oldsloanie

We can’t fix this world but we can put more books in it. To a lot of people that doesn’t matter but often it’s the things that people think don’t matter that are the most meaningful. I don’t know.

Motto

In the dark times, will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.

Bertolt Brecht

I was told today that as a grant writer I’m “basically a professional overthinker” and now I feel both seen and attacked. Thanks, anxiety, for the career boost!

The devastating, shortsighted attack on literature continues. List from Magic City Books. Who'd they miss? Note: the small publishers selected here for financial attack include (among other very worthy and important presses) @transitbooks.bsky.social, publisher of 2023 Nobel laureate Jon Fosse.

ALA statement on White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services An executive order issued by the Trump administration on Friday night, March 14, calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation’s only federal agency for America...

www.ala.org/news/2025/03...

I used to teach that poem with 3rd-5th graders — it was so lovely to hear their take on it. 💜

📱Congressional switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

We have a number of comments we’d like to share. HHS works for you! It’s funded by you!

Eyes on the Prize is one of the best pieces of American public history ever produced. It's so frustrating that it isnt more available, given the era we live in. Eyes I streams on PBS and is on DVD. As far as I know Eyes II isn't available for streaming or on DVD. And now Eyes III will stream on Max.

Not content with purchasing the presidency, Elon Musk now wants to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court as well.

His PAC just pumped $1M into supporting anti-choice right-wing extremist Brad Schimel.

Wisconsin — don't become Musk's latest acquisition! Vote @crawfordforwi.bsky.social.

Dear #BookSky can you help us find our lost audience? We left 140,00 people behind on X and we want to reconnect!

Checked out a book about ‘why we’re so distracted and how to think deeply again’ but it’s been a big month. I had to return it to the library this week despite being only halfway through so now I’m super angry at the internet but I didn’t yet relearn how to think. 🤦‍♀️ #babysteps

Know your rights - MIRA Coalition Whether you’re a U.S. citizen, a green card holder, a student on a visa, or undocumented, you have legal rights. … More

Hey! If you have access to a printer, a thing you could do is print up some of these Know Your Rights flyers and cards (in languages spoken in your area) and post them around your neighborhood. miracoalition.org/news/know-yo...

And this is why archives (including the Internet Archive) matter. When records are erased, useful info is lost AND it's harder to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Okay. Time to get to work. Print Run will now be doing a Query Critique Drive. 100% of the money received will be going to an org or fund that directly helps trans kids. Here are the rules:

We are doing a week of calls to @schumer.senate.gov about Trump’s Cabinet of Horrors! Day One is about Bondi & Patel. Make a call, tell a friend to call, join us again tmw - easy. And even if you aren’t in NY you can still call bc as minority leader, he still works for YOU.

Cc: @indivisible.org

A white square with black text reading, “I remember in a recent interview you spoke about your support of the trans community, because you said: "I see that transgender youngsters are the ones who are helping to take planet Earth into the galaxy because we're going to run into other life forms that our gender does not matter." Can you speak about that a bit? I think the transgender kids are the bravest kids right now that we see; they're as brave as my generation was in breaking down segregation. They're breaking down —I don't have the word for it right now-but it's gender prejudice, and [the idea that] somebody has decided that they can tell you who you are, what your name should be, and how you should look.”

A white square with black text reading, “And those youngsters are saying, "No, I can decide who I am, what my name should be." Everybody's mad at me like, You should be a girl because we've decided you're a girl. And they say, "Well, who the hell are you?" I can decide that I'm a boy. And if it makes me happy, what does it mean to you? And I can decide that my name is John. And if you don't like that my name is Geraldine, why can't you name yourself? And if the people who know you and love you— or have to talk to you, maybe they don't even love you but they have to talk to you-you can tell them, "This is my name, and I would like to be referred to in that way."

A white square with black text reading, “But when we go into the galaxy, a life-form may say, "Who are you?" Well, there's no point in talking to another life-form and [saying] "I'm a boy or a girl," because it may have no meaning. That may mean nothing to them. So what you're going to say is, "I am a life form from the third planet, from the yellow sun," therefore giving yourself an identity. You don't have an identity because you say, "I'm a boy, I'm a girl, I'm a Jew or Gentile, I'm a Catholic or Baptist." That doesn't mean anything once you get beyond the prejudices of Earth. So yeah, I think the transgender students are really brave because they're taking a lot of flack for just wanting to be themselves and to have the right to have their own name. I think that's incredibly brave, and I think that they're absolutely right to want to do that. To want to own themselves.”

