M Cortez
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mcortez.net
M Cortez
@mcortez.net
I write across genre about place and power for all the borderwalking weirdos out there. Creative work @ mcortez.net. Public theory @deceleration.news

type slowly. @ï
Reposted by M Cortez
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.

Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
one of my fave things about helping create @deceleration.news is the way we can bring light to the amazing beautiful things people are doing in spite of all the ugliness we swim in daily. this podcast's just one example:
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
so the one good thing about TX's new school library bill is that you can see exactly which books #NEISD removed from library shelves. um, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings "does not meet selection criteria"? The Color Purple? Woman Hollering Creek? huh, interesting

www.neisd.net/subsites/Lib...
NEISD - Library - Weeded Book Log
www.neisd.net
November 13, 2025 at 2:13 AM
just canceled my #spotify account...i don't fuck with companies that run ads for ICE recruitment.

other companies to choose from: boycotthere.com
Boycott Here – Join the Economic Noncooperation Movement
boycotthere.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:20 AM
if Jim hadn't prodded me i may never have launched this book officially. still haven't launched I Call on the Earth--the pandemic interrupted things. very happy to be reading alongside Jim's new Thoreau chapbook, tho, and our friend James's forthcoming book on Thoreau and abolition.
November 7, 2025 at 11:02 PM
listening to fronterizx beats getting my thoughts in order, loving it panchaxbeatz.bandcamp.com/album/raices...
Raices Profunds EP, by PanchaX Beatz
8 track album
panchaxbeatz.bandcamp.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:48 PM
read my homie’s elegant story
The principles of #mutualaid that are increasingly being built into community #climate efforts—out of deep and growing necessity. Some case studies here to be aware of.

deceleration.news/trump-crushi...

#climate #publichealth #globalwarming #activism #cities
October 3, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by M Cortez
October 2, 2025 at 10:46 AM
South TX friends and fam--gonna be at UTRGV (@utrgvnewsroom.bsky.social) next Monday for a writing workshop/reading from The Bird Church, and on Tuesday moderating a talk by musician/sound studies scholar @jonathanjleal.bsky.social. see flyer for times and location. come by if you're around <3
September 30, 2025 at 2:28 AM
earlier this eve at traffic jam o'clock, drove past that exact lower stretch of I-10 where REM shot their video for "everybody hurts," and for a moment out the window i felt like i was watching it on MTV

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rOi...
R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts (Official HD Music Video)
YouTube video by remhq
www.youtube.com
September 25, 2025 at 2:11 AM
with a weird kind of haunted feeling, I keep thinking about how, in elementary school, when someone told you to stop doing or saying something for idiot reasons, the standard retort was: IT’S A FREE COUNTRY

like—is that even conceptually available to today’s elementary school students?
September 19, 2025 at 10:59 PM
People shocked that Fox commentator casually advocates killing homeless people. But writing about the street death of a friend last year who was unhoused and schizophrenic, this view was not far from the surface for many ordinary people in her neighborhood. deceleration.news/messages-fro...
Messages from Jess’s Last Days—A Social Autopsy – Deceleration
A close reading of the last week of Jessica Witzel’s life reveals predictable failures by public agencies, facilitated by the dehumanization that housed residents often direct at their unhoused neighb...
deceleration.news
September 14, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by M Cortez
“I could hear a woman’s voice screaming, ‘We’re coming back!’ ... and as I approached the wrecked tripod, a black late-model Jeep turned its headlights on and started to drive toward me."

#environment #activism #forests #biodiversity #news

deceleration.news/slaying-mons...
September 12, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I have been squirreling away “No Spurs No” and “Stop Spurs Stop” for about ten years…finally vindicated in seeing it put to good use.
Our latest opinion piece kicks off a series of stories about the projects we want to see funded in a time of colliding crises. This multi-billion dollar "Project Marvel" entertainment district isn't one of them.

deceleration.news/san-antonio-...

#climate #food #cities #development #justice #hr
September 8, 2025 at 1:47 AM
normally I’m a party-averse person, but tonite I went to the best party. My friend was turning 60 so there was a bouncy house and miniature donkeys, ice cream making, cigars, and to top it off a Jesus Christ Superstar singalong
September 7, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by M Cortez
All over our community and all over this land, people are fighting back and protecting each other by writing, singing, drawing, chalking sidewalks. Check out our first creative review here: deceleration.news/melting-ice-...

w/ @pacifistwarvet.bsky.social & otrxs

#poetry #art #visualart #resist
'Vanishing Ice, Melting ICE'—A Deceleration Quarterly Creative Review – Deceleration
Deceleration's first quarterly creative review taps into deep wells of community talent responding to the vanishing ice of warming seas and recent ICE vanishings of our family, friends, and neighbors....
deceleration.news
August 29, 2025 at 5:13 PM
whenever i go somewhere intending to write something about it, i'm never sure whether i'll be able to pull it together quickly enough for it to be useful. this was one of the times i was able to do it. w @deceleration.news & @publiccitizen.bsky.social among others. deceleration.news/toxic-tour-s...
Toxic Tour Highlights Environmental Justice Struggles on San Antonio's South Side – Deceleration
A coalition of organizations led residents and media across San Antonio's 'red line of inequity,' spotlighting the overwhelming burden of polluting industries that persist south of Highway 90. Coaliti...
deceleration.news
August 28, 2025 at 12:21 AM
missed the reading with naomi shihab nye, but fundraiser is still open for gaza translators: givebutter.com/XUQBSA
Support Respond Crisis Translation | Donate Today
Join Respond Crisis Translation in breaking language barriers. Your donation ensures vital translation services for refugees and asylum seekers.
givebutter.com
August 27, 2025 at 10:28 PM
I feel it
In poetry, by @earthtokb.bsky.social: Everything’s bigger in Texas. Even the aching hearts.
Love is wrapped up in a land that wants me
more than the news lets on, so I run to it
quicker than a governing body says get out
Poem: Texas, No Exodus
I insist on survival every day I stay in Texas...
www.texasobserver.org
August 24, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Can #poetry save the world from extractivist plunder and climate violence?

These scholars of multi-lingual poetry from Latin America say yes—and that the Earth has a language that is archived by poetic thinking.

deceleration.news/can-poetry-s...

#climate #literature #ecolit #clifi #environment
August 15, 2025 at 11:41 PM
had a lot of fun working with @kitoconnell.com to bring this story to light, amid the immense grief it names. w/ @asle-us.bsky.social
ASLE 2025: From #BartonSprings Attack to #Poland’s ‘Sister Rivers’—Femme Friendship as Eco-Resistance

' #Queer #ecology’ can show the way toward an alternative politics capable of establishing and honoring ‘femme-coded’ ways of thriving beyond violence.

deceleration.news/queer-ecolog...
August 14, 2025 at 6:43 PM
lastly: collab with @harmanity.bsky.social.

side note: i never really liked rage against the machine musically, but last week on our way into san pedro pool someone was blasting "killing in the name," and when rocha screamed "fuck you, i won't do what you tell me!" it was so right.
Do not obey.

It's time to talk about mass noncooperation.

deceleration.news/texas-gerrym...
August 14, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by M Cortez
This week we start to roll out some reportbacks from @asle-us.bsky.social ... Our first from Kamala Platt, author of 'Environmental Justice Poetics: Cultural Representations of Environmental Racism from Chicanas and Women in India.'

deceleration.news/asle-collect...

#environment #ecocrit #climate
August 13, 2025 at 9:39 PM