Patricia Patterson

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard to wake up and be hopeful. But I woke up, and I still have the rest of the day to be hopeful.

A reminder that if the government can send migrants to a prison camp without any due process, it can send U.S. citizens there, too. I know because this happened to me and my family in 1942.

I love this—and returning to stories you thought were “dead,” only to find their beating heart. This is why so many of us keep writing. Cheers to characters who are (surprisingly) very much alive. ❤️

Some days, like today, I’m scared of my own body.

Rent went up today; student loans accrued $4K in interest; I pay $220/month for health insurance and it still costs me $120 to see a doctor each month; my prescriptions went from $30 to $387 … like. I’m a self-employed single parent in LA. Am I going to make it?

Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers captioned "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it"

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Me, three weeks into writing a novel

BREAKING, said the news, said everyone in this country.

RED RABBIT GHOST, the debut novel by UNCG Creative Writing alum Jen Julian, is now available for pre-order from Hachette Book Group https://buff.ly/3QcnrWw @mfagreensboro.bsky.social #UNCGAlumni #UNCGEnglish #UNCG #UNCGWay #FindYourWayHere

'I Am Finally Free!': Leonard Peltier Released From Prison After Nearly 50 Years Joe Biden granted clemency to the Native American rights activist literally minutes before his presidency ended.

"I am finally free."

Leonard Peltier walked out of prison today at 8:40am, nearly 50 years after the U.S. govt lied to put him there.

New statement from Peltier, along with photos of him moments after leaving prison, in the sun, happy. www.huffpost.com/entry/leonar...

A picture window at night covered in pale outlines shaped like the ghosts of birds. A bit of moonlight falls through them and across the bed, where a rainbow colored blanket is spread.

We have these little bird shapes in the windows to keep birds safe, and at night the moon lights them up. They make me feel like a kid again each time I see them.

A lot of my writing stems from deep pain that doesn't have anywhere else to go. This used to feel like a negative thing, but now I am so grateful to have created space for it to go *there* and become something else. I am grateful I get to grieve in this way.

Mexico threatens to sue Google over name change of Gulf of Mexico on US maps | CNN Mexico will take Google to court if maps shown to US-based users continue to label the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America across the entire body of water, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday, a...

Mexico will take Google to court if maps shown to US-based users continue to label the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America across the entire body of water, President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

She argued Trump's order to rename it only applies to the part of the continental shelf under US control.

Encyclopædia Britannica will continue to use ‘Gulf of Mexico’ for a few reasons:

-We serve an international audience, a majority of which is outside the U.S.

-The Gulf of Mexico is an international body of water, and the U.S.’s authority to rename it is ambiguous.
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This is a screenshot of a post on Instagram made by Mexican-American business owner Yreina Flores who makes and sells papel picado using ancient indigenous practices. Her business is called AyMujer. The post details Yreina's fears that her own people will be too scared to hang papel picado in the U.S. in the wake of ICE arrests, then subsequently reminds them that papel picado is a way of commemorating their lives, that while others may try to erase Mexicans from the U.S., they will always exist and persist. She posted a series of photos alongside her Instagram caption. The first photo shows a brown piece of papel picado decorated with flowers and birds that reads, "Brown is Beautiful."

"I thought about what papel picado represents––the breath of life. And how we hang it to commemorate our lives and in the ceremonies that make us US... I thought about how beautiful we are and how that is always worth celebrating, proudly."

- Yreina Flores of AyMujer

www.etsy.com/listing/1870...

Opinion | Kendrick Lamar’s performance was as Black and subversive as all get-out His message at the Super Bowl was a warning and a threat.

I wrote about Kendrick Lamar Superbowl performance-- its subversive messaging about America being a rigged, deadly game of survival-- especially for Black people.

But we need to stop pretending revolution is going to come from celebrities. It'll come from us.

Gift link here: wapo.st/42JVBs6

A Poem by Ada Limón - Believer Magazine Sports I’ve seen my fair share of baseball games,eaten smothered hotdogs in Kansas Cityand carne asada burritos in San Franciscoin the sunny stands on a day free of fog.I’ve sat in a bar for hours wat...

"...and it felt like what true terror should feel like, two men who were so different you could barely see their shadows attached in the same way..."

One of my favorite poems about how sports can unite us for good, by Ada Limón in @thebeliever.net. I tear up every time I read it.

Immigrants are the backbone of the U.S. Anyone who disagrees should take a hard look in the mirror. We’re only here because we or someone before us made that journey (for us).