@verywordyv.bsky.social
Reposted
Culture might seem a less consequential right than due process or free assembly. Its infringement by the US government makes less spectacular news than police action or protests. In this way, the repeal of a right that took decades to build is at risk of going unreported.
How to Protect Your Right to Culture
The United States government’s coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.
hyperallergic.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Culture might seem a less consequential right than due process or free assembly. Its infringement by the US government makes less spectacular news than police action or protests. In this way, the repeal of a right that took decades to build is at risk of going unreported.
Reposted
"There was a big, plastic sculpture on the wall, which read, in Mandarin: 'If you don’t occupy the ideological battlefield, someone else will.'" Read Mongolian journalist Soyonbo Borjgin’s memoir of re-education. www.equator.org/articles/the...
The Xi Jinping School of Journalism • Articles • EQUATOR
The education and reeducation of a Mongolian reporter
www.equator.org
October 29, 2025 at 4:37 PM
"There was a big, plastic sculpture on the wall, which read, in Mandarin: 'If you don’t occupy the ideological battlefield, someone else will.'" Read Mongolian journalist Soyonbo Borjgin’s memoir of re-education. www.equator.org/articles/the...
Reposted
For those of you not familiar, Alaa was an Egyptian political prisoner for much of his adult life. He was deprived of time with his son, his siblings, and his mom who went on hunger strike and nearly died trying to free him just in the last month.
He was just released via a presidential pardon.
He was just released via a presidential pardon.
This photo of Alaa Abdel Fattah's smile by Mohamed El Raai is the most beautiful thing you could wake up to.
September 23, 2025 at 12:51 PM
For those of you not familiar, Alaa was an Egyptian political prisoner for much of his adult life. He was deprived of time with his son, his siblings, and his mom who went on hunger strike and nearly died trying to free him just in the last month.
He was just released via a presidential pardon.
He was just released via a presidential pardon.
Reposted
If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support:
• 404 Media
• Defector
• The Flytrap
• Flaming Hydra
• The Appeal
• Aftermath
• Racket
• Hell Gate
• The 51st
• The Colorado Sun
• Range Media
• Discourse Blog
• Pop Heist
• 404 Media
• Defector
• The Flytrap
• Flaming Hydra
• The Appeal
• Aftermath
• Racket
• Hell Gate
• The 51st
• The Colorado Sun
• Range Media
• Discourse Blog
• Pop Heist
September 19, 2025 at 2:00 PM
If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support:
• 404 Media
• Defector
• The Flytrap
• Flaming Hydra
• The Appeal
• Aftermath
• Racket
• Hell Gate
• The 51st
• The Colorado Sun
• Range Media
• Discourse Blog
• Pop Heist
• 404 Media
• Defector
• The Flytrap
• Flaming Hydra
• The Appeal
• Aftermath
• Racket
• Hell Gate
• The 51st
• The Colorado Sun
• Range Media
• Discourse Blog
• Pop Heist
Reposted
I can't begin to describe to you the suffering my family in Gaza is going through right now and I am a writer. Words fail me completely, there's no description. I just gasp and hope that you don't forget my words. Keep thinking of this post even when you forget us.
September 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I can't begin to describe to you the suffering my family in Gaza is going through right now and I am a writer. Words fail me completely, there's no description. I just gasp and hope that you don't forget my words. Keep thinking of this post even when you forget us.
Reposted
"Most countries facing pressure to take American detainees are African. In June, the US Supreme Court authorized the expulsion of eight detainees, who had endured months inside a shipping container in Djibouti, to South Sudan."
africasacountry.com/2025/09/colo...
africasacountry.com/2025/09/colo...
Colonize then, deport now
Trump’s deportation regime revives a colonial blueprint first drafted by the American Colonization Society, when Black lives were exiled to Africa to safeguard a white republic.
africasacountry.com
September 15, 2025 at 5:56 PM
"Most countries facing pressure to take American detainees are African. In June, the US Supreme Court authorized the expulsion of eight detainees, who had endured months inside a shipping container in Djibouti, to South Sudan."
africasacountry.com/2025/09/colo...
africasacountry.com/2025/09/colo...