Nikki Giovanni staunchly supported trans folks, especially trans youth. Her encouragement is a balm.

“I think the transgender kids are the bravest kids right now that we see; they're as brave as my generation was in breaking down segregation.”

I needed some Janice to break up my doomscrolling this morning. Maybe you do too.

Hi! I stumbled upon your account via a comment somewhere while I was browsing, overwhelmed, bracing for impact — and you’ve already helped me find the puppets on bluesky. I’m grateful for that. Reflecting this morning on the role puppetry has long played in resistance.

I tend to read a lot more fiction than non-fiction, but I’m making a commitment to read some books from this list in the coming months. I hope sharing it helps others who want to read their way into finding their own best ways to resist and survive in the times ahead.

Thanks, Teresa! Delighted to hear this one lives up (and glad to know I’m not the only one who does this!) In the library hold queue now…

2025 Trans Girl Scouts To Order Cookies From! This year, consider ordering your Girl Scout cookies from a trans girl scout to make their day!

1. Did you know that Girl Scouts has, for a long time, accepted trans girls and nonbinary scouts?

Trans kids are under attack. Every year, I make a thread of trans and nonbinary girl scouts you can get your cookies from.

Lets get our cookies from them this year in solidarity!

ASL is a whole actual fucking language, friends. With nuance and depth and a whole cultural community. Don't tolerate this attack.

Person sitting leaning against a wall, reading a manuscript. White 3-D text overlay with sides colored in shades of pink and purple: Read with us. White 3-D SLQ logo with sides colored in pink and orange shades.

Interested in becoming a submissions editor at SmokeLong? Volunteering to read for a literary journal is one of the best ways to improve one’s own writing. Read more here: www.smokelong.com/work-with-us/

I keep going to put this book on my TBR, realizing it’s already there, and wondering why i haven’t gotten to it.

I think I like the title so much I subconsciously put off reading it because part of me is worried it won’t live up to my own internal hype. Does anyone else do this silly thing?

#Thread 1/5 : It is 47-years to the date Vietnamese troops rode into Cambodia and uprooted the #PolPot regime, perpetrator of the worst atrocities since #Hitler. I decided to visit the #GenocideMuseum in #PhnomPenh to mark the occasion. This used to be a school before it became a place of horrors.

US Congress House Bill 28 US State Legislature page for HB28& Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 54-0) Status: Introduced on January 3 2025 - 25% progression Action: 2025-01-03 - Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. Pending: House Education and Workforce Committee Summary To amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth. Tracking Information Register now for our free OneVote public service or GAITS Pro trial account and you can begin tracking this and other legislation, all driven by the real-time data of the LegiScan API. Providing tools allowing you to research pending legislation, stay informed with email alerts, content feeds, and share dynamic reports. Use our new PolitiCorps to join with friends and collegaues to monitor & discuss bills through the process. Monitor Legislation or view this same bill number from multiple sessions or take advantage of our national legislative search.

hi, cis folks! meet HB28. it's a sports ban on trans athletes. but actually, it's the first step to something much worse—see below.

45 sec call scripts for democrats & republicans in congress follow. if you've been saying you'd stand with trans people, now's the time.🧵

legiscan.com/US/bill/HB28...

Cass vs France — Assigned The French Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology commissioned its own version of the Cass Review, unsurprisingly it almost completely contradicts Cass.

"The French Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology (SFEDP) recently commissioned its own version of the Cass Review, and this study reached almost the exact opposite conclusions of Cass."

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

This seems like it will only get more pervasive, which endangers the work of translators working outside the "gatekeeping" of established publishers and who self-publish (sometimes great!) translations of public domain works—a counterintuitive effect of using tech in lieu of human expertise

Winter in Sochko was one of my favorite 2024 reads, so I’m excited to see another Elisa Shua Dusapin on this list. Some lovely reminders of books I’ve meant to get to, some I’d missed entirely but am now eager to read, and lots to look forward to in 2025.