Daubeny’s Water Lily at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden today.
📷 David Cale

Such a beautiful magazine cover for The New Yorker by Amy Sherald.

The Radiant Smiles of Nina Simone and James Baldwin.

Photo taken in 1965 by Bernard Gotfryd

“You don’t have to become something you’re not to be better than you were.”
- Sidney Poitier, born this day in 1927

Photographed outside the Apollo Theatre, NYC, 1959 by Sam Falk

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
- Audre Lorde, born this day in 1934, wearing an Emma Goldman t-shirt that reads “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your revolution”, Berlin, 1984. Photo by Dagmar Schultz

A beautiful child from any era is always a welcome sight.

Walter Rosenblum, Smiling child, 105th Street, New York City, 1952

“For me people come first…I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being.”
- Alice Neel

Alice Neel, Jackie Curtis and Rita Redd, 1970

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
- Rosa Parks, born this day in 1913.

Photo by Eli Reed

A Meeting of the Sublime.
Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, Bop City, NYC, 1947. Photo by William “Popsie” Randolph

Extraordinary portrait of Fannie Lou Hamer taken in Mississippi in 1971 by Louis Draper.

“The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dares to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.”
- Marian Anderson

Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson, 1965

Earnest post, but: a thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism.

We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo by Steve Schapiro

Profoundly proud to be a part of Mona Fastvold’s forthcoming film, “Ann Lee”, written by Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet.

I’m the Moon, You Can’t Capture Me.
📷 David Cale

Bethesda Fountain reflected in its water, with donated pennies looking like stars, Central Park, NYC
📷 David Cale

“You know what it takes to be an artist? Hypersensitivity and the will of the devil. To never give up.”
- Alice Neel

Alice Neel, Faith Ringgold, 1977
oil on canvas

Thankfully it’s finally raining in New York, which was so needed. To celebrate, one of Saul Leiter’s wonderful photos where he turns a rainy day in New York City into a work of art.

Saul Leiter, Walk with Soames, 1958
chromogenic print

Hello, there.

Helen Levitt, New York City, 1942