Wayne Koestenbaum

“It is sometimes possible to put the fallen petal back / on the flower.”
—Alice Notley

New order — Farbiarz orders Khalil’s release for 6:30 pm CT. He must surrender his passport, and the gov has to give him a copy of it and his green card.

Sometimes I just stop, shake my head, and think how ridiculous it is watching my country be destroyed by a demented old man just because some white people are afraid of the future.

Why won't the media report, as glaringly obvious fact, that our president is an unhinged imbecile? bluevirginia.us/2025/05/sund...

Announcing issue 1 of fallow, a new literary journal, featuring new work by @evagriff.bsky.social @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social @greggerkesocrates.bsky.social Oisin Fagan, Ellen Dillon, Gabriel Josipivici, Helen Charman, Chris Beausang, Pascale Sardin @rhiansasseen.bsky.social & Patrick Nathan

trying to get a good night’s sleep during a dictatorship: “sleep no more, _____ hath murdered sleep”

Trump demands unprecedented control at Columbia, alarming scholars and speech groups The Trump administration has delivered an extraordinary ultimatum to Columbia University, threatening to permanently end federal funding to the school unless it cedes control of an international studi...

“It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,” said Joan Scott, a historian & member of the academic freedom committee of the AAUP. “Even during the McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.”

apnews.com/article/colu...

when the mainstream media attacked and mocked deconstruction and cultural studies and all the other progressive intellectual advances of those times, that denigration was a rehearsal for what is now happening at Columbia

I grew up under a terrifying authoritarian regime. Mahmoud Khalil's arrest is right out of their playbook Mahmoud Khalil's arrest by ICE reminds one professor at Columbia University, Khalil's alma mater, or her childhood in authoritarian Romania.

Marianne Hirsch for context and insight.

Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts Local and international health research efforts are already winding down as the university braces for even more potential cuts.

Among the projects Musk and Trump have killed via Johns Hopkins:

Mosquito nets to prevent malaria in Mozambique, and chlorine tablets to prevent diarrhea deaths in Bangladesh.

www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Imagine a world in which the words “Gulf of Mexico” are forbidden.

Free Mahmoud Khalil.

They have nothing. Nothing. They kidnapped a legal resident, shipped him across the country, denied access to his attorney, and are now trying to deport him. And their only justification for it is either protected speech or vague descriptions of alleged crimes committed by other people.

Jews Demand: Release Mahmoud Khalil We refuse to be used by Trump to enact his authoritarian agenda.

ADD YOUR NAME: American Jews demand that Mahmoud be released from custody and returned to his family immediately with his green card intact. For Mahmoud’s safety and all of our safety.

www.bendthearc.us/release_khalil

A President who detains a protestor and revokes their legal status can only be called one thing:

A dictator.

Silencing dissent is unlawful, unjust, and authoritarian through and through.

A flyer for a protest tomorrow which reads Monday, March 10 4PM Jacob K. Javits Federal Building 26 Federal Plaza, NYC EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION! RELEASE MAHMOUD KHALIL HANDS OFF OUR STUDENTS ICE OFF OUR CAMPUSES MON. MAR 10 • 4PM

Tomorrow in NYC will be sunny & pleasant. This will be important.

Setting aside the incredibly dangerous and fascist aspect of this, is there actual evidence that Khalil was a “Hamas supporter”? Or is the standard for a green-card holder being sent to a secret location and possibly deported just “critical of Israel”?

re the previous repost: if they can disappear permanent residents they can disappear citizens

25 hours after Mahmoud Khalil was detained in a Columbia-owned apartment building — Khalil’s whereabouts are still unknown & Columbia has still not commented

Bernie Sanders is holding MASSIVE rallies in packed venues, bigger crowds than Trump was getting, and legacy media is practically silent. Bernie is talking to workers rather than hanging out with socialites with mediocre plastic surgery at Mar-a-Lago, and it's just not interesting to corporate media

DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Cancellation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Education (ED), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that through their coordinated efforts they would i...

The choice of Columbia in particular shows that there's *no* amount of suppression of pro-Palestinian speech a university can engage in that will insulate and protect it; so might as well try to do the right thing, which Columbia has determinedly avoided since October 7.

www.gsa.gov/about-us/new...

Ice arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest comes as Trump vows to deport foreign students involved in protests against Israel’s war A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested on Saturday night by federal…

Ice arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says

BREAKING: DHS Detains Palestinian Student from Columbia Encampment, Advocates Say Agents told him his student visa was revoked. But he had a green card. Agents then said that was revoked too.

Breaking: DHS detains Palestinian student from Columbia.

It's finally here! Of all my over 50 translations, this is the one I'm proudest of-- and most grateful for. I owe so much to Proust, I'm so glad I could repay my debt a little by translating him. ❤️

I listened to the 1974 RAI Milano recording, conducted by Danilo Bernardinelli

decided unequivocally that Giordano’s forgotten “Siberia” (1903) is my new favorite opera

.@eallen.bsky.social reading from Antonio Di Benedetto's The Suicides in Baltimore tonight as part of the Hidden Palace reading series. Starts 7pm at Fadensonnen (3 W 23rd St.)

Other great speakers, including @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social

@josephgrantham.bsky.social
@greedyreads.bsky.social

Today is the publication day for Essex Hemphill's *Love Is a Dangerous Word: Selected Poems," out from @NewDirections, which Robert Reid-Pharr & I coedited!

Essex Hemphill's work speaks both to its time & compellingly to our current moment. Please order a copy!

www.ndbooks.com/author/essex...

Some figures on the potential death toll from Musk's pointless destruction of USAID, from a memo written by a fired official. He will be remembered as one of the great monsters of history. 1/x