Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

📣 Join Dignity Not Detention at our biweekly phone zaps to demand New York State elected officials call a special session of the legislature to pass Dignity Not Detention -- and New York for All!!!📣

Stop our state's complicity in ICE detention!

bit.ly/DNDFallZaps

October 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

Yabba dabba doo! ✨
And with a letter too! 📝

My copy of READ THIS WHEN THINGS FALL APART, edited by @mskellymhayes.bsky.social, arrived in the mail today from @akpress.org ‼️

I can hardly wait to dig in!

Photo of a typed letter from organizer Kelly Hayes with the small green envelope it came in and the book she edited, Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis

October 23, 2025 at 2:40 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

Every Tuesday!

💛✊

#NY4All
#DignityNotDetention
#FreeThemAll

Sign on ground with electric votive candle on it. Green capital letters on white background: FREE THEM ALL

October 22, 2025 at 12:59 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

Is Bluesky on the decline?

AI Overview

No, the sky is not getting less blue overall, though its color can appear less vibrant in specific locations and times due to factors like pollution, humidity, and time of day.

😀

October 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

2) Oct 23, 6-10pm, Ukraine Institute

Torčík will read twice, and at 8:15 will be part of the panel Ties That Bind, exploring how love, desire, and connection intertwine in novels—and what happens when boundaries are set, crossed, or redefined.

new-york.czechcentres.cz/en/program/e...

Photo of Czech author Marek Torčík, standing in the door of a photo booth. He is dressed in a black short-sleeved T-shirt and black pants, with his hands in his pockets. and wears glasses with circular black rims. He is pale-skinned, sunken-cheeked, and his hair is cut close to the scalp.

October 16, 2025 at 12:51 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

@dansinker.com
The Fog of War

“even as the fog drifts across the screen and the guy shooting the video starts retching: Nobody is cowed by this.”

dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...

You'll notice something, even as the fog drifts across the screen and the guy shooting the video starts retching: Nobody is cowed by this. Even as the gas thickens, people are screaming obscenities at the agents in the car. The moped directly in front of them, despite having received what must have been a facefull of gas, refuses to move. And then there's the shrill chorus of whistles that begin to ring out near the end, audible evidence of the successful grassroots campaign to distribute ICE warning whistles in neighborhoods across Chicago.

October 3, 2025 at 11:00 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

------------------
we're doomed
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we're doomed
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we're doomed
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stereolab!
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we're doomed
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we're doomed
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October 2, 2025 at 5:39 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

🤩 Amazing turnout tonight! Great questions from readers! First-rate moderating by Pierce A! Warm welcome from all of @brooklinebooksmith.bsky.social staff!

📚 Autographed copies of PLAYING WOLF @catapultbooks.bsky.social at Brookline Booksmith now, in the Transnational Literature section!

Bookcase at Brookline Booksmith displaying books autographed by authors and translators featured in the store’s Transnational Literature Series

September 28, 2025 at 3:01 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

PLAYING WOLF on tour! 🧺 🐺 👧

By Zuzana Říhová, translated by @alexzucker.bsky.social, published by @catapultbooks.bsky.social

🌟 9/21: @bkbookfest.bsky.social
🌟 9/22: Czech Center New York
🌟 9/25: Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago
🌟 9/26: Czech Consulate, Chicago
🌟 9/27: @brooklinebooksmith.bsky.social

Image shows the cover of the novel Playing Wolf, by Zuzana Říhová, translated from Czech by Alex Zucker. Text is crimson red on a black background. Cover illustration shows a pale, feeble-looking hand, bleeding a large drop of pink blood. Main text: Playing Wolf. Tour sponsored by (logos) Czech Center New York, Czech Lit, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago, and Czechoslovak Heritage Museum, Cicero, Illinois

September 20, 2025 at 12:11 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

I keep forgetting how much money Jeffries gets from AIPAC

AIPAC’s Top 10 House Recipients of the 118th Congress:

