Rana Tahir
@WritingRana
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Writer. MFA. @kundimanforever Fellow. @RAWInews member. @cyoapub author. IG: readingrana (she/her)
Multnomah Land (PDX) / Kuwait
Joined February 2020
Not gonna happen. I’m not sorry I didn’t vote for one genocidal candidate because the other candidate was also genocidal but somehow would be “worse.”. Maybe now that it’s tr*mp, people like you will start to care about Palestinians just like you “cared” about kids in cages….
People who didn't vote for Harris over Gaza sure made life a lot better for Gazans, huh? It was a binary choice, people. We were telling you what Trump would do. I hope we see some sincere mea culpas.
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PEN did not donate to the PCRF, the Jean Stein estate did. PEN has actively platformed zionists in the middle of a genocide perpetrated by zionists while silencing dissent. PEN continues to spread zionist propaganda. Compare this to their reaction to what’s happening in Ukraine.
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The whole Lockheed Martin thing is exactly why I have trouble trusting White Americans regardless of any intersections with marginalization they may have. From the most “progressive” to the right-wingers foreign policies based on treating brown people as expendable is the norm.
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@itslaylas @powellAtlantic The Atlantic is a zionist rag. I’m sorry you weren’t heard by this writer.
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@PoetsGaza is raising funds to support and evacuate two kids from Gaza. Please share and donate! @summabis @dahieh48 and I are collecting and transfering the funds like we did for Amal For Palestine.
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@jerichobrown They haven’t committed to divesting, just that there will be a vote in October. I don’t believe this is being done in good faith, they are trying to delay.
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@LambdaLiterary In light of the pattern of literary organizations treatment of those who support a free Palestine, I’m sure Lambda understands why many people would like more specifics on this resignation. When will we be hearing more details on the circumstances of this resignation?.
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@caitiedelaney I wouldn’t give any weight to Klompas, she deals in propaganda. Below is one example: a screenshot of her saying a calendar with the days of the week in Arabic was a list of Hamas terrorists.
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I love Bluey and this is exactly how I felt watching this episode.
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@patriphobe Couldn’t bring themself to Gaza where the genocide is happening says everything about this trip for “understanding”.
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No accountability taken for publishing the piece without input from other editors (which caused many to resign), no grappling with the specific issues of the piece, and most importantly:. No apology to the Palestinian writers who have been part of the mag!. Good riddance.
I have resigned as EIC of Guernica. After weeks of difficult conversation, it is clear to me that Guernica’s space for writing on war, injustice, and oppression has evolved away from commitments I consider essential.
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@Sujo113 @KTHwoes @appersons @AgneseBaf Viserys II and his descendants end up on the Iron Throne, and he’s Rhaenyra’s youngest son, so that means Jon Snow and Daenerys came from her line not Alicent’s.
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Hey @POETSorg maybe read the room before posting a poem that “both sides” a genocide… . Why are all our literary institutions so morally bankrupt?.
“This poem was written on October 13, 2023, in one sitting. The poem is pinned to a moment in time, a hinge moment.”. ––Jeffrey McDaniel.#AboutThisPoem.
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THE MICROLENDING FUND LLC, owns Frontier / Palette / Master’s Review / CRAFT Literary / Fractured Lit / The Voyage Journal / Uncharted Magazine / Literistic / Pocket MFA. Boycott publications that don’t stand against genocide. Thanks @tarikdobbs for sharing that info!.
yesterday, I resigned from my role as EIC of Palette Poetry due to censorship, neutrality, & painful conversations around the occupation of Palestine. I'm sad to leave this way, but I can't work for a company that frames genocide as complicated.
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When did it end exactly???.
BREAKING: Macron says Putin wants to 'take us back to the age of empires'.
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And yes, despite the good they have done, it is legitimate to say platforming genocidal propaganda and denialism outweighs that good. Your access to books is not more important than a Palestinian’s right to life and freedom. This thread clearly values one over the other.
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So @smithsonian refuses to be transparent about the decision, and refuses to reimburse the huge costs for organizers. Everyone involved in the actual organizing of the event said everything was on schedule, despite what the Smithsonian claimed. Something’s fishy.
Extremely disappointed in @smithsonian for canceling the upcoming Asian Am lit fest, just weeks away, without any warning or answer. Way to discard all the immense labor & care that went into this event - shows us how little y'all think of our communities.
