gwendolyn wallace
@gwendolynw__
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children’s lit author, public historian, anti-imperialist, tree enthusiast, phd’ing @mit | rep’d by @WendiLuluGu
Boston, MA
Joined September 2017
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My SECOND picture book is out today! Such an honor to have a book about Black history, social change, and public libraries come out during Banned Books Week and Gullah Geechee Heritage Month!
Pick up your copy of The Light She Feels Inside wherever books are sold ✨
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I spent the last two weeks in Cuba! Unfortunately, so much misinformation circulates about the island every day. But if the situation in Cuba was actually hopeless, all the propaganda by US media wouldn’t be necessary. So here are some things you should know about Cuba 🧵
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vacationing in Hilton Head or any of the sea islands is an act of violence against the Gullah Geechee people. Black/Indigenous people’s well-being will always be more important than your island dream, whether it’s SC, PR, or Hawaii
Their ancestors formed the first town of freed people in the U.S.
Now, the Gullah Geechee are being forced off their land as tourism takes over.
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There are infinite reasons why the Black freedom struggle and Palestinian freedom struggle are directly linked, and I wanted to share some of them bc I think many Black people (especially Black USians) are more quiet about Palestine than we ought to be. (1/6)
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Oh, and 70% of scientists in Cuba are women. Scientific inventions there aren’t powered by money, but the actual needs of the people. What a concept.
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Healthcare and education are free at every level. (Yes, this includes the full range of mental healthcare, reproductive healthcare, and gender-affirming healthcare. And yes, this also includes daycare, pre-school, and all graduate schools on the education side.)
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Speaking of COVID, because Cuba knew that they wouldn’t be able to access many of the global vaccines due to the US blockade, scientists there created 5 COVID vaccine candidates. Now, Cuba has the highest vaccination rate in the Americas and their vaccines work on anyone over 2
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The 1960 Cuban Literacy Campaign resulted in a 99% literacy rate for adults today (the US has a 79% adult literacy rate with 54% of adults reading below a 6th grade level). At the start of the pandemic, the government worked to broadcast televised classes tailored to all students
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Cuba has the most doctors per capita in the world. They send doctors abroad for every major medical crisis. The country has about 30,000 doctors abroad at any given time. After Katrina, Cuba offered to send a medical brigade to the US and President Bush rejected it.
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Valuing intergenerational relationships in your life includes learning from young children, who have so much to teach us about what freedom looks like
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Cuba has a near-zero homelessness rate. This is due in part to the fact that rent in state built housing is capped at 10% of family income. The average lifespan in Cuba is higher than that of the US and they have a lower rate of infant and maternal mortality as well.
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Cuba is classified as the most sustainably developed country in the world. The government encourages people to grow their own food on their patios and a significant portion of unused state land is used for growing crops. Cuba is also home to one of the last intact coral reefs.
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Along with the development of COVID treatments, other successful innovations by Cuban scientists include lung cancer vaccines, drugs to combat organ transplant rejection, a treatment for patients with diabetic ulcers, and a treatment which enables more people to survive strokes.
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Today, over 50% of parliament seats are held by women. Also over 50% of teachers at institutes of higher education are women. Cuba also has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the Americas, and has begun offering social benefits to grandparents raising a child.
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And of course, Cuba has offered material aid to liberation struggles globally, from medical professionals to troops to supplies. They have also granted asylum to many activists, especially Black activists from the US.
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All of this is DESPITE a 60-year US economic blockade that prevents the island from accessing food, technology, basic resources, and even medical supplies. Last year only the US and Israel voted against the UN call to end the blockade for the 29th year in a row.
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“Black solidarity with Palestine allows us to understand the nature of contemporary racism more deeply.” – Angela Davis
"We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." -Nelson Mandela (6/6)
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All of this is not to say that Cuba is perfect. But in the US we’re fighting an unelected body over a constitution whose core hasn’t changed in its history and that the people get no say in.
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Cuba has had several constitutions since it’s independence and also a Family Code which covers legal obligations regarding marriage, divorce, children’s rights, and gender equality. The people (children too) shape both documents through a democratic, public consultative process.
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As we absorb anti-Cuba propaganda from our media it’s worth considering who really has the repressive and backwards regime. If we believe in justice we must fight against the blockade from the belly of the beast.
