Imani Perry

This Groundbreaking Artist Vanished. A Decade of Sleuthing Reveals Her Greatness.

New from me — on Mavis Pusey, her survey show open now at ICA Philadelphia (coming next to the Hammer in LA and Studio Museum in NYC) — and the decade of curatorial sleuthing to locate her artworks and fill out her story.

GIFT LINK

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/a...

He lost his wallet, which had his green card, and made an appointment in Philly to replace it. There he was handcuffed & taken away with no explanation. “His wife, who speaks little English, was left behind and kept in the building for 10 hours until she was released to her granddaughter.” He’s 82.

Gaza Health Ministry Says Israeli Military Killed 32 Near Aid Site The latest deaths add to U.N. figures showing that more than 670 Palestinians have been killed since May near sites built under a new Israel-backed aid system.

Israeli soldiers opened fire near a food distribution site in southern Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, Gazan health authorities said. The UN said this past week that more than 670 Palestinians had been killed in similar episodes near aid sites.

I was 9 years old when I met Thomas Sayers Ellis. I called him “little Malcolm” then because of his glasses, and knew the “Sayers” was due to him being nice with a football. He was a complicated man (to put it delicately) and a brilliant poet, drummer, and photographer. May his death be peace.

US Supreme Court OKs Trump’s Gutting of Education Department The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to put his plan to dismantle the U.S. Education Department back on track.

The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to put his plan to dismantle the Education Department back on track—and to go through with laying off nearly 1,400 employees.

buff.ly/dUlSRDT

I have no words. Everyone prepared for the constitutional crisis of the President defying the SCOTUS. The crisis is the SCOTUS being fully aligned with Trump’s vision of presidential power. So here we are.

Solomon Northup: From freeman in NY to slave in New Orleans An account of what it was like for some enslaved people to make the weeks-long journey by ship from the mid-Atlantic states to be sold in the New Orleans slave market of the 1840s.

Through captive eyes: The cruel journey to the New Orleans slave market veritenews.org/2025/07/14/d...

Here are the nonfiction books NPR staffers have loved so far this year A deep dive on gossip. Revolutionary history. A meditation on muscle. A closer look at the color blue. And memoirs galore. There's something for everyone on this nonfiction summer reading list.

www.npr.org/2025/06/25/n...

This is legitimately terrifying. Almost 10 million people live within the city limits of Tehran with another almost 7 million additional people in the metro area. There are 8 million people in NYC. How the FUCK would we all be able to "evacuate" with no notice??? THIS IS EVIL. PERIOD.

SNCC: The Importance of its Work, the Value of its Legacy SNCC Staff singing a Freedom Song in SNCC’s National office (Atlanta,1963). They are wearing coats because there was no heat. L-R: Mike Sayer, MacArthur Cotton, James Forman, Rick Manning, Marion Barr...

Textbook stories on CRM focus on segregation. But a bigger issue was daily, random, brutal violence against all African Americans and white allies.

Students need to learn that history -- to see the 🧵& learn how to organize for change.

One example is from SNCC ⬇️
sncclegacyproject.org/legacy/

Backed by the colors of the lesbian flag painted on a wall, a 3D mockup of Imani Perry’s LOOKING FOR LORRAINE displayed as an eBook on a tablet next to the text “Pride Month” written in rainbow colors and a raised fist for the I.

“Though her romantic relationships remain, for me, somewhat opaque, it is unquestionable that her desire for women and her love of women was meaningful as part of her politics, her intellectual life, and her aesthetics, as well as her spirit.” — @imaniperry.bsky.social #PrideMonth

x.com/jazz_and_mor...

Devil's Bargain: How the slave trade built New Orleans A new project from Verite News examines the role of the slave trade in building and sustaining New Orleans.

Please read and follow this powerful new series from Verite News about how slavery built New Orleans veritenews.org/2025/05/29/d...

Schomburg book festival! (You’re in NYC right?)

