Airea D. Matthews

Altitude Icarus, he advised, heed the warning: don’t fly

This poem by @aireadee.bsky.social lifted me this morning on its Icarus wings.

"Light refracts my name in
dialect only moths comprehend."

Laundromats are one of those few places where you can connect in real time with other human beings who may or may not have vastly different lives than your own.

Go to a laundromat and watch how you learn something new. I’ll die on this hill.

Wherever you are at least it’s not inside this uber of undefinable funk. At least it’s not here.

We can throw this whole month in the trash for all I care.

🙏🏽❤️

It would be very nice if politicians cared about upholding democracy as much as they care about tweeting. But…here we are.

Afraid to break. Content to be broken.

This is a constitutional crisis: the President doesn't have the power to cancel funds appropriated by Congress. Also, the math is insane; there is NO way to cut $4B/day by getting rid of "fraud". Cuts of that magnitude will dangerously undermine the core functions of government.

Several conversations today w people in the key executive departments. And while the particulars are hard to pin down my impression is that the Musk take over stuff is considerably worse than is being presented in the press. By this I don’t necessarily things they *done* yet but the level of …

You’re feeling dread for a reason. Search for the reason and activate.

UVA April 15th.

Delay, Leak, Disobey: How to Counter Trump 2.0 from Within Bureaucrats will guard the frontlines in the fight against American authoritarianism.

Democratic strategist Keith Edwards wrote this guide for federal employees—it has suggestions for how they can slow walk and even stop the Trump administration agenda from being implemented. Please share it!

keithedwards.substack.com/p/delay-leak...

The value of these platforms is in the algorithm. When buyers purchase, they purchase the speculative valuation of the algorithm—which is to say they buy your desires, thoughts, patterns & try to shape culture around what you think you wanted.

Lull you to sleep sated.

Rock you awake wanting.

Another reading selection

I can’t pass up the opportunity to be a Virgo and say “I told yall.”

They can’t have your mind if you don’t let them. And if you don’t let them, they won’t have your thoughts to tarnish.

It’s all spectacle. It’s all Bread and Circus.

Unbearable beauty (without filter or editing). Sunset in Toubab Dialaw.

Watching America from Senegal. Superbly shitty episode today with the 4th beastie boy in a gold chain talking about freedom.

My message to Zuck

New York at night. Dakar at sunrise.

The Self as Subject: An Interview with Airea D. Matthews When I learned that Airea’s new collection Bread and Circus was forthcoming, I immediately reached out and asked for the opportunity to discuss what I knew would be a masterful work. She said yes. …

Thank you, Brittany Rogers, for this generous interview in MQR.

sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2024/11/...

Just a reminder that meetings that could have been an email have life or death consequences.

Absolutely gorgeous!!

Imagine starting a battle rap and losing so completely, you call the police.

May I suggest the Kendrick Lamar model for the next four years?

-Anticipate foolishness
-Find an inside source
-Use your art form to drop 🔥 diss tracks proving you have intel
-Stage local spite concerts
-Get media coverage
-Go 🤫
-Book gigs
-Release a global collab, double down phenom

A very wise student! I think of this Zadie Smith quote, "It’s an unfortunate thing, but it turns out that the perfect state of mind to edit your own novel is two years after it’s published, ten minutes before you go onstage at a literary festival."

My student reminded me today that “time is the best editor.”

You betta dance!!

Someone said it was unprofessional to dance on socials but @aireadee.bsky.social said to keep doing it so I’m going to! I never posted my salsa videos on *other place* & I feel like the world deserves salsa content so here we are. Hope you dance today, too!

I get it. He’s fun to pair with Beckett to see how their notions of the absurd collide.