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I also remember that during the protests of 2020, Palestinians sent messages of solidarity to Black USians, held protests of their own for us, and told us how to neutralize tear gas and fight against common police tactics. (5/6)
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The US gives over $4 billion to Israel every year and is removing resources from poor Black communities to fund the US war machine. Even tear gas used on Palestinians was the same tear gas used on protestors in 2020. Both struggles are against racism and colonial violence. (3/6)
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There is a LONG history of Black-Palestinian solidarity. Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, and more expressed their support for the Palestinian people. SNCC ran a 1967 newsletter about colonialism in Palestine and linked Black and Palestinian activism. (4/6)
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Israel directly contributed to the increasing militarization of the US police. The NYPD’s “Demographics Unit” was modeled on their practices, ICE meets with (and receives $/tech from) Israel to surveil US borders, and thousands of US police received training in Israel. (2/6)
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I understand how necessary it is to collect memories from elders, but I wish we had more oral histories from kids. Recording how children experience their communities, the ideas they have about the past, the stories they tell & the games they play is so important to memory work
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solidarity forever
During my week in Cuba, I reflected on how similar the US blockade of Cuba is to the Zionist blockade of Gaza. Both aim to punish colonized people for anti-imperialist victories. Both attempt to quell the resistance of revolutionary struggles. And both blockades will be defeated.
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Hi! I’m a grad student doing a project on race/surveillance/school discipline and could use some help. In 1970, June Jordan and Terri Bush collected poetry from 25 brown and black children living in Brooklyn. If you have any leads on the whereabouts of these people, please DM me!
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the impulse to control children is just a variation of the same drive that has led to every other form of oppression. We can’t get free if the children aren’t free.
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As an abortion fund worker, I think this message is horrific—a false equivalence of colonized and colonizer, the cowardice of “war against Hamas has killed”, the mention of SA by Hamas and not the history of SA by the IOF (perpetuating the “brown people are sexual savages” idea)
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I had never seen the Combahee River Collective in a picture book before, so I put them in mine.
“Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work.”
Get your copy here:
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COVER REVEAL for my debut picture book! Out June 20th with
@KokilaBooks
! Please share and pre-order!
🌿”In her grandmother’s garden, a young Black girl learns about mindfulness and herbal medicine in this soothing intergenerational story about our connection to nature.”
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I wish more people would recognize that the child/adult division mirrors other hierarchies of domination and enshrines dualisms like white/Black, male/female, human/nature, and physical/metaphysical
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and miss me with any of that “those people need tourism to survive.” Living out your tropical fantasy is not care. The lack of any respect for island communities globally is just modern-day imperialism and colonialism.
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“To go further, I make no secret of my opinion that at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe has reached an incredibly high level, being only surpassed - far surpassed, it is true - by the barbarism of the United States.” - Aimé Césaire
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“I realized that regardless of the tragedy, regardless of the grief, regardless of the monstrous challenge, some of us have not died. Some of us did NOT die… And what shall we do, we who did not die?” -June Jordan, 2001
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I’m so happy to announce that I’m the author of a picture book that’s coming into the world! There’s nothing I believe in more than the radical impulses of Black girls, which is why I’m so excited for you all to meet Maya soon! ☺️🎉
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Happy 106th birthday to the late Fannie Lou Hamer!
Illustration by Olivia Duchess from my newest picture book, THE LIGHT SHE FEELS INSIDE ☀️
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Broke my hair pick and sent my white roommate to Walgreens with this drawing, wish her luck
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@educated_real
I would encourage you to read the history of the Haitian Revolution, Nat Turner’s Rebellion, and Denmark Vesey’s uprising. “Terrorist” is a political word.
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Here are pictures of the children included in the back of the book. Many of them wrote about their frustrations with how they are treated in school. If you have any information about these people today, please DM me!
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COVER REVEAL for my next picture book, out OCTOBER 3RD! Preorder today!
This is a book about community, mental health, and how we discover our capacity to change the world. It’s an ode to librarians, the lessons I’ve learned about hope, and the history of radical Black women✨
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How can you be a self-described leftist and have this take? You can’t call yourself an “anti-capitalist” and believe there’s no future left to fight for. Also, this sentiment is especially inappropriate at a time when the state is actively taking away abortion rights and sex ed.