Announcing the 2025–26 Season Lineup for Portland Arts & Lectures Join us in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for another five evenings of incredible authors and artists sharing how they make their work and their insights into our world.

We announced the lineup for our 41st season of Portland Arts & Lectures.

🔖 @lizgilbert.bsky.social
🔖 Percival Everett
🔖 Colm Tóibín
🔖 @imaniperry.bsky.social
🔖 @praddenkeefe.bsky.social

We look forward to joining you for season! 🤩 lit-arts.org/PAL-lineup-2...

Librarian for the people Under the leadership of Carla D. Hayden, AM’77, PhD’87, a revered institution is connecting Americans with their country through its treasures.

Dr. Carla Hayden is a people's librarian.

Her term goes until 2026 and should remain that way.

Don't comply with unjust laws and practices.

#FreedomtoRead @librarycongress.bsky.social

mag.uchicago.edu/hayden

YouTube video by Prince - Topic Pope

A little levity youtu.be/hDyjYi4phoU?...

My godmother is an elder New Orleans Creole nun. I cannot *wait* to talk to her about Pope Leo. I know she is tickled.

She Changed Black Literature Forever. Then She Disappeared. (Published 2021)

From 2021, on Pulitzer finalist Gayl Jones www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/m...

This is going to be a calamity for many many people who aren't even aware of what's about to hit them.

Cover of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity by Monica L. Miller. The title is in yellow at the top, with a curlicue to its left. The cover features detail from the painting "Yellow Book" by Iké Udé, with a light-skinned Black man in profile, sitting on chaise longue. He is wearing a dapper grey suit, gloves, and a floral boutonniere. The subtitle is written in white across his knees and the author's name is in yellow at the bottom of the cover.

Tonight is the #MetGala, celebrating the upcoming opening of the new exhibition "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," which was inspired by Monica L. Miller's 2009 book "Slaves to Fashion."
buff.ly/BTlV1TY

Well, blue carpet

Strike a pose! Are you watching the #MetGala red carpet right now? Whose Superfine/Tailored For You look is your favorite so far?

There’s a lot of blue on that red carpet #justsayin 💙

Five Years Later: America Looks for a Way Forward After George Floyd Activists, authors, professors, artists, and athletes share the impact and aftermath on the fight for racial equity

A must-read with gratitude to
@policingequity @sandylocks.bsky.social
@imaniperry.bsky.social
and the many other contributors.

time.com/collections/...

Erasing History: Trump’s Cuts to Federal Grants Threaten Black History Museums The Trump admin continues to attack DEI, targeting museums dedicated to Black history. Dr. Tracie Therence Ferrell reminds us that this history is vital and more current than people realize. “This is history that is happening now,” says Dr. Ferrell. “My family is not even one generation removed from a slave plantation.” And yet these important stories are at risk of erasure. “What this administration is trying to do is not just erase parts of history, but actually erase the very idea of history and knowledge in the service of mythology,” says Harvard professor Imani Perry. 

Trump’s attacks on DEI threaten to erase Black history. “This is history that is happening now,” says Dr. Tracie Therence Ferrell, whose mom was born on the Whitney Plantation. The Trump admin is “trying to teach a false narrative about what this country is,” says Harvard's @imaniperry.bsky.social

Favorite line “Chicago ain’t nothing but Mississippi with tall buildings instead of plantations.”

And the gris gris, mojo, nkisi… plus the history of the Mississippi Chinese, The Choctaw, Scots Irish… cotton time, passing sharecroppers paid in plantation scrip instead of cash, vagrancy statutes, convict labor (my dissertation 25 years ago was about that latter part.)

That Louisiana conjure and Mississippi blues combination… and Buddy Guy 🥹🩵. Yeah I’m grateful for Sinners coming out right now.

We need to keep returning there, following those threads, using the tradition to create, imagine and sustain. I’m grateful for this film. Also, I recommend All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, an indie film with common ground too.