Mattilda B Sycamore
@mbsycamore.bsky.social
New novel, TERRY DACTYL, out now from Coffee House in US & Cipher in UK!⚡🌷Also: TOUCHING THE ART, THE FREEZER DOOR, BETWEEN CERTAIN DEATH AND A POSSIBLE FUTURE + working on ACT UP BEYOND NEW YORK ++ https://www.mattildabernsteinsycamore.com/
Pinned
This Club Kid Knows How to Survive. The Better Question Is: How to Live?
www.nytimes.com
Honey, I'm sobbing, yes, literally SOBBING after reading this review of TERRY DACTYL by Trish Bendix in the New York Times Book Review, which engages with the book on so many deep levels, yes, I'm reading it over and over, what a gift, this means everything to me!!!💞💞💞💞💞
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
Notice how the popular media narrative has moved on, while people on the ground in Minneapolis are still struggling and crying out that things are as bad as ever. This is how fascist regimes operate — overreach, recalibration, normalization. Get louder, not quieter.
February 11, 2026 at 3:54 AM
Notice how the popular media narrative has moved on, while people on the ground in Minneapolis are still struggling and crying out that things are as bad as ever. This is how fascist regimes operate — overreach, recalibration, normalization. Get louder, not quieter.
Help, the headlights on this car are about to give me a migraine from a hundred feet away, I want to yell turn those lights off but I don't think that would get me anywhere. When I finally get past the car I look back, and of course it's a Tesla.
February 11, 2026 at 6:06 AM
Help, the headlights on this car are about to give me a migraine from a hundred feet away, I want to yell turn those lights off but I don't think that would get me anywhere. When I finally get past the car I look back, and of course it's a Tesla.
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
The risks of SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne pathogens can be severe, but the media continues to stigmatize Olympians taking precautions as "worried" and "extreme". We know #LongCOVID can affect anyone, even elite athletes.
In the @thesicktimes.org today 😷🦠
thesicktimes.org/2026/02/10/w...
In the @thesicktimes.org today 😷🦠
thesicktimes.org/2026/02/10/w...
Winter Olympic athletes are rightfully taking COVID-19 precautions - The Sick Times
Despite a lack of COVID-19 precautions implemented by the 2026 Winter Olympics organizers in Italy, some athletes, teams, and their loved ones are protecting themselves from airborne pathogens by mask...
thesicktimes.org
February 10, 2026 at 7:13 PM
The risks of SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne pathogens can be severe, but the media continues to stigmatize Olympians taking precautions as "worried" and "extreme". We know #LongCOVID can affect anyone, even elite athletes.
In the @thesicktimes.org today 😷🦠
thesicktimes.org/2026/02/10/w...
In the @thesicktimes.org today 😷🦠
thesicktimes.org/2026/02/10/w...
Walked by this Merchant's House so many times, always wondering if it's worth going inside, but knowing that it was a stop on the Underground Railroad, w/the hidden passageway still intact, is definitely something stunning. (Also fascinating that the museum just realized exactly what this is.💥)
“Historians call this passageway a masterwork of deliberate concealment, designed to be absolutely invisible to slave catchers or city marshals during the 19th-century”
Safe house linked to Underground Railroad discovered in Manhattan
The Merchant's House is the first landmarked building in Manhattan.
ny1.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:21 AM
Walked by this Merchant's House so many times, always wondering if it's worth going inside, but knowing that it was a stop on the Underground Railroad, w/the hidden passageway still intact, is definitely something stunning. (Also fascinating that the museum just realized exactly what this is.💥)
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
"Experts and witnesses attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit]."
“Four of my children just evaporated,” Badran said, holding back tears. “I looked for them a million times. Not a piece was left. Where did they go?”
There are no words to adequately describe the evil here.
There are no words to adequately describe the evil here.
Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate
US-made thermal weapons burning at 3,500C caused 2,842 people to "evaporate" in Gaza, Al Jazeera investigation finds.
www.aljazeera.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:29 AM
"Experts and witnesses attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit]."
