Jordy Yager

Connect with your people offline. Take the chats to signal but also take your close relationships offline entirely. We need to be connected when they shut this all down.

What’s your organizing plan if things go dark? Where do you meet? Who picks up what work? How do we communicate?

Well, damn.

Well, damn.

7 things every child needs to hear?
#parenting #family #ideology

All of this was made possible by the wonderful guidance of David Plunkett at JRML, and the fantastic foundational work of Risa Goluboff, Randi Flaherty, and Birkutawit Assef, combined with the editorial guidance of Andrea Douglas, Ivan Orr, and Addie Patrick. A true and solid team.

Gregory Swanson Honoring Gregory H. Swanson's pivotal role in a movement for civil rights.

As part of the 75th Anniversary of Gregory H. Swanson's successful case to desegregate the University of Virginia, I created a Storymap.

We wanted to share a bit more of the context of Swanson's actions in Charlottesville, and the far reaching ripple that's with us still today.

arcg.is/1T8aC85

Kara Walker Deconstructs a Statue, and a Myth

Kara Walker Deconstructs a Statue, and a Myth.
Meanwhile boards and curators worry about bad press and retaliations.

Kara Walker Deconstructs a Statue, and a Myth

Kara Walker has long been one of my favorite living artists. She’s brilliant.
“Offered the Stonewall Jackson statue, w/ no restrictions on how to use it, she has deconstructed the equestrian form, to render horse and rider in a kind of melted mutant grotesque.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/a...

Kara Walker Deconstructs a Statue, and a Myth

I spent my childhood (sometimes literally) in the shadow of this Stonewall Jackson monument. Kara Walker has a wonderful facility for marrying complex ideas and simple truths, in addition to producing aesthetically excellent work. This is a triumph. (gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/a...

The mission of the Center for Local Knowledge (CLK) at @jsaahccville.bsky.social is rooted in reparative and spatial justice.

The CLK helps empower communities reclaim and celebrate their histories, while also addressing injustices and deepening our collective understanding of the past.

Person holding a protest sign

“Ever wondered what you would have done during the rise of fascism? You’re doing it RIGHT NOW!”

Screening Raised/Razed to a group of Government officials from Roanoke, Amherst, Warren, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Shenandoah, Prince George, Staunton, Colonial Beach, Vienna, VA + Ennis, TX, Riverside, MO, Westminster, CO, Gaithersburg, MD + Onslow, Gastonia, and Nags Head, NC.

We Can Still Save the Institute for Museum and Library Services Act now to help save the Institute for Museum and Library Services and ensure the well-being of public libraries nationwide.

We can still save the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Here's a practical guide to what to do right now to save not just the agency's funding but its future all together.

Part of this is messaging on reauthorizing the Museum and Library Services Act.

bookriot.com/we-can-still...

The UVA Board of Visitors has quite a history. (Below is far from the only grim example.) The current board, which schemed with the Trump regime to oust the university's president, is honoring it.

Security Culture – Defend Dissent Digital suppression and cryptographic defense of social movements

Persuade me otherwise, but I don’t think every public utterance needs to be archived or posted on the internet. Indeed, at some moments, perhaps this one included, it can actually be risky. Mentioned this to a colleague, who sent this helpful article about security in social movement culture.

Feels like a good time to remember that when Gregory Swanson applied for admission into UVA Law School, the graduate committee accepted him.

It was the UVA Board of Visitors who overrode that decision and denied him admission, because he was Black.

Swanson took them to court, and won.

I wonder if anyone's studied the first 30 years of UVA graduates (1829-1859) to see where they went & what they did—TJ designed the school to teach, espouse, and spread very specific ideas and ideals, so what did the first three decades of that look like exactly—collectively, in total?

A Masterclass in Connecting Status, Power, and the Economy with Tressie McMillan Cottom Podcast Episode · The Money with Katie Show · 06/25/2025 · 1h 31m

“There are no good or bad guys, that's the part we're all struggling with.” -- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social

moneywithkatie.com/status-power...

One day maybe we'll see the connection between our political and ethical values, and where we spend our money? Maybe?

A dive into the Board of Visitors’ political donations Here is a look at Board members’ political donations — all but one of whom has records of political donations which are overwhelmingly to Republican candidates and campaigns.

The kids at the cav daily are doing very, very good work. www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

Eve Ewing with hammer and hope shirt

Ant Smith with Hammer and Hope shirt

Jesse Hagopian with hammer and hope shirt

Mariah parker with hammer and hope shirt

So many powerful comrades, organizers and scholars working in the Black radical traditions were in the building at socialism 2025 . Become a Hammer and Hope member today and support our work!

25/ Black graduate students stop coming to UVA + Black faculty departures mean that Black mentors are few. This also brings an economic impact to local businesses and cultural institutions, esp Black-led and owned ones, withdrawing a major source of financial and solidarity-driven support.

##END

24/ Black student enrollment drops as UVA embraces a “colorblind meritocracy,” cutting support for underrepresented students and defunding early outreach programs. Local Black kids grow up with a university that is inaccessible, hostile, and built without them in mind.

23/ UVA historians stop working on projects related to racial justice and repair, while city, county, and private schools get pressured by UVA to adopt a “balanced” curricula that espouses racial lies, false narratives of control and power, and right-wing ideologies.

22/ UVA arts programs sever ties with grassroots Black artists and cultural institutions, opting instead to fund and curate shows on “Western Civilization” and “Founding Principles.” The university's public humanities funding prioritizes groups like the Jefferson Council.

21/ UVA’s transit system is further curtailed and restricted to student needs, charging low-wage workers for mandatory buses and shuttles to satellite locations, forcing tens of thousands of workers into longer, costlier commutes or unemployment.

UVA Updates Rules on Demonstrations and Access to Shared Spaces The changes and updates are meant to balance the University’s free speech commitment with ensuring Grounds remain accessible to all.

20/ UVA increases its targeting of protests and protesters, enforcing a “civility code” and a strict set of rules around permitting. Faculty allies vanish, while organizers face surveillance, denied space, and police action.

news.virginia.edu/content/uva-...

19/ With this entrenchment, the next reparative and racial justice phase becomes even harder to wage. The longer this ideological shift takes hold, the more normalized it becomes, as new policies operate at baselines of exclusion and inequity.

18/ As more conservative faculty move here, the cost of housing is further driven up, causing even more displacement as any remaining community-centered developments are replaced with upper-income luxury developments and businesses that cater to their residents.