Reposted
Today, PEN International President Burhan Sonmez reaffirmed our association’s commitment to writers everywhere.
Built on the defence of free expression, PEN International continues to stand firm against threats that silence voices around the world.
Built on the defence of free expression, PEN International continues to stand firm against threats that silence voices around the world.
September 3, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Today, PEN International President Burhan Sonmez reaffirmed our association’s commitment to writers everywhere.
Built on the defence of free expression, PEN International continues to stand firm against threats that silence voices around the world.
Built on the defence of free expression, PEN International continues to stand firm against threats that silence voices around the world.
Reposted
When the world loses journalists like Anas al-Sharif, we lose access to the truth in Gaza. Palestinian journalists deserve our protection, not just sympathy. We demand the international community act.
CPJ MENA Regional Director Sara Qudah’s op-ed in @thenewarab.bsky.social⤵️
tinyurl.com/2s47sfp2
CPJ MENA Regional Director Sara Qudah’s op-ed in @thenewarab.bsky.social⤵️
tinyurl.com/2s47sfp2
August 14, 2025 at 6:39 PM
When the world loses journalists like Anas al-Sharif, we lose access to the truth in Gaza. Palestinian journalists deserve our protection, not just sympathy. We demand the international community act.
CPJ MENA Regional Director Sara Qudah’s op-ed in @thenewarab.bsky.social⤵️
tinyurl.com/2s47sfp2
CPJ MENA Regional Director Sara Qudah’s op-ed in @thenewarab.bsky.social⤵️
tinyurl.com/2s47sfp2
Reposted
Dana Awartani, a Palestinian-Saudi artist, records sites of destruction by mapping them onto translucent fabric, tearing holes that correspond to damaged places before carefully stitching them back together. The result is a web of half-concealed cartography, a meticulous record of violent erasure.
Dana Awartani’s Gentle Reparation of Gaza
This beautiful and understated show provides a moving foil to the horror of Israel’s war in Palestine.
hyperallergic.com
August 15, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Dana Awartani, a Palestinian-Saudi artist, records sites of destruction by mapping them onto translucent fabric, tearing holes that correspond to damaged places before carefully stitching them back together. The result is a web of half-concealed cartography, a meticulous record of violent erasure.
Reposted
Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish students are directly affected, is telling, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...
Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook
Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade. Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish scholar...
www.eurozine.com
August 14, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish students are directly affected, is telling, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...
Reposted
CPJ condemns the decision by ICE not to comply with a federal immigration judge order that granted bail to journalist Mario Guevara, who was originally arrested on First Amendment-related charges. Those charges were dropped on June 25. CPJ calls for Guevara’s immediate release. cpj.org?p=494636
July 2, 2025 at 4:54 PM
CPJ condemns the decision by ICE not to comply with a federal immigration judge order that granted bail to journalist Mario Guevara, who was originally arrested on First Amendment-related charges. Those charges were dropped on June 25. CPJ calls for Guevara’s immediate release. cpj.org?p=494636
Reposted
Azerbaijani prosecutor demanded 16 years of prison to doctoral student and peace activist Bahruz Samadov.
Azerbaijani state is destroying the life of all those who dare to think and act freely:
oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...
Azerbaijani state is destroying the life of all those who dare to think and act freely:
oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...
Azerbaijani researcher Bahruz Samadov ‘attempts suicide in prison’
On Friday, prosecutors requested that Samadov, an OC Media contributor, be sentenced to 16 years in prison.
oc-media.org
June 22, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Azerbaijani prosecutor demanded 16 years of prison to doctoral student and peace activist Bahruz Samadov.
Azerbaijani state is destroying the life of all those who dare to think and act freely:
oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...
Azerbaijani state is destroying the life of all those who dare to think and act freely:
oc-media.org/azerbaijani-...