Track AIPAC
AIPAC's Top Ten House Recipients
2022-2024 Totals
118th Congress

1. Hakeem Jeffries (D) NY-08: $703,886
2. Josh Gottheimer (D) NJ-05: $679,448
3. Pete Aguilar (D) CA-33: $578,273
4. Mike Johnson (R) LA-04: $575,330
5. Tom Cole (R) OK-04: $543,306
6. Ritchie Torres (D) NY-15: $541,998
7. Ken Calvert (R) CA-41: $471,311
8. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) FL-26: $445,882
9. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) FL-25: $444,642
10. Don Bacon (R) NE-02: $411,284

Data via OpenSecrets.org

September 19, 2025 at 9:33 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

📢 Wondering how to support folks in ICE detention? Join NY #DignityNotDetention for our monthly letter writing, in person & online, Thu, Sept 17, 7:00-8:30pm EDT

We are especially looking for folks comfortable in Spanish and will have Spanish interpretation online

Sign-up: bit.ly/SeptLetterWr...

Cartel para “Dignidad No Detención – Escritura de Cartas en Septiembre”, el miércoles 17 de septiembre de 7 a 8:30 pm para quienes escriben por primera vez y de 7:30 a 8:30 pm para quienes regresan. El evento sera por Zoom para las personas que solo hablan español. Se pide tener papel, bolígrafo y estampillas a mano. Registrese en: https://bit.ly/SeptLetterWriting. El fondo muestra una taza de café, una vela encendida y flores naranjas que crean un ambiente acogedor.

Image: Fall-themed flyer for “Dignity Not Detention Sept Letter Writing!” with a cozy background of marigold flowers, a coffee cup, and a candle in varying shades of brown and orange. Text in bubbles reads: “NY DND will be facilitating a hybrid space to write to people in immigrant detention. Wednesday, September 17, 7–8:30 pm. On Zoom and in person (Midtown)! Register here: https://bit.ly/SeptLetterWriting.”

September 15, 2025 at 7:27 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

August 31, 2025 at 2:52 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

💥 Unboxed!

📚 The "devilishly creepy" PLAYING WOLF, by Zuzana Říhová, translated by @alexzucker.bsky.social, published by @catapultbooks.bsky.social is here, in the pulp!

🌟 Thank you, Sujatha S.!

Advance praise and preorders here: books.catapult.co/books/playin...

Photo showing unboxing of the novel Playing Wolf by Czech author Zuzana Říhová, translated into English by Alex Zucker, published by Catapult Books.

August 30, 2025 at 8:31 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

The sunsets up north on Lake Michigan this week have been incredible

August 29, 2025 at 12:42 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

Can I just say I'm TOTALLY JAZZED to see a story I translated featured, all alone, at the top of a website?

That never happens! You should all read it!

"The Cells," by Klára Vlasáková, translated by @alexzucker.bsky.social for @thedialmag.bsky.social

www.thedial.world

Screenshot of the homepage of The Dial Magazine, Issue 31: Fiction. At left, in dark green on a beige background, the words "Klára Vlasáková (tr. Alex Zucker). Literature, Translation. The Cells. 'I learned, in fact, how to make myself invisible.'" At right, three dark-green circles on a beige background. The one at left is nearly whole; the one in the middle is disintegrating, or shedding, from its lower half; the one at right is exploding and splintering from both its upper and lower halves.

August 21, 2025 at 1:20 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

Avelo Airlines is a small pillar of the ICE deportation regime, but by toppling them we can shift the entire system. Taking down bad actors who want to profit off of harming our people warns other commercial carriers not to take ICE contracts or flights. @siembranc.bsky.social bit.ly/StopAveloDay

August 6, 2025 at 11:55 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

We are currently raising funds for our detained community members and appreciate any contribution you can make!

secure.givelively.org/donate/envis...

