off: contribute for the Somerville neighbor who was kidnapped for “matching the description of the problem” gofund.me/fd3a45829

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Reposted by Rachel Hands

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 1d

If you preorder your own copy through my fave bookstore (they'll mail it to you) or directly from AK Press, you will get an extra letter from me tucked into your book when it arrives. That extra letter is about this moment in Chicago and what I think it means to be "effective" right now.

Read This When Things Fall Apart by Kelly Hayes | Pilsen Community Books

A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable.

www.pilsencommunitybooks.com

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

@ every museum who buries their hours six menu clicks deep

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Reposted by Rachel Hands

Erin 🦇🎃EEK🎃🦇 Kane @dianamonkey.bsky.social · 1d

617-370-5023

As ICE ramps up activity in Mass., this group bears witness

Activists connected through an immigrant advocacy group called LUCE are documenting arrests throughout the state. The "ICE watchers" record the names of those detained to make sure they’re accounted f...

www.wbur.org

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

wooof

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

bsky.app/profile/jpyg...

Jonathan Feingold @jpygold.bsky.social · 2d

msm won't pick this up, but big WIN for Palestine solidarity in Somerville, MA this morning. @marisakabas.bsky.social

Elections Commission rejects big money play to remove Palestine Solidarity measure from our November ballot. State rep @mikeconnollyma.bsky.social breaks it down.

Mike Connolly @mikeconnollyma.bsky.social · 2d

In this moment where human rights organizations have concluded that Isreal is committing genocide in Palestine, hundreds of Somerville residents took to the streets this summer to gather over 11,000 signatures to put a non-binding advisory question on the November 4, 2025 municipal ballot.

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 1d

some early morning good news: the Somerville for Palestine organizers and canvassers worked hard to get a divestment question on the local ballot, and it’s going to happen.

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 2d

y’all my mom is better at good light pictures than I am (this is mine, she is busy taking successful pictures of the moon)

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 2d

it’s a weird week to be a person who tries to advocate for thoughtful leadership on this here app (I am still on PTO and trying desperately to Not) so I am glad to have something to cheer on

Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 2d

I’m maybe particularly predisposed to agree with where this thread lands, and not just because I have a bunch of preorders due in this week. but also, shoutout to my pals at PSB for holding the capitalism/community tension thoughtfully.

Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston @portersqbooks.bsky.social · 2d

I know you're pretty much all experiencing this too, but I was working through a check list of stuff I need to promote (in this Banned Books Week of 2025) & just thrown for a minute at the dissonance of needing to keep the gears moving during this whole series of crises we're living through..

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Rachel Hands @rachelhands.com · 2d

well this is relevant to my interests massmoca.org/announcing-m...

Announcing MASS MoCA Records | MASS MoCA

massmoca.org