Reposted
JUST IN: US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil reut.rs/3HJxscO
June 20, 2025 at 5:56 PM
JUST IN: US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil reut.rs/3HJxscO
Reposted
Amir Hussain considers prison literature and the state-led suppression of language.
Compulsory Silence: On the State-Led Suppression of Language in American Prisons
Suppression of language and literacy in the prison setting has long been a state-led endeavor not only to punish prisoners but also to expropriate for those who need it most the radical crux of lit…
buff.ly
June 6, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Amir Hussain considers prison literature and the state-led suppression of language.
Reposted
"Without these endowments, what holes will be torn in the fabric of American culture?" @thefrontlist.org considers the impact of Trump's coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines. lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...
We Don’t Have Any Reserves | Los Angeles Review of Books
Adam Morgan writes on the impact of Trump’s coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines.
lareviewofbooks.org
May 16, 2025 at 6:38 PM
"Without these endowments, what holes will be torn in the fabric of American culture?" @thefrontlist.org considers the impact of Trump's coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines. lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...
Reposted
Imagining a "Wikipedia Liberty Index," Ryan McGrady says real or threatened censorship of Wikipedia is a lagging indicator of a state's attitudes towards free press, free speech, academic freedom, and free expression in general, and a real-time indicator of active efforts at suppression.
What Attacks on Wikipedia Reveal about Free Expression | TechPolicy.Press
Ryan McGrady writes that you can learn a lot about a state's view on free expression by how it treats Wikipedia.
www.techpolicy.press
May 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Imagining a "Wikipedia Liberty Index," Ryan McGrady says real or threatened censorship of Wikipedia is a lagging indicator of a state's attitudes towards free press, free speech, academic freedom, and free expression in general, and a real-time indicator of active efforts at suppression.
Reposted
For most of our existence, WWB has received funding from the NEA. Now, like many others, we must chart a path forward without it. But our readers still deserve access to dazzling global writing. Please donate or share our work to support our mission of bringing the world close through literature.
May 5, 2025 at 8:33 PM
For most of our existence, WWB has received funding from the NEA. Now, like many others, we must chart a path forward without it. But our readers still deserve access to dazzling global writing. Please donate or share our work to support our mission of bringing the world close through literature.
Reposted
Badar’s fellowship is partially subsidized by the Scholars at Risk program, which works with U.S. universities to host international scholars facing threats in their countries. He never imagined that a country with a Scholars at Risk program would one day pose a risk to scholars.
A powerful essay ⤵️
A powerful essay ⤵️
NEW: The detention of Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri parallels the cases of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk. His colleague Nader Hashemi reflects for @newlinesmag.bsky.social on his recent visit with Suri in an ICE facility in Texas.
newlinesmag.com/first-person...
newlinesmag.com/first-person...
Teaching Gandhi in a Texas Detention Center
A visit to the ICE facility housing the Georgetown postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri, whose case parallels those of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk
newlinesmag.com
April 23, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Badar’s fellowship is partially subsidized by the Scholars at Risk program, which works with U.S. universities to host international scholars facing threats in their countries. He never imagined that a country with a Scholars at Risk program would one day pose a risk to scholars.
A powerful essay ⤵️
A powerful essay ⤵️
Reposted
“We will not be lost forever.”
In her poem Death or Life, Inside or Outside the Maze, Ma Thida reflects on repression and resilience in Myanmar.
Her words, written during unrest and revisited after the earthquake, are a call for hope.
PEN International stands with all those affected.
In her poem Death or Life, Inside or Outside the Maze, Ma Thida reflects on repression and resilience in Myanmar.
Her words, written during unrest and revisited after the earthquake, are a call for hope.
PEN International stands with all those affected.
April 2, 2025 at 1:21 PM
“We will not be lost forever.”
In her poem Death or Life, Inside or Outside the Maze, Ma Thida reflects on repression and resilience in Myanmar.
Her words, written during unrest and revisited after the earthquake, are a call for hope.
PEN International stands with all those affected.
In her poem Death or Life, Inside or Outside the Maze, Ma Thida reflects on repression and resilience in Myanmar.