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While the inciting incident was a statement on Palestine, you can read the letter and the timeline of events to see how this is not only about Palestine but also about nonprofit mismanagement. Frankly, I & the organizers would rather focus on the genocide in Palestine.
Over 100 Kundiman fellows have called for the board’s resignation.
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The only people who are portraying PEN as a zionist and intellectually bankrupt org are PEN leadership themselves. They are the ones showing us whether they are beyond moral rescue. They were given chance after chance after chance.
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Nice to hear there’s progress. I’m still boycotting because PoFo has been a mess to many marginalized people for so long… I need to see action before they can earn my trust. (Not that I’d even get in tbh 😂).
Four months ago we called for a boycott of Poetry Foundation, and thousands answered; the cost was felt by many. Love to everyone who heard us, and love to my kin @IntifadaBatata @MyNrhindi @tariqpoems @summabis for organising. Here’s where we’re at now.
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MIT said: “Please only protest an ongoing genocide at our convenience”. Then wondered why people didn’t listen….
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We need answers. There was nothing wrong with that first statement; we know Kundiman doesn’t condone violence. So where did this come from? As a fellow I am disappointed to say the least.
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@hebagowayed The desperation to find *anything* to explain the encampments besides genocide is bad 🙄.
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It is one thing to stay in an org to hopefully make it better, but this thread just turns into a defense of PEN without actually contending with the immense harm—real, active harm—they have done.
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Death march. For those of you who have donated to and kept up with Amal For Palestine (one of the fundraisers I’ve been organizing), Jabalia is where A4P operates. May Allah keep them safe. My heart is shattered, but I will not give up.
Israeli forces are ordering Palestinians in Jabalia to evacuate south and Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate north while they bomb everything. What is this called?
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Gorgeous!! Can’t wait to read!.
US cover reveal for YOUR EMERGENCY CONTACT HAS EXPERIENCED AN EMERGENCY 🌙. thank you, Vincent Chong, for making this absolutely dreamy-ecstatic-tender-wild work of art. & thank you, Sandy Knight, for so brilliantly designing this cover—& dealing again with a long ass title ♥️
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At some point we need to talk about the toxicity thrown at poets (due to what I believe is sheer jealousy) and how it seems amplified against poets of color with any prominence. Someone went out of their way to report the poem on Chen’s IG but nowhere else? That’s targeting.
and i’m starting to lean toward someone actually reporting it because @adroitjournal posted the first page, where “faggot” first occurs, without changing a thing, and that post’s still up after a day! my post was gone 2 hours after posting.
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How many of Edward Said’s former students and colleagues are being silent over the suppression of pro-Palestinian students by Columbia?. If you’re silent now, did you actually learn anything from him?.
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All poets & poetry orgs should be screaming about this.
A poem by Mosab Abu Toha, who we heard today has been kidnapped and held hostage by the IOF while attempting to flee with his family. we call for his immediate release and the release of all Palestinian political prisoners
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This reads like someone who has only been paying attention to headlines. PEN went mask off, and if you choose to stay after that, that is your business. Don’t mischaracterize the entire ordeal to justify your stance. Who was asking you to justify it anyway?.
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This statement says nothing about the actual harm the board has done. We were specific:
To our communities, stakeholders and friends: Please read this important message from Kundiman’s Board of Trustees.
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“How it is that I am an antonym for person, synonym for sickness?” Amazing poem from @chenchenwrites.
happy national poetry month~ i've got a new poem, "Winter," in @The_Rumpus. this one's about the pandemic (it's set in April 2020), anti-Asian violence, & sexual racism i've experienced as a queer Asian man. also, Björk. here's the first page. the rest:
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They quote Darwish after defending genocide apologia 🫠. “What is lost grows in you and in the sunset”. He’s literally talking about Palestine which has been undergoing ethnic cleansing since he was a 7 year old. I’d add swear words but I’m fasting….
". Memory, your personal museum, takes you into the realms of what is lost. A sesame field, a plot of lettuce, mint, a round sun that falls into the sea. What is lost grows in you and in the sunset. ". Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941-9 August 2008).