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locked for the night bc imperialism apologists are flooding my mentions and DMs. But let me say this: the blockade won’t end unless USians speak out against it from the belly of the beast. Solidarity forever and freedom to all the oppressed people of the world ☀️
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When Alice Walker said, “so much of the satisfying work of life begins as an experiment” and when Saidiya Hartman said, “it is an improvisation with the terms of social existence” and when Audre Lorde said, “the only answer to death is the heat and confusion of living”
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I’m so happy that I get to announce my THIRD BOOK! Collaborating with
@tonyaengel
is an absolute dream. This one is an ode to the Black South, gender expansiveness, and the fight against environmental racism and displacement :)
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TWO months until my debut book comes out!
#BlackInEnvironRollCall
“In her grandmother’s garden, a young Black girl learns about mindfulness and herbal medicine in this soothing intergenerational story about our connection to nature.”🌱
Preorder here:
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My debut picture book comes out in ONE MONTH! To celebrate, I’m sharing some prompts I wrote that touch on themes in the book. Link to pre-order below 🌱
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My flatmate captured my shock upon seeing my debut picture book for the first time! Joy Takes Root out June 20th! Preorder link in my bio 🌱
“In her grandmother’s garden, a young Black girl learns about mindfulness and herbal medicine in this soothing intergenerational story”
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doing my part today in this Barnes & Noble by putting all the Black picture books in the front 😌
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Learning to garden over the past 2 years has improved my mental health, my relationship with my ancestors, and my capacity to give myself grace. I’m so grateful
@sydneemonday
gave me the chance to share plant wisdom with children and for
@ash_corrin
who will be illustrating 🎨 📖
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@YesAurielle
Yes! Thinking today of this June Jordan poem as well. What an act of love and solidarity to not say “I stand with you” or “I believe you,” but “I am become you”
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This summer I’ve absolutely fallen in love with coming-of-age movies that center Black girls
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🌱SNEAK PEEK🌱 Joy Takes Root officially comes out in two weeks! It’s a book about intergenerational relationships, Black environmentalism, and fostering a connection with the natural world. Preorder below!
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Today, like every day, is a great day to read the Combahee River Collective Statement (1977)
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There is so much room in our current moment to think about the kinds of relationships we want to form and how we want to hold our ourselves, our chosen family, and our communities. I was grateful to have a little space to do that tonight ✨
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Even if you don’t recognize any of the names or pictures, a retweet would help immensely :)
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Book: Launched ✅ JOY TAKES ROOT is officially out in the world! Snag a copy at a bookstore or library near you today!
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“the enormity of our task, to turn the world around. It feels like turning my life around, inside out. If I can look directly at my life and death without flinching I know there is nothing they can ever do to me again”
-audre lorde, the cancer journals (1979)
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This country simply doesn’t care about its children and that’s what so much boils down to
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Created my first little zine tonight at an amazing virtual workshop with
@em_ulsify
and
@theleilaraven
to support
@NYSYLC
in the work they are doing for undocumented folks. Donate if you can!
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Barnes & Noble’s 25% off pre-orders special is a great time to pre-order JOY TAKES ROOT (out June 20th)
We have a 25% off pre-orders special going on through 4/28 with code: PREORDER25.
#bnpreorder25
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In light of your eugenicist history, it would behoove you to not release statements in support of genocide under thinly veiled neutral language
@PPFA
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there’s no better time to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed than right now.
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This is such a white take bc the rest of us have experienced the end of the world and given our children great lives through it. I’m a black woman and I am excited at the possibility of the life I could give my kids. Babies will be born anyway so what’s even the point of this!!
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Not my creative writing professor telling me to change “edges” to “margins” in an essay about hair
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I’ve been really struggling to stay grounded and connected this winter, but a daily collage practice continues to help immensely
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@jatella
If you can’t think of any other way to respond to a rude comment by a Black woman other than “lace front,” I sincerely do not know what to tell you
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Posting this reply so ppl can understand why there is so much white Cuban-American backlash to my thread. On Mayday, I watched as millions of Cubans marched in support of their govt and against the blockade. I’ll lift up their voices over USians who eat up the US story about Cuba
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Celebrate Juneteenth by pre-ordering my debut picture book that comes out TOMORROW!
