R. Joseph Rodríguez

Eko: How an indigenous teacher created a sensation in Indian cinema At 70, indigenous teacher Biana Watre Momin acted in an Indian film that has changed her life.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Bad Bunny’s Sign Language Interpreter Is Ready to Make Super Bowl History It’s the first time the halftime show will feature Puerto Rican Sign Language — a win for Deaf Latino representation.

www.kqed.org/arts/1398631...

This Black History Month, the leaders of the past can teach real resistance | Eric Morrison-Smith Movements are not born fully formed – they begin when ordinary people decide to act

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Quote of the day by Marie Curie: 'Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have...' Marie Curie's timeless quote, "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves," offers a powerful reminder of inner strength. Her ow...

m.economictimes.com/news/new-upd...

❤️

won't you celebrate with me By Lucille Clifton won't you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.

“Between starshine and clay” tattooed on Chanea’s arm

Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” is the poem I reach for the most as I move through the world finding joy and breaking generational curses.

I remind myself that “i made it up” when I stumble building a life I’ve never seen.

28 poems for Black History Month day 1

Sandra Cisneros The novelist and poet, 64, on the power of art, the impact of depression, her #MeToo story, and the splendor of a poppyseed bun.

www.chicagomag.com/chicago-maga...

How Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson ended up pitted against each other Author Howard Bryant juxtaposes the politics and power of the two men in “Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.”

www.csmonitor.com/Books/Author...

Alex Honnold and Netflix Team Up for a Corporatized “Free Solo” In “Skyscraper Live,” the climber once again put his life on the line, but it was mainly the viewers who were on edge.

On Saturday night, Alex Honnold, of “Free Solo” fame, invited the whole world to watch as he climbed the Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world, as part of a special Netflix streaming event, “Skyscraper Live.” newyorkermag.visitlink.me/h3zt6c

Banned Books List 2025 What books are banned in 2025? Thousands of titles have been removed from public schools across the country.

pen.org/banned-books...

World-renowned author says books are medicine - Fredericksburg Standard Sandra Cisneros’ writing has always explored the intersection of things: poetry/prose, memoir/ fiction, Mexico/the U.S., spiritual/ earthly. As a child, her family often traveled between their home in...

www.fredericksburgstandard.com/2026/01/07/w...

Toni Morrison and Georgia

www.georgiahumanities.org/2016/11/02/t...

time.com/archive/6737...

Langston Hughes Wrote Fiction That Still Stings How months of harassment and racism at Carmel-by-the-Sea led Langston Hughes to write his landmark story collection The Ways of White Folks.

www.altaonline.com/books/poetry...

40 years after Challenger: Lingering guilt and lessons learned Forty years after the Challenger disaster, NPR explores the engineers' last-minute efforts to stop the launch, their decades of guilt and the vital lessons that remain critical for NASA today.

40th anniversary lessons from the NASA Challenger disaster

www.npr.org/2026/01/25/g...

Martin Luther King Jr.: Beyond “I Have a Dream” Resources about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., beyond the traditional narrative.

@zinnedproject.bsky.social provides a list of multimodal resources to learn and explore the legacy of MLK. Bookmark it today, read and explore over the next months. King's legacy is about more than a day #mlkday www.zinnedproject.org/news/mlk-jr-...

Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a bus at start of civil rights movement, dies Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin has died. She was 86. Her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement.

Claudette Colvin, arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up bus seat, dies

www.npr.org/2026/01/13/g...

Brutal, vibrant and creative: capturing the soul of Latin America in 100 photographs The journalist and historian Paulo Antonio Paranaguá uses images from the turbulent continent to weave a history of the region, covering colonisation, slavery and dictatorship

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

How Dark the Beginning BY MAGGIE SMITH All we ever talk of is light— let there be light, there was light then, good light—but what I consider dawn is darker than all that. So many hours between the day receding and what we recognize as morning, the sun cresting like a wave that wont break over us—as if light were protective, as if no hearts were flayed, no bodies broken on a day like today. In any film, the sunrise tells us everything will be all right. Danger wouldn't dare show up now, dragging its shadow across the screen. We talk so much of light, please let me speak on behalf of the good dark. Let us talk more of how dark the beginning of a day is.

Happy new year!

I love sharing this poem by @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social.

I’m reminded this year of Audre Lorde: “These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through darkness.”

US homeland security condemned for using Japanese artist’s work without consent Hiroshi Nagai, in a post on X, has objected to his artwork being used by the agency to promote its deportation agenda

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

Found object art featuring a broken white crayon arranged to form a tent shape in falling snow, with an illustration of two children sitting underneath reading books. The words “Happy Holidays!” appear above. Art by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

You never know what will come out of a broken crayon.

May everyone have a safe and happy holiday! ❄️⛄

#Uplift

Register today for the 2026 IRC Conference, A Full Literacy Palette, from March 12-13, 2026 in Springfield, Illinois! Find out about the amazing authors and speakers joining us at
www.illinoisreadingcouncil.org/conference-i...
#IRCreads @ILReadCouncil
@escribescribe.bsky.social

Danish postal service to stop delivering letters after 400 years PostNord’s decision to end service on 30 December comes after fear over ‘increasing digitalisation’ of Danish society

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

www.bbc.com/audio/play/m...

"Rafa" says it was a bit over 40° and damp and foggy when he began pruning grapevines this morning in Madera CA. "I earn minimum wage. This cold damp weather makes our bones ache, but I'm grateful for the work, since there is very little work at this time of year." #WeFeedYou

AI’s safety features can be circumvented with poetry, research finds Poems containing prompts for harmful content prove effective at duping large language models

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

Mexican X-Plainer: Mesoamerican Turkeys Around Thanksgiving, we should always reflect on indigenous culture, food, and language, respecting and honoring Native Americans and…

Nine years ago, I wrote a short piece on Indigenous names for the domesticated turkey in Mexico and Central America, which is where the bird is from.

Tlazohcamatilizilhuitl Tictlazohmatih in totlaltzin in yolquitzin in tohuehcauhcayo. Zan amotlan huel toncateh. _________________ Feast of Thanks We give thanks to our beloved land, the revered animals, and our ancestors. Only through you can we exist.

On this fraught yet important day, our family—in Cemithualtin Ximmilcah, we of the Green Mountain Fields—offer up this chant of thanks, not to pilgrims or their culture or their god, but to the three aspects of life that sustain us:

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Thank you for your essay’s evidence, claims, student-scholar voice, and magical thinking!

The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.

I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University

www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...