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@Sujo113 @KTHwoes @appersons @AgneseBaf That is a different Daenerys married to a Martell, but Daenerys from GOT is a descendant of Viserys II. I think I see the mix up: It goes Viserys II (son of Rhaenyra), Aegon IV who is the son of Viserys II (not Rhaenyra’s father Viserys I). They need to stop reusing names 😂.
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@samah_fadil Someone remind them of the Ghost in the Shell movie and the Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie.
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My fellow brown immigrants/international students know exactly what I’m saying.
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In light of @PalettePoetry’s inaction, I’m demanding that they take down my poem “Belief” from the website. That poem is precious to me, dealing with my faith & a childhood of abuse. I refuse to have it stay with a pub that silences Palestinians while they face genocide.
yesterday, I resigned from my role as EIC of Palette Poetry due to censorship, neutrality, & painful conversations around the occupation of Palestine. I'm sad to leave this way, but I can't work for a company that frames genocide as complicated.
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@Vanessid @moyurireads I don’t think this person was saying they were a part of BDS, this is an organic boycott like the Starbucks and McDonalds ones. Everyone who claims to be pro-Palestine/anti-genocide should be part of BDS and PACBI, but if they want to *add on* to their boycott that’s fine too.
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Naomi, Naomi, the doppelgänger curse.But who is to say which Naomi is worse?.The Wolf will lie with every sigh.But Klein is fine with genocide.
Can we rewrite that mnemonic @NaomiAKlein loves so much?. Here's my first try: .
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@Sujo113 @KTHwoes @appersons @AgneseBaf Aegon IV was Viserys II son and grandson to Rhaenyra, not Alicent. At least according to the World of Ice and Fire book. I haven’t read Fire & Blood so maybe my info is outdated.
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Is it that there was an event on Palestine? Is it that there were planned readings by trans authors? Is it @smithsonian caving to anti-asian hate that has escalated since the beginning of the pandemic? We don’t know because they wont say. This decision is cowardly and disgusting.
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Raised in the GCC and here to say: the livability is enabled by slave labor; the politics is ultra-capitalism, wasta, and a rise in conservative fundamentalism.
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Reminder that Abbott used these same state troopers to terrorize people along the border. None of us is free until all of us are free!.
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The fact that the only mention of the ongoing genocide is in reference to access of information is telling. How lovely that PEN helps out in Utah (I barely saw anything from them in rural Idaho). But that does not outweigh the harm they are doing with their *national* platform.
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All these people complaining about Portland teachers wouldn’t last a day in the job. As a former sub who has seen issues across several schools in the district, I stand with the teachers.
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Remember when “bearing witness” was all the rage in literary circles and everyone had some programing or speech or something about how important it was?. Clearly by “bearing witness” they meant look once and learn/say/do nothing.
So many institutions racing to render themselves irrelevant, to expose their cowardice and cluelessness as they bootlick a genocide. I don’t want to hear a single one of you mediocre middle management motherfuckers ever use the words brave, truth. justice, or equality ever again.
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How tf can you be about “free speech” and also be “above politics” what is this bs?. Creating an open society IS A POLITICAL POSITION!.
🧵"Can an organization that sees itself as above politics, that sees itself straightforwardly as a support system for an open society, be allowed to exist anymore?" asks @galbeckerman in @TheAtlantic
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And how will staff know this is a drill and not an actual shooter? If there is a school officer and they start shooting at the “intruder”?? This is ridiculous and will further traumatize kids while not actually keeping them safe.
NEW: @GovAbbott has instructed the Texas School Safety Center and @teainfo to start conducting "in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts" to find "weak points" and see how quickly they can enter without being stopped.
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What the fuck what the fuck.
I’m not going to share the video because it’s beyond horrifying but they shot hundreds of African refugees at the Morocco Spain border. The brutality and horror is heart breaking.
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There are virtually no protections for domestic workers. There are technically laws but there is no implementation and no consequences for those who abuse workers. I remember just a handful of news stories of employers facing accountability.
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Help us take care of two children in Gaza!.
@PoetsGaza is raising funds to support and evacuate two kids from Gaza. Please share and donate! @summabis @dahieh48 and I are collecting and transfering the funds like we did for Amal For Palestine.
