Stephen Kearse

Benito Bowl Wasn’t About Them—It Was About Us How Bad Bunny triumphed on the Super Bowl stage.

On the biggest U.S. stage, Bad Bunny showed why he is so massive, and why his Grammy-winning love letter to his homeland, 𝘋𝘦𝘣𝘪́ 𝘛𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘴 𝘍𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘴, resonates across the world—from Latin America to Palestine to China to Switzerland

BENITOOOOO

Book cover for A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as Told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel) by Percival Everett and James R. Kincaid (Akashic Books): This reissue of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Percival Everett and Kincaid’s classic political satire lampoons conservative hysteria for a new generation. Coming out 2/3/2026. https://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/a-history-of-the-african-american-people-proposed-by-strom-thurmond-as-told-to-percival-everett-james-kincaid-a-novel-2/

Book cover for Liquid Snakes by Stephen Kearse (Soft Skull): What if toxic pollutants traveled up the socioeconomic ladder rather than down it? A Black biochemist provides an answer in this wildly original novel of pollution, poison, and dark pleasure. https://softskull.com/books/liquid-snakes/

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Liquid Snakes (by @kearse.bsky.social, Soft Skull) & A History of the African-American People (Proposed)... (Percival Everett and James R. Kincaid, @akashicbooks.bsky.social). See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #BlackHistoryMonth @catapultbooks.bsky.social

What Do We Want from a Protest Song? For a genre that confronts the horrors of the present, the protest song of 2026 is curiously backward-looking.

"When the dominant mode of listening to recorded music is more or less unconscious, the protest song can hardly go to work shaping one’s political consciousness."

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

The Board of Governors decided, unilaterally, that no published textbook in the field of sociology could be used in compliance with the law for an Intro to Sociology class. None. Victor: There's not a single existing textbook on the market that could be used that would qualify under state law? Zachary: Correct. Victor: I'm sorry, that's kind of funny. Like, the absurdity of not a single sociology textbook getting past the censors. I mean, it makes me kind of proud of our colleagues, but...

I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors.

Great work everyone.

I think he has it, but I think he's too wedded to the idea of rap as verite and autobiography to push those impulses further, especially now that he's positioned himself as "rap elder" or whatever. on top of that, he's such a stan. this record is like "let nas down" on steroids

for a record billed as his career capstone, it feels trapped in the sounds, styles, and conflicts of other artists, and although cole's aware of that identity crisis, he doesn't make anything of it, constantly circling back to nostalgia and guilt, all without much panache or swag

Monocultural Rap Stardom is Dead—and That’s OK What does it mean to be a rap star in 2026? Some thoughts on rap’s current standing in the mainstream and the genre’s health in the post-social media era.

thinking about this as I lament granting jermaine cole 101 minutes of my precious time

www.hearingthings.co/monocultural...

word. they love to cede to "reasonable demands" in the name of ~working together~

Facts

YouTube video by iHipHopDistribution Boldy James - "Grittin'" (feat. Peechie Green & Fat Ray) [Official Audio]

this era of Detroit street rap is so fun. they were tweaking atlanta sounds in such offbeat ways

youtu.be/9c3ogXat72w?...

ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy r...

NEW: Records reviewed by WIRED show DHS’s facial recognition app (Mobile Fortify) isn’t designed to actually "verify" identity—despite DHS claims and its agents relying on its matches to support probable cause in the field.

Nooooooo

ifw baldwin heavy, but show my guy walter rodney some love. get your namwali on. tayari your jones. liquid your snakes

kindred's tight, but it's okay to get your oankali on too

I don't love how nutritional people get about reading during black history month

it's bad.

The YouTuber Who Treats the Inner City Like a Safari Charlie Moore turned the aesthetics of beat policing into a full-time job.

brought to mind another queasy YouTube snuff genre, which I wrote about a few years ago

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Body-Cam Hustle How YouTubers weaponized Freedom of Information laws to embarrass young women for clicks.

great reporting on a ghoulish genre, and the reality of bodycams, which don't magically produce oversight

nymag.com/intelligence...

part time minor leagues receive third degrees

can't remember the last time journalism had a good day

bezos' vandalism of wapo + bari weiss' defilement of cbs + trump's desecration of everything from civic architecture to the constitution are fundamentally the same political project. america's most enterprising billionaires are working night and day to make this country a stupider, uglier place.

seconded. was the only track on that record that stood out imo

would love to continue this thread ad infnitum but it take a lot of brainpower to give Yokinobu pages proper alt text

Nice. I remember that one

truly a miracle that so many RBMA interviews and essays are still accessible

The slopaganda era: 10 AI images posted by the White House - and what they teach us Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here’s what you need to know to navigate the trolling

'slopaganda' is a keeper

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

people mock new yorker style, but AP style can also be bewilderingly esoteric

used to be a kala guy, but now I'm all in on arular

Liz Pelly on the Impact of Her Anti-Spotify Book ‘Mood Machine’ and Where We Go From Here “The point is to encourage people to reject the idea that it’s a one-click solution.”

"There have been times where people are like, 'I read your book and then I canceled Spotify and I got Apple Music!' That kind of misses a lot of the point that this book lands on." – 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 author Liz Pelly