Pink background rectangle, with monarch butterfly in upper left corner and several more fluttering up the left and right sides. Three people at center of graphic. At left, a gender nonbinary person, possibly white, possibly Asian, with light brownish short-cropped hair, glasses, and a light-gray long-sleeved collared shirt. In middle, a woman with brown skin and short black hair in a dark purple short-sleeved top. At right, a man with black skin and short black dreads, in a light-purple long-sleeved collared shirt. Behind them is the state of New York in orange, and behind that is a gray-purple ring that says, in white, "DIGNITY NOT DETENTION."

July 28, 2025 at 2:55 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

From today's New York #DignityNotDetention letter-writing event, in partnership with Recess Art and Dancing Through Prison Walls ❤️‍🔥

To find out when the next letter-writing will be held, follow Abolish ICE NY-NJ on Instagram: www.instagram.com/abolishice_nynj

More on DND: nydignitynotdetention.org

Photograph of white wall. At left, taped to the wall are two 8.5 x 11 inch pieces of white paper with information on prison industrial complex abolition in black-and-white. At right, attached to wall is a roll of white butcher paper. On the length of paper hanging down is written "Dignity Not Detention Letter Writing to ICE Detainees" (in blue) and "Abolition Zine Making With Sojourners for Justice" (in red).

Close-up photograph of two 8.5 x 11 inch sheets of paper taped to wall in previous photo. The one on the left is a chart created by Critical Resistance, explaining the difference between reformist reforms and and abolitionist steps to end imprisonment. The one on the right shows CR's definition of of the prison industrial complex (PIC): "The PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems. Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps to maintain the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and similar privileges. There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the PIC, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, etc., as criminal, delinquent or deviant. This power is also maintained by earning huge profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn poitical gains for 'tough on crime' politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unons; and eliminating social and political dissent by people of color, poor people, immigrants, and others who make demands of self-determination and reorganization of power in the US. All of these things are parts of the PIC."

July 28, 2025 at 2:55 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

From @arunava.bsky.social on X:
"ANNOUNCING! A landmark new series from Chowringhee Press. Interviews with 100 translators around the world @harshaneeyam.bsky.social, working in and out of 60 different languages. In 5 volumes."

x.com/arunava/stat...

Image of book titled "Literary translators in Harshaneeyam: Conversations with translators from across the world talking about their craft and work." Graphic on book cover is a grid composed of the faces of the translators who have appeared on the Harshaneeyam podcast.

July 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

📝 Letter-writing night for #NYDignityNotDetention, Sun, July 27, 2-4 pm EDT, on Zoom & in person in Brooklyn

Let folks in ICE detention know we care, we're paying attention and fighting to #FreeThemAll!

In collaboration with Recess Art & Dancing Through Prison Walls

Sign-up: bit.ly/JulyMailEvent

Flyer announcing event of Dignity Not Detention campaign, in partnership with Dancing Through Prison Walls and Recess Art, to write letters to people in immigration detention. Taking place on Sunday, July 27, 2-4 p.m., both on Zoom and in person at Recess Art, 46 Washington Avenue, in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Background is of a young person dancing with butterflies in the sky. Text is black, in lilac and white text boxes with rounded corners. RSVP at https://bit.ly/JulyMailEvent

July 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

June 29, 2025 at 8:43 PM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

I forgot about this. On the other hand, though, Ritchie Torres of all people has stood up for Mamdani, and he takes even more AIPAC money than Gillibrand ($1,497,402 vs $997,622).

www.trackaipac.com/congress

It is no secret that I have profound disagreements with Zohran Mamdani. But every Democrat — and every decent person — should speak out with moral clarity against the despicable Islamophobic attacks that have been directed at him.

Demanding the deportation of an American citizen simply because he is Muslim — or simply because he holds political views different from your own — is not only bigoted. It is profoundly unAmerican. Bigotry in every form should be rejected unequivocally.

June 28, 2025 at 2:40 AM

Alex Zucker

@alexzucker.bsky.social

“We recognize that the city’s problems come mostly from the people above, and not the ones sitting next to us on the subway.”

Love this piece by @marisakabas.bsky.social

We *can* have nice things!