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With Ramadan coming soon, Amal For Palestine needs donations to help to provide food and support for people in North Gaza. Please donate and share widely!. Link: #FreePalestine
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In October the board silenced staff without recourse or explanation & a group of fellows responded with a letter disseminated through internal @kundimanforever channels. What followed was 7 months of the board ignoring fellows who tried to work with them in good faith.
I'm devastated to have to share that @kundimanforever has been betrayed by Sarah Gambito, Joseph Legaspi, Ricco Siasoco, and the Kundiman board. We call for their resignations. All this because of a simple statement of solidarity with Palestinians.
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Just got off the telephone town hall with @RepBonamici where all but 3 questions were on Palestine & supporting a ceasefire. It is clear that even when callers brought the receipts she refuses to represent her constituents and sign the #CeasefireNow resolution.
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So @PENamerica are you going to apologize to @randajarrar and @wawog_now? Will you take a firm stance against genocide? Or are you just full of shit?.
American University has banned all indoor protest in a move PEN America's Kristen Shahverdian says will limit dialogue and clamp down on free expression:
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@jgoodma07390623 @cyreejarelle @Vanessid Lots of us millenials followed in the footsteps of Gen X, Boomers etc. by becoming more conservative as they got older. Hoping that Gen Z and Gen Alpha break that cycle.
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Sure, @Eve_Barlow aka Fartlow. The Jewish girl and her boyfriend were out to get you, not responding to the fact that pro-Israeli/pro-genocide demonstrators hit her car with a flag pole, maced her, called her an Arab and then sexually harassed her.
The screening ended in total chaos. I had a near-miss with a young woman and her boyfriend. They were like Zombies on Fentanyl, just ready to eat Jews.
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May we celebrate eid in a free world, from Palestine to Sudan and beyond.
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So grateful to have this poem from my series on the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and Gulf War 1990/91 in @poetryonl. This is the first poem from the series I started ten years ago to be published anywhere!
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Just a reminder that Israel broke the terms of the pause within the first hour. It only lasted this long in spite of Israel and because of Palestinian restraint.
An hour into the ceasefire, Aljazeera’s reporter in Gaza says Israeli forces are firing in the vicinity of the Rantisi Hospital to stop people who are attempting to return to their homes there.
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I’m happy to talk to any staff members of @SplitThisRock who may be facing retaliation for their support for Palestine on what steps we took when @kundimanforever staff were sidelined for their support. Solidarity with you! ❤️.
I've been told that a repeat of the @kundimanforever situation is playing out again. My entire support is with staff @SplitThisRock, over any founders, funders, or board members who would attempt minimize the power, courage, & clarity shown by staff.
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So this is how @PalettePoetry treats the people who have dedicated years to the pub. They don’t deserve our support.
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Meanwhile have there been any consequences for those IOF “students” who attacked Columbia students with skunk water (a chemical weapon)?. Hint: no.
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@jdgtranen Friends and I are working to get 2 kids evacuated from Gaza 🙏❤️.
join me in supporting two young children in Gaza, funds for food + other supplies until ceasefire, then evacuation
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Had the staff been allowed to keep their statement & the board issued their own “both sides” statement without taking over socials etc. This could have stayed as a “difference of opinion.”. Every move the board has made since October was to sideline and silence staff and fellows.
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To say there are plenty of “compelling” arguments that this is not a genocide right after MASS GRAVES have been found is so profoundly disgusting.
"Plenty of arguments exist on the side of those who do not see what Israel is doing as genocide—and they are compelling even for people like myself who believe that Israel has acted recklessly and in a way that constitutes collective punishment." (3/x).
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There are things about the list I don’t like (for example grifters like Naomi Klein are listed as pro-Palestine) but the “book burning” reactions are ridiculous. This thread is good to read.
Since I'm drunk and petty, let's talk about twitter famous white writers who've written books I've never heard of and the way they treat anyone who tries to hold other writers accountable for bigotry. Their most recent target:
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The presence or absence of Hamas does not change the daily occupation.
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This isn’t about “differing political statements” (yes this is a subtweet). This is about the board unilaterally stripping the staff of its agency and then refusing to be held accountable by the community for that.
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Honestly who thinks their words are more important that the lives of thousands of kids? Like how do those people exist?.
call me naive but i’d rather 30,000 books be banned than 30,000 children be killed. kind of ridiculous to draw that false equivalence but if that’s the language you speak, there you have it. sorry i guess!.