A lovely review of TERRY DACTYL in @artreview.bsky.social🌺"This is a book about community and intimacy, the importance of both for survival, the avoidable injustices that recur throughout history and the necessity of remaining hopeful, even as the weight of the world pushes down on your shoulders"🌺
Review: Terry Dactyl by Mattilda Bernstein
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s fourth novel tests the limits of queer joy against unvarnished realism
artreview.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:06 AM
A lovely review of TERRY DACTYL in @artreview.bsky.social🌺"This is a book about community and intimacy, the importance of both for survival, the avoidable injustices that recur throughout history and the necessity of remaining hopeful, even as the weight of the world pushes down on your shoulders"🌺
"It's as if there is some awful truth out there in the trees, it's hiding in the branches, look at them..."💀☁️☁️☁️
Don't give anything an Emmy until it's as good as this.
February 11, 2026 at 1:44 AM
"It's as if there is some awful truth out there in the trees, it's hiding in the branches, look at them..."💀☁️☁️☁️
"Your grants dot gov account is about to expire" HONEY, THERE ARE NO MORE GRANTS UNDER THIS GOV SO PLEASE STOP SENDING ME THIS NONSENSE
February 10, 2026 at 9:47 PM
"Your grants dot gov account is about to expire" HONEY, THERE ARE NO MORE GRANTS UNDER THIS GOV SO PLEASE STOP SENDING ME THIS NONSENSE
Love to hear about this impulse purchase, and, you are in great company, because Terry Dactyl is also very high at the beginning of the book 💕💎💐🌠
ooh very excited to check out this book that just got delivered but i almost forgot i ordered after @j3s.bsky.social recommended it to me when i was in chicago last week and i bought it on the spot because i was very high and knew i would forget otherwise
February 10, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Love to hear about this impulse purchase, and, you are in great company, because Terry Dactyl is also very high at the beginning of the book 💕💎💐🌠
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
zinesters, man, i just love ‘em
Babe, wake up. New leader of antifa just dropped.
(Thank you fellow trivia team for sharing your art.)
(Thank you fellow trivia team for sharing your art.)
February 10, 2026 at 3:50 AM
zinesters, man, i just love ‘em
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
🧿 warding off ICE in our neighborhood
February 9, 2026 at 7:53 PM
🧿 warding off ICE in our neighborhood
There's the inside and the outside, the experienced and the imagined, but also the rupture between and beyond, can this be more than a frame, an opening, a way to challenge everything that breaks us, when hope is only something you yearn for, except in those moments, but what about those moments.
February 9, 2026 at 10:02 PM
There's the inside and the outside, the experienced and the imagined, but also the rupture between and beyond, can this be more than a frame, an opening, a way to challenge everything that breaks us, when hope is only something you yearn for, except in those moments, but what about those moments.
At least there's this magnificent sage bush perched on the side of a ravine, Seattle, yes, this is the best sage I've ever used in my cooking.🌿
February 9, 2026 at 9:58 PM
At least there's this magnificent sage bush perched on the side of a ravine, Seattle, yes, this is the best sage I've ever used in my cooking.🌿
The connection between sinus and sadness, I wish I could break the link. Anything to escape the shutting off. I wish the world wasn't so toxic. An insistence on toxicity, a refusal to change.
February 9, 2026 at 9:54 PM
The connection between sinus and sadness, I wish I could break the link. Anything to escape the shutting off. I wish the world wasn't so toxic. An insistence on toxicity, a refusal to change.
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
"this does not need a balm
this needs an ending"
--Dionne Brand, Nomenclature for the Time Being
Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
this needs an ending"
--Dionne Brand, Nomenclature for the Time Being
Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
Dionne Brand : Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems | Milkweed Editions
Today’s guest Dionne Brand, to borrow the words of John Keene, “is without question one of the major living poets in the English language.” Kamau Brathwaite called Brand “our first major exile female ...
milkweed.org
February 9, 2026 at 7:04 PM
"this does not need a balm
this needs an ending"
--Dionne Brand, Nomenclature for the Time Being
Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
this needs an ending"
--Dionne Brand, Nomenclature for the Time Being
Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
Join us for this exciting event!
Join us for a free webinar! The Sick Times editors @mileswgriffis.bsky.social and @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social — plus special guest speakers — will demystify the process of writing and pitching op-eds and essays on Long COVID. Register now: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
February 9, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Join us for this exciting event!