Her words, written during unrest and revisited after the earthquake, are a call for hope.
PEN International stands with all those affected.
Reposted
"People that have not been exposed to as much diversity as others can learn a lot from reading these books....I hope we don’t have to keep fighting book bans. I hope it can be an awesome book club, where people get to learn about other people’s lives." -Student in DAYLO club
#TLSky #FReadom
#TLSky #FReadom
South Carolina Students Fight Back Against Book Bans: ‘As Students, We Have to Speak Twice as Loudly, Twice as Eloquently’ pen.org/south-caroli...
South Carolina Students Fight Back Against Book Bans: ‘As Students, We Have to Speak Twice as Loudly, Twice as Eloquently’ - PEN America
What started as a high school book club in South Carolina has become one of the most effective student groups fighting book bans.
pen.org
April 3, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Reposted
Ruth Marcus, an award-winning political columnist and longtime editor at The Washington Post, has resigned after her opinion piece criticizing Post owner Jeff Bezos was killed.
Top Washington Post Editor Quits After Jeff Bezos Story Was Scrapped
The Washington Post is caving to its billionaire owner as he cozies up to Donald Trump.
newrepublic.com
March 10, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Ruth Marcus, an award-winning political columnist and longtime editor at The Washington Post, has resigned after her opinion piece criticizing Post owner Jeff Bezos was killed.
Reposted
We are deeply concerned for Alaa’s health after he began a hunger strike, just days after his mother, Dr. Laila Soueif, reluctantly agreed to deescalate from a full hunger strike to 300 liquid calories per day, following hospitalization and pleas from her daughters. (1/2)
March 7, 2025 at 5:29 PM
We are deeply concerned for Alaa’s health after he began a hunger strike, just days after his mother, Dr. Laila Soueif, reluctantly agreed to deescalate from a full hunger strike to 300 liquid calories per day, following hospitalization and pleas from her daughters. (1/2)
Bubi is the language of the indigenous population of the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. The Ëvóvë/Ëbóbë Association organizes activities to strengthen this endangered language, but in 2025 they were banned.
Listen to this poetry reading in Bubi from @pen-tlrc.bsky.social poetry marathon:
Listen to this poetry reading in Bubi from @pen-tlrc.bsky.social poetry marathon:
As part of The Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee's (@pen-tlrc.bsky.social) Video Poem Marathon, we feature a reading in Bubi, the language of Bioko Island’s Indigenous people.
Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gjl...
Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gjl...
Bësákkò biá Rihólè: Wë mpë ëbéló (Bubi)
YouTube video by Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee of PI
www.youtube.com
March 7, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Bubi is the language of the indigenous population of the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. The Ëvóvë/Ëbóbë Association organizes activities to strengthen this endangered language, but in 2025 they were banned.
Listen to this poetry reading in Bubi from @pen-tlrc.bsky.social poetry marathon:
Listen to this poetry reading in Bubi from @pen-tlrc.bsky.social poetry marathon:
Reposted
#Türkiye: We strongly condemn the arrests of Kurdish PEN members Mevlüt Aykoç, Sami Tan and Ronayi Önen – ostensibly for publishing teaching material in Kurdish – and urge their immediate release: www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/kurt-yazarla...
Kürtçe öğrenme kitabı ‘Hînker’i hazırlayan yazarlar gözaltında alındı - Ferhat Yaşar
Kürtçe öğrenme kitabı olan “Hînkerî”i hazırladıkları gerekçesiyle yazarlar Sami Tan, Mevlüt Aykoç, Ronahî Önen ve Sadık Varlı gözaltına alındı. Varlı daha sonra serbest bırakıldı.
www.gazeteduvar.com.tr
March 6, 2025 at 10:11 AM
#Türkiye: We strongly condemn the arrests of Kurdish PEN members Mevlüt Aykoç, Sami Tan and Ronayi Önen – ostensibly for publishing teaching material in Kurdish – and urge their immediate release: www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/kurt-yazarla...