lauren ariel

when your family IS Black History:
my dad James Cephas was the owner of King James Records, a Black-owned record store in West Philly from 1967-1997. Our first home was the apt above the OG store. I was raised there and learned everything behind that counter.

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk's Government Takeover Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

The men carrying out Musk's coup are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.

Make them famous. And, eventually, when possible, arrest them and charge them with multiple felonies. www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

since we’re abandoning democracy this year, i’d like to throw my hat for an executive order that prevents my upstairs neighbors from having a hoedown throwdown every morning at 8am

Finished piece 🤍 “cool girl” — 16x20

1/30 Know Your Rights Training: Mass Deportation Take action with ACLU People Power!

Join us today at 8 PM EST for our Know Your Rights training to learn how you can protect immigrant communities facing the threat of mass deportation.

Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral The World War II-era "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" is full of steps that office workers can take to resist leadership.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a declassified World War II-era CIA guide to sabotaging fascism in the workplace has become one of the most popular free ebooks on the internet:

www.404media.co/declassified...

u know what ? fine. i will "enjoy the next four years". im gonna squeeze every second of happiness out of this wretched planet that i can even if everyone wants me dead. eat rat shit

If anyone needs a clear picture of what a dictatorship is.

january studio update is coming up next in a few days (even though I know it’ll be february. time isn’t real)

my 2025 reading list I'm dedicating this year to my inner bookworm, because we all deserve a little joy right now

what i’m reading this year 😎 you all answered overwhelmingly here and on Instagram, so here it is! my 2025 reading list, now on substack

substack.com/@laurenariel...

today’s studio wip ✨

These two posts back to back were the perfect morning pep talk for me this morning. My goal today is to channel a little bit of @soundoftheforest.bsky.social, to have the audacity to believe I can make the thing.

Once it exists, THEN I can work to refine it.

Try and hit them where it hurts, and use your constituent’s class consciousness in your favor, sure. But until the party can accept their own complicity in wealth and agenda for the sake of approval ratings & “status quo”, this meek ass response in the face of authoritarianism means nothing

Dems are still pretending this is an even-footed congressional game instead of the rise of literal fascism. I think they’re forgetting that Trump is intentionally targeting their constituent base, including the more centrist Republicans who are *also* getting burned by these policies.

Putting the onus on your constituent base to become more aware, and fix what you had a hand in breaking is the exact antithesis to having a representational democracy in the first place.

great solution! one tiny problem though: once the party successfully *proves* to people that they were “ripped off”, as the article says, everyone who would be able to vote for them next term won’t be around.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/o...

(7/7) Never again means never again. To anyone. The fact that some people cannot see this boggles my mind. We have a duty as humans to protect one another from the evil of men who deem us as unworthy of life: so that nobody has to be remembered by the absence of what they once were.

(6/7) I feel the same weight about Palestine. Children who will forever be lost to time, entire bloodlines gone in seconds. There will be scars of this that will live on in generations none of us will be around to see. And yet, it will be remembered. It will be remembered in the absence.

(5/7) Anyone I met as a child, who had clearer memories than me, is gone. That is a kind of grief that lingers in the soul. To know that little by little, your culture, your faith, your history, is being lost.

(4/7) I feel heavy the weight of remembrance. I think a lot of artists do. To me, it is a duty to those who’ve come before, to honor what is fading before it is gone forever. I am reaching the age where there are no survivors anymore, and it’s terrifying.

(3/7) There is apain there; a festering, dull ache that never quite goes away. One that can only be filled with remembrance and sorrow and joy and faith — but always in the absence of what was. It is never present.

(2/7) That was my reality as a child. I am a third generation diaspora, my family is from a city in Ukraine that no longer exists, from a bloodline that is too lost to history to trace beyond my great-grandmother.

(1/7) Holocaust Remembrance Day always brings up so many mixed emotions in me. I grew up in a synagogue where the people I prayed next to had numbers forever tattooed on their forearms — an eternal branding, proof of men’s hatred clear as day.

there is SO much of it it’s wild

if you see a vote for the reading list, that was me not knowing how the poll worked and apparently voting for it 🤪

bored at work. what should my next newsletter topic be?

1️⃣ 2025 Reading List
2️⃣ Mount Everest Deep Dive
3️⃣ Lost Rewatch Thoughts
4️⃣ January Studio Update

📊 Show results

Twitter post screenshot of the San Miguel Sheriff account. 5 years ago they posted about a boulder on the road but referred to it as "Large boulder the size of a small boulder".

Happy 5th "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" anniversary! #Geology ⚒️

where did you find this photo of me

i talk a lot of shit about football being the worst sport, but watching philadelphians do what we do is the only time i feel patriotic. go fucking birds!