COVER REVEAL for my debut picture book! Out June 20th with
@KokilaBooks
! Please share and pre-order!
🌿”In her grandmother’s garden, a young Black girl learns about mindfulness and herbal medicine in this soothing intergenerational story about our connection to nature.”
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What are some of your favorite picture books that address death and mourning?
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I could not have guessed that losing Wordle would start radicalizing my mom
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When I wrote The Light She Feels Inside, I knew I wanted to include Marsha P. Johnson, and particularly the story of her STAR house, a shelter and social space for unhoused trans and queer youth
#TransAwarenessWeek
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Hello, folks! I just got word that my test for COVID-19 was positive and I wanted to note a few things. First, my main symptoms were lethargy, a cough, and a bad headache. Also, my cough was wet (not dry as many people have documented) and I never had a fever
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@izzzz_y
I am well aware the country is underdeveloped due to slavery, capitalism, and the US blockade. My thread still stands.
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The ways some of you are trying to “reason” me out of respecting kids...god bless these poor children. All power to the little people honestly because we are failing them.
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sooo excited to announce that I’ve been awarded a scholarship with
@HighlightsFound
! And I’m quoted in the announcement :)
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What a stupid and ahistorical take. Legacies of Voudon, obeah, hoodoo, etc. are inextricably bound to organizing practices and rebellions. Conjure women especially have always been crucial to movements for Black liberation and to pretend otherwise is asinine.
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You have less than two weeks to get a copy from
@Loyaltybooks
that is SIGNED and has some free stickers included✨
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Of course my agent,
@WendiLuluGu
, made this list! She’s amazing and thoughtful and kind and most definitely a ⭐️
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affirmations that have resonated for me lately:
🌻The world is so big
🍂I deserve grace
🌱Beautiful things happen every day
🎈I am more than the things I do
🥭My ancestors want me to rest
☀️I am looking forward to the morning
🍄I am connected to more than I even realize
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For my first piece with
@blkagendareport
I wrote about anti-Blackness, the abolition of the medical industrial complex, and the amazing work of
@miamingus
@Dreamdefenders
@projectlets
@UMedicsChi
!
“Anti-blackness has not distorted medical relationships and institutions, so much as built them.” Check out this must-read article by
@gwendolynw__
about why movements for abolition must include dismantling the medical industrial complex.
@prisonculture
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The US blockade (which creates some terrible conditions in Cuba as people have loved pointing out) is punishment for an island which has fought imperialism fiercely. The Cuban govt isn’t perfect, but it is our duty as USians to speak out against the blockade every chance we get
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Currently buying roller skates and starting a personal essay to feel something
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I hate Amazon, but it is exciting to see that Joy Takes Root is the
#1
NEW RELEASE in Children’s Recycling & Green Living Books!
@ash_corrin
@sydneemonday
@KokilaBooks
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Today I got into my dream creative writing workshop for this winter but it costs $600 I don’t have, so if you’re white you should consider Venmo-ing me @ gwendolynwallace1
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I wanted to share some highlights from tonight’s conversation by
@GI_NewYork
on healing & transformative justice, because Mariame Kaba, Cara Page, and Adaku Utah created a space filled with so much love and care:
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I am constantly in awe of the ways that Black women care for and show up for one another
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@cynfinite
the ingenuity of granny midwives. I recently read about the career of Margaret Charles Smith, who delivered over 3500 babies in Alabama and never lost a mother. She once saved a 1.5lb premature infant by making an incubator out of a cardboard box and hot water bottles.
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Just got off my paternal grandmother’s 90th birthday party zoom and I’m feeling incredibly grateful to have two living Black grandmothers over 90 (who both got to see great grandchildren). Child-elder relationships are beautiful and not to be taken for granted when you’re Black.
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As much as I understand the urge not to have children because the world is a mess, my desire to have children grows the more time I spend with others fighting for justice.
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Street medic organizations are a crucial part of a future without police. Read more about street medics below and donate to Northstar Health Collective to get medical supplies to protestors in Minneapolis! (Link below)
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Found out today that my mom’s ring tone for me on her phone is “Here Comes the Sun” 🥺
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