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This @kundimanforever board is reckless and needs to go!.
On June 4, Cathy Linh Che, Executive Director of @kundimanforever, was fired after serving Kundiman as Executive Director and staff member for 12 years.
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Getting up to go to work today is so much harder. I don’t know what to say if students bring up the shooting.
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Apparently sending one email asking writers to be aware of the world and say something about an ongoing genocide in Gaza during their panels is “harassment” or “incitement” that needs to be met with threats from @awpwriter.
Let’s see what the @RAWInews email was that caused this panicked fart of a statement from AWP. Just got a copy of it. Somebody explain to me please why this isn’t okay, why anything needed to be said at all in response—let alone threats of eviction and so on.
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Glad to have signed this letter. @PoetryFound, shame on you.
Eternally disappointed. Exhausted beyond words. Every time I think I've reached the floor of my exhaustion, a new floor emerges. Please read, sign, & share widely. Boycotting the poetry foundation until they take a clear stance against genocide.
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Screw @PoetryFound keep boycotting.
We were clear in saying that we were lifting the boycott in good faith, in anticipation of seeing the outcomes that were discussed; let me be equally clear in saying this statement fails on a number of levels, it doesn’t honour that good faith. This is a profound disappointment.
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Please support this campaign!.
join me in supporting two young children in Gaza, funds for food + other supplies until ceasefire, then evacuation
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Just what we needed 😭.
in case you weren’t anxious enough about #Election2022 there was a lunar eclipse today which medieval astrologers interpreted as chaos, danger to women, and failures in communication . I break it down more in depth in my latest video
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Had a great time at AWP catching up with @pacificuMFA & @KnoxCollege1837 friends, and saying hi to @RAWInews and @kundimanforever friends! Book fair is where its at (especially the Pacific U MFA table 😉).
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Wish @summabis a happy birthday and make a donation! ❤️❤️❤️.
it's my birthday🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂 it would mean very much to me if you gave to this fund, supporting two kids in the north of Gaza. perhaps $27 (im 27)
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@craigcolfelt @venuechange @Rrrrnessa There’s so much wrong with your statement. The issue has always been the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. I’m just gonna leave this here for anyone who wants to know what actually happened when Israel “built a state” as you put it.
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Hi everyone!. Amal For Palestine needs donations to get food and supplies to people in Gaza. With the help of @dahieh48, I’ve set up this fundraiser on GiveButter. Please share and donate if you can. Link here:
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@transjewtalian I love this quote from Isaac Asimov. Not exactly what you were looking for tho.
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We’re only 6 episodes in and I’m floored. Don’t know how I’m going to survive the season!!.
Breaking news! #YoungJusticePhantoms now has 23 eps in the can, i.e. completely done. Last 3 are in final stages of post-production! Don't miss ep 406 tomorrow on @hbomax! And help #SpreadTheWord to #KeepBingingYJ in order to #SaveEarth16! (Let's get these hastags trending!).
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Share this article instead of the publisher’s weekly one for two reasons:. 1) The PW article was written by an (alleged) abuser (screenshot in next tweet). 2) Lit Hub has been consistently covering the writing world’s response to Palestine.
The PEN America Literary Awards have been cancelled.
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If you can’t handle accountability and working with your constituents, you shouldn’t be in leadership. And for those who personally know members of the board and think this is an attack on character, I want to remind you: not all nice people are good leaders.
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That’s a management and governance issue that would have come up eventually, if not about Palestine then about something else. And it’s interesting now to hear from fellows about other concerns with the running of Kundiman. So again, this would have come up eventually.
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@RepBonamici You used a lot of words to basically say nothing. Thanks. 😑.
Read the full statement. This is not a change on @RepBonamici’s position. She calls for a “bilateral humanitarian pause *or* a bilateral ceasefire” not a ceasefire outright. Meanwhile the rest of her statement gives voice to Israeli propaganda. Nice try, Suzanne.
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Wrote this poem at my first @kundimanforever retreat back in 2019 ❤️ thank you @PalettePoetry for giving it a home.
new #poetry! today, we're delighted to share "Belief" by Rana Tahir @WritingRana 🌊. "when the athan breaks across the sky.the seas come back to pray. I will.believe most things easily.". read here:
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I don’t think 13 yo Rana realized how so many of her dreams would come true.
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