"Anybody knows, who studies history, what happens when you have folks who are now treating these humans as bodies, and you have no reason to believe you’re going to make it out alive from a place where they’re already calling you a body." Thank you, Aliya Rahman, for this brave testimony & analysis💥
Meet Aliya Rahman, Disabled U.S. Citizen Assaulted, Jailed & Traumatized by ICE in Minneapolis
We speak with Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen who was violently dragged from her car by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month and detained at the Whipple Federal Building, which has beco...
www.democracynow.org
February 9, 2026 at 8:40 PM
"Anybody knows, who studies history, what happens when you have folks who are now treating these humans as bodies, and you have no reason to believe you’re going to make it out alive from a place where they’re already calling you a body." Thank you, Aliya Rahman, for this brave testimony & analysis💥
"ICE
Your children will know.
Your children will not forget."💥
Your children will know.
Your children will not forget."💥
Voices from the free state of Minnesota - Feb 8, 2026
February 9, 2026 at 12:40 AM
"ICE
Your children will know.
Your children will not forget."💥
Your children will know.
Your children will not forget."💥
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
Sign seen in South Minneapolis.
"FUCK ICE"
"NEIGHBORHOOD OBSERVATION & RESISTANCE IN FORCE"
"IF I DON’T RESIST MY NEIGHBORS WILL"
February 2026
"FUCK ICE"
"NEIGHBORHOOD OBSERVATION & RESISTANCE IN FORCE"
"IF I DON’T RESIST MY NEIGHBORS WILL"
February 2026
February 9, 2026 at 12:27 AM
Sign seen in South Minneapolis.
"FUCK ICE"
"NEIGHBORHOOD OBSERVATION & RESISTANCE IN FORCE"
"IF I DON’T RESIST MY NEIGHBORS WILL"
February 2026
"FUCK ICE"
"NEIGHBORHOOD OBSERVATION & RESISTANCE IN FORCE"
"IF I DON’T RESIST MY NEIGHBORS WILL"
February 2026
Wondering why all these people are wearing sports uniforms today, oh gross Seattle is in the Super Bowl.
February 9, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Wondering why all these people are wearing sports uniforms today, oh gross Seattle is in the Super Bowl.
A sticker that says:
F-ELON
AND THE FELON
HE RODE IN ON
On the back of a Tesla
(Yes, I really just saw this!!)💥
F-ELON
AND THE FELON
HE RODE IN ON
On the back of a Tesla
(Yes, I really just saw this!!)💥
February 8, 2026 at 10:47 PM
A sticker that says:
F-ELON
AND THE FELON
HE RODE IN ON
On the back of a Tesla
(Yes, I really just saw this!!)💥
F-ELON
AND THE FELON
HE RODE IN ON
On the back of a Tesla
(Yes, I really just saw this!!)💥
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
To be clear, I counted HCSO deputies, State Patrol troopers, and DNR Conservation Officers among all the police present. MnDOT plow trucks blocked roads entering the area around Whipple, which obstructed the way for at least one ambulance. This is on Sheriff Dawanna Witt and @governorwalz.mn.gov.
🚨BREAKING: Local Minneapolis police SWARM ICE protesters making mass arrests in front of ICE prison. One protesters forehead is gushing blood ⬇️
February 7, 2026 at 10:59 PM
To be clear, I counted HCSO deputies, State Patrol troopers, and DNR Conservation Officers among all the police present. MnDOT plow trucks blocked roads entering the area around Whipple, which obstructed the way for at least one ambulance. This is on Sheriff Dawanna Witt and @governorwalz.mn.gov.
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
This is such a powerful conversation
"I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power."
Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o : The Language of Languages | Milkweed Editions
Today’s guest, novelist, storyteller, essayist, playwright, scholar, translator, and perennial front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Literature Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, is an iconic figure in postcolonial tho...
milkweed.org
February 6, 2026 at 10:55 PM
This is such a powerful conversation
I guess I need a new rule that when I go over to the computer to write something, I can’t look at anything else first, because as soon as I do that everything I wanted to write is gone. But who can I say stole my words.
February 6, 2026 at 5:49 PM
I guess I need a new rule that when I go over to the computer to write something, I can’t look at anything else first, because as soon as I do that everything I wanted to write is gone. But who can I say stole my words.
Reposted by Mattilda B Sycamore
these conditions are horrifying. this is an amazing story of community organizing strategy and commitment, as well as another example of the criminalization of mutual aid @lataco.bsky.social
Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO
“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...
lataco.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:11 AM
these conditions are horrifying. this is an amazing story of community organizing strategy and commitment, as well as another example of the criminalization of mutual aid @lataco.bsky.social