Farah Bakaari

today i started class with bad bunny’s halftime show because that’s where the students were at and it became an excellent fodder for our unit on narratology, also a great way to review our discussion on immanent critique and totality from a few sessions ago.

Close Reading For The 21st Century Symposium (Vandal Live at Emory) Podcast Episode · The American Vandal · S12 E4 · 1 sec

It's here! I hosted a symposium on close reading at Emory in November. Matt Seybold recorded it for his podcast, American Vandal, and the first of three episodes is out today. Catch me, @johannawinant.bsky.social, @becimay.bsky.social, @bakaari.bsky.social + more podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

having watched the benito bowl half time show several times now and then rewatched last years a couple more times, i’m convinced as ever that a not insignificant part of racism is just the fury that they couldn’t never be as cool as black and brown people. i mean goodness, swagger cannot be bought 😎

having watched the benito bowl half time show several times now and then rewatched last years a couple more times, i’m convinced as ever that a not insignificant part of racism is just the fury that they couldn’t never be as cool as black and brown people. i mean goodness, swagger cannot be bought 😎

i teach my kettle semiotics 🙄

today my nephew turned 20. first, how dare he make me feel so old?! second, when i saw him last he was 10 and when i wished him happy birthday, he said, “when will we see you again? we miss you!” and i’ve to carry around that startled lump of sedimented sadness into all that i have to do today.

it’s truth universally acknowledged that one cannot have two good consecutive writing days. sigh.

For the Saturday crowd.

Astray: A Reading Journal The following conversation emerges from the authors’ reading group’s discussion of Tsai Ming-Liang’s film, Walker (2012). Tsai Ming-Liang is a Malaysian-Taiwanese director, part of Taiw…

For MTC, a reading group reflects on Tsai's WALKER, the literature & legacy of the flâneur, and why thinking needs straying.

"After metaphysics, the monk becomes the aesthete; the empty space left behind by the death of God is filled up by art, literature, and, of course, Tsai Ming-Liang’s cinema."

the book is 55+ years old so really what is time (except for a tool of affectability 😉)

Finally had time to sit w @bakaari.bsky.social's article, "Affectability, temporality, and postcolonial subjectification in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born," and it's so good. The description of the postcolonial politics of teaching people how to feel about time is *chef's kiss*

oh, rachel you’re so sweet and kind. and that novel is responsible for much of my intellectual trajectory since college. i’m honored to be read by you 💕💕

A publication ostensibly publishing in 2026 might conceivably prioritize actual threats in 2026.

Book clubs! This essay was so interesting—and I can’t wait to read the book. More convos about reading and what it means for all of us.

i try very very hard not to yuck on people’s yum, but you guys heated rivarly is not that deep. it is silly, cute, fun, a social phenomenon but you must stop with the think pieces okay. you’re allowed to enjoy perfectly sculpted glutes without an elaborate politico-aesthetic justification

Peek Behind the Curtain: A CASUAL Theatre Post-Mortem I wonder what happened in the dressing room(s)? Did they all share one? What did we miss? In theatre, a “post-mortem” is the practice of evaluating a show once it has closed. It is a time for the c…

Today we have such a cool practice-focused piece out! The talented folks of Los Angeles Performance Practice let us peek behind the curtain and eavesdrop into one of their post- mortem conversations. It's also an experiment in coauthorship, with the Co-Directors of LAPP speaking as one voice! 🎭

this is not the news i was hoping to receive. ugh.

and don’t even think about bringing up karl the fog, he barely sticks around.

so a quick question for california people: is the sun just gonna shine all the damn time? this doesn’t sit well with me.

I am teaching the golden notebook this semester, i rest my case!

when you come home in a furious mood and there are too many contenders for a culprit, what do you do? make lentils and listen to florence is one answer.

i am writing an essay for a more general audience and i looked at the draft and worried it was perhaps too academic. i the removed “always already,” and was like okay it’s good for public consumption now

sometimes i am a slow writer because i don’t know what i am doing or where i am going. other times i am a slow writer because i know exactly what i need to do and therefore extremely bored of carrying it out. either way, it sucks.

i’m jealous of your snow please report it with lots of photos.

So grateful for this engaged and thoughtful review of my book!

It’s magnificent, and the students were down with philology and its suddenly high stakes!

cc @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social @johannawinant.bsky.social

as part of “easing into” the seminar on criticism we read auerbach’s essay on odysseus’ scar alongside first 10 pages of sinykin & winant’s close reading book. it’s not an easy essay but the students were up for the challenge and for exploring the worlds opened up by an attention to a single detail!

we have been here before, both in this and in other lands. we know how it ends if we stand for it.

Reading With the Room: A Review of Katarzyna Bartoszyńska’s ‘Reading Together’ Reading Together testifies to the contemplative mode that both books and book clubs can spark. Katarzyna Bartoszyńska’s Reading Together is a book about book clubs and, quite fittingly, reads like…

Maggie Boyd reviews Katarzyna Bartoszyńska’s 'Reading Together' and reflects on the democratic, indulgent good of the book club! "Reading Together testifies to the contemplative mode that both books and book clubs can spark," Boyd writes.