Molly Roy

Dance studies profs, if y’all are not discussing Bad Bunny’s performance in your classes this week you’re doing your students a disservice.

I tell you what, Ring figured out exactly how to weaponize white people’s empathy in service to a corporately controlled surveillance state.

Tell them it will find your dog.

Nowhere do I find the social pressure to conform more intense than the TSA screening line. Resistance is a practice and it matters

Handing Out Free Tickets, Mamdani Says Theater Should Not Be ‘a Luxury’

Handing Out Free Tickets, Mamdani Says Theater Should Not Be ‘a Luxury’ www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/t...

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #90
Ancient History

The women are lying down
in front of the bulldozers
sent to destroy
the last of the olive groves.

—Diane di Prima

Suddenly Everyone Is Scared to Dance at Concerts and Clubs More partygoers are worrying about looking goofy on camera, prompting some artists to wonder if social media is killing dance.

When the choreography of surveillance is standing still
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Black Musical Theater, 200 Years and Running The nearly forgotten Black stars, songwriters and strivers who made Broadway what it is today.

Great images from the NYPL archives

Black Musical Theater, 200 Years and Running www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Atlas of Surveillance Documenting Police Tech in Our Communities with Open Source Research

Alongside armored vehicles, local police are getting surveillance technology with help from the federal government. Learn what tech law enforcement have in your area with EFF's Atlas of Surveillance, where we’ve documented thousands of examples: atlasofsurveillance.org/

Artists Plan Nationwide Protests Against ‘Authoritarian Forces’

Gift link. Let’s go

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/a...

Surveillance Watch: They Know Who You Are Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.

We just launched a new version of the Surveillance Watch platform with improved filtering and search, detailed entity analysis views, better visualization of connections between entities & investors, a more accessible lite version etc.

Have a look at the latest updates at www.surveillancewatch.io

Cover image of the book The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna

Worth the read.
A different tech future is possible.
Support libraries!

Thank you for your work @alexhanna.bsky.social and @emilymbender.bsky.social

👀

Circuses vs. Roses: Notes on Pleasure and Scold Culture Someone made this extra-grumpy meme about the fact that football player and podcaster Travis Kelce proposed to pop superstar Taylor Swift and now they're engaged, or rather about the fact that of cour...

Had a fun time writing about bread and circuses vs. bread and roses and whether in crises we're allowed to have fun. www.meditationsinanemergency.com/circuses-vs-...

My Mother, New Orleans Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, I’ve left the city that raised me.

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans..
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

How the N.Y.P.D.’s Facial Recognition Tool Landed the Wrong Man in Jail

Why publish one story about A.I. gone wrong when you can publish two?

Here's my other story today on how the NYPD used facial recognition tech to arrest the wrong man for public lewdness.

The perp was 5'6''. Cops charged Trevis Williams, who is 6'2''.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/n...

Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices....

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Meta Unveils Wristband for Controlling Computers With Hand Gestures

It’s facebook, so whatever makes it to market requires you to imagine the greediest most antisocial application.

Speak up Texas

YouTube video by GBH News Maria Ressa warns of authoritarianism in the US: “This is a pivotal moment"

Worthwhile interview with Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist and activist Maria Ressa.
We deserve public spaces where real people can have real conversations without being manipulated. Instead we have social media that erodes democracy at a cellular level.
youtu.be/yWpedkNHo3E

Dancing to the Beating Heart of a Library’s Collection

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/a...

An Employee Surveillance Company Leaked Over 21 Million Screenshots Online The leak highlights how digital workplace surveillance exposes employees to new risks.

“If a worker committed the kind of incompetence that WorkComposer did, this data might be used to fire them,” EFF’s José told @gizmodo.com of a massive bossware data breach. “WorkComposer, too, should be out of a job.”

Choreographies of protest

Entire staff at federal agency that funds libraries and museums put on leave The staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was placed on administrative leave Monday morning, following a meeting between IMLS leadership and DOGE staff.

www.npr.org/2025/03/31/n...

Why You Can (And Should) Opt Out Of TSA Facial Recognition Right Now Do you really want to be submitting a face scan to the current U.S. government?

“the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board ― which is supposed serve as a watchdog for travelers’ civil liberties ― recently had key members fired by the Trump administration.”

www.huffpost.com/entry/tsa-fa...

LC gave one day's notice to change the subject heading to "Gulf of America" but its own country code for Zimbabwe still references the white supremacist-run Rhodesia, which gained internationally-recognized independence as Zimbabwe in... 1980

As Trump takes over leadership at Kennedy Center, some protest through dance President Trump and his appointees are now solely in charge of the Kennedy Center. Performers protested by dancing.

www.npr.org/2025/02/18/n...

Artists protest new NEA restrictions Hundreds of artists signed a letter sent to the National Endowment for the Arts asking it to reverse policy changes made as a result of recent executive orders issued by President Trump.

www.npr.org/2025/02/18/n...

“Good luck with that” feels like the whole entire moment

Hundreds of Artists Call on N.E.A. to Roll Back Trump’s Restrictions A letter signed by 463 playwrights, poets, dancers, visual artists and others pushes back against new grant requirements that bar the promotion of diversity or “gender ideology.”

“ abandoning our values is wrong and it won’t protect us. Obedience in advance only feeds authoritarianism.”

Hundreds of Artists Call on N.E.A. to Roll Back Trump’s Restrictions www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/a...