Cassandra Whitaker

Now Playing: D'Angelo's debut album 'Brown Sugar' (1995) | Rest in Power to one of the truest talents the music world has ever seen and heard.

album.ink/dangeloBS

Thank you for providing so much art in my lifetime D’Angelo 🕊️

still proud of this piece, which attempts to complicate one of the things d'angelo was (unfairly) best known for

D'Angelo Live, by Ian Wallace 15 track album

An hour and 11-minute long mix of nothing but D'Angelo live tracks from various shows during the Brown Sugar and Voodoo eras. It's so well done. Also downloadable.

D'Angelo, R&B's reluctant icon, has died at 51 The expressive singer made just three albums, including his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, but retreated from the public after each. He had been battling cancer, according to a statement from his family.

My colleague Sheldon Pearce's obituary for D'Angelo www.npr.org/2025/10/14/n...

The trailblazing transgender rights activist Miss Major has passed away at the age of 78.

Miss Major was a lifelong organizer and participant in the ballroom scene. She took part in the 1969 Stonewall Riots and was injured by the police — but she kept fighting.

Meta AI adviser spreads disinformation about shootings, vaccines and trans people Critics condemn Robby Starbuck, appointed in lawsuit settlement, for ‘peddling lies and pushing extremism’

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

"A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests."

Furthermore there is no biographical info on any of the poets. Just their name, and the poem. It seems all the poems are in the public domain.

TRANSPLANT Father receives another transplant today. This time, it's a beehive. It feels good to drink the rain, he says, & better to eat the Aowers. He's been in the meadow for hours now, getting so big & brave.

Jon Boisvert

#smallpoemsunday
@tomsnarsky.bsky.social

There are women and black poets and a few queer ones as well, but there's no searchable way for students to discover them.

The collection is a fraction of its former size and glory. Oddly plenty of European poets represented (for America 's 250?) More or less reads like a sanitized pre 21st century Norton. Mostly white male.

Diane Keaton has sadly passed away at the age of 79.

3/3 to be fair I haven't gone through every thing on the site but a quick cursory search reveals that there's not much left from the original collections. Not surprising just disappointing.

The original poetry out loud collection also included Erie poems springtime winter weather historical poems poems of protest resistance and empowerment

Family ties cityscapes feathered Friends summer poems and country roads

2/3 Our students were drawn towards social justice/ 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️/ black and Asian pride. Not sure if anyone will participate this year, which perhaps, is part of the point.

The original categories for poetry out loud were social justice and equality celebrating Hispanic heritage and culture celebrating native American heritage and culture celebrating Asian American and Pacific islander heritage and culture celebrating black history and culture

Celebrating lgbtq pride domestic life mythology and folklore travel water

Music and dance sorrow and grief the sporting Life humor and satire war poetry

Autumn working love animalia childhood

1/3 Poetry Out Loud gutted their collections for poems that connect or reflect America's 250. Below are screens of the original collections 1 of 2

Homepage of the telephone art project featuring an eye surrounded by a circle with seven moon like objects

Looking Up Into The Winter Stars At The Edge of the Atlantic There You Are What stars weave their light with darkness? A circle of trust Between absence Between emptiness A weather of static— How small must one’s heart become To survive what passes? To slip between infinity’s trap I love you I love you not Winking in darkness What noise reaches us from afar? You are loved — you are loved You are loved for what you are Between absence and emptiness To survive? A weather of trust A circle of dust A heart between light and dark As if all that came before was wind A voice from another room cries out In the dark In the emptiness A warm longing A light Long passed from age –As if emptiness were so easy to dismiss How we touched without touching? Voices From afar arriving home through our voice –Together—we opened a door You are loved you are loved You are loved for what you are 1 Can be read as two poems or as one poem, a contrapuntal

I played the Telephone game, where artists of all types pass work onto each other and create new work based on the work received. My poem(s) responded to paintings by Jessica Snow. It was a cool process. You can view the whole project in an interactive journal/anthology, here telephonegame.art

New poem up! Thanks to the editors @amsterdamreview.bsky.social for including my work. Follow their link to read the issue in full:

The history of ‘coming out,’ from secret gay code to popular political protest In the 1950s, ‘coming out’ meant quietly acknowledging one’s sexual orientation. Today, the term is used by a broad array of social movements.

The phrase “coming out” didn’t start as a public declaration — it began in the shadows, among coded phrases and hidden communities.

Over time, it became a political act, a rallying cry, and a model for other social movements.

buff.ly/qnHe5a4

🏳️🌈 #LGBTQHistoryMonth

Made a vibes trailer for the book:

I’d like to amplify others’ pleas to *please* acknowledge and build upon the work of librarians and other organizers — @heykellyjensen.bsky.social, @tasslyn.bsky.social, @everylibrary.bsky.social, et al — who’ve been tracking *all of this* and developing expertise for YEARS.

Bearded Bards Of BlueSky Online readings to raise funds for Tans Lifeline. November 8, 2025 Featuring: Todd Dillard Brian Spears Matthew E. Henry James McConachie David J. Bauman Jonathan Everitt December 13, 2025 Featuring: Jared Beloff Barlow Adams Dan Murphy upformsumdirt Gregory Crosby J-T Kelly 5:00-6:45 est / 2:00-3:45 pst https://beardedbardsofbluesky.weebly.com

A little over a month away from the first of these!!!!

Mark your calendar and register for the Zoom link:

beardedbardsofbluesky.weebly.com

The Conservative Justices Don't Trust Any Science That Supports LGBTQ Kids States that want to facilitate discrimination against LGBTQ people have the Court's blessing. States that want to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination do not.

I've written my analysis of today's grim Supreme Court oral argument in the conversion therapy case:

As far as the Court's concerned, imaginary medical uncertainty gives states the authority to hurt queer kids, and takes away states' authority to protect them

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/chile...

Half Male-Half Female Spider Discovered In Thailand Is New To Science Not only is this species new to science, but this remarkable individual is the first record of a rare biological phenomenon in this previously unknown species.

"The species is named after Inazuma, a character from the Japanese manga ‘One Piece,’ known for the ability to change sex between male and female"

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say Exclusive: Experts say Alliance Defending Freedom, arguing to revive conversion therapy, ‘profoundly misrepresented’ their work in case threatening trans and queer youth

NEW: Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom "deceived" the Supreme Court + "profoundly misrepresented" LGBTQ+ research, according to scholars cited by ADF.

Quoted experts speak out about ADF's "distortions" + "false evidence" in major case, on deck tomorrow, to revive "conversion therapy"

Wolf Devouring a Wolf Devouring a Wolf Check out Wolf Devouring a Wolf Devouring a Wolf - <p>Having written a book called <em>Wolf Centos</em> that opens with the quote "All the poetry has wolves in it, Pam," how could I not be entranced b...

bookshop.org/p/books/wolf.... Poetry

ANMLY Submission Manager **ANNOUNCEMENT: Fees will be waived for all Black and Indigenous writers, and writers of Palestinian descent, to support those most targeted by state violence. Email editor [at] anomalouspress [dot] o...

ANMLY is now open for new work!

We're especially seeking more from writers outside of the US, more nonfiction, & more translation!

> anmly.submittable.com

*Fee waivers available*

Check out our latest issue to see what we're into!

> anmly.org/ap40

Sending vibes! It's the worst!

🍌🍄🌈🍉🥕🫚🫑

Great tee!

Congratulations to all the nominees! Good luck everyone! Many thanks to the editors!❤️❤️❤️