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Aaron Foley

@aaronkfoley.bsky.social
759 followers 83 following 443 posts

Bylines and books. Documenting history, sometimes making it. Detroit expert and expat. Black gay elder millennial — it’s a lot! Sorta like Elle Woods except I’ll recap Beyond the Gates for you. Unserious thoughts with occasional bursts of intellect.

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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
You already have Reddit, @shinkirin.bsky.social. That wasn’t enough? Screenshotting from an app you don’t use to name check on a completely different one? Talk about an endless desire.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Absolutely none of this is true @shinkirin.bsky.social, but since you’ve disabled replies and quote tweets, wouldn’t that be the real definition of gatekeeping?
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Good morning. Donald Faison should’ve said the “disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand-ticket holding friend of Dorothy” line in Waiting to Exhale and “faggot, gay, homo, it’s all the same” line in Clueless.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
It’s all tied to schools. Harper Woods, Eastpointe and Roseville in particular look the way they do because people moved for their families. Those cities also don’t have identity so no one would mind if you say I’m from Detroit. Cities with big identities like GP and Warren, you can’t say the same
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Now if you live in Pleasant Ridge and rep the city like a certain infamous journalist with a rap sheet does, I’m judging. Or a rapper that grew up on the Warren side of 8 Mile. Or if your criminal enterprise that influenced a generation but technically started in River Rouge. Certain burbs, not all.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I’m going to write more on this somehow but one big thing that has changed recently in Detroit that didn’t exist in my lifetime is the stigma of repping the city when you live in CERTAIN suburbs. Cause Harper Woods is just another eastside hood at this point. Oak Park is just 7 Mile with synagogues.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Viv really trying to get me to watch Y&R again
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
I love that #BeyondTheGates is bringing back the B-list musical guest to Black shows. Vesta would’ve loved this shit if she was still here.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Since Detroiters are on intersections and streets today keep those men in any suburb west of Telegraph far far away from me chile
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
I love working in an all-Black environment. Dude wore a turtleneck to the office today and is getting roasted on levels I haven’t seen since 8th grade
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
I’m always going to recirculate one of my favorite clips every time I have an excuse to point out how soaps are key to Black Hollywood: www.theatlantic.com/entertainmen...
theatlantic.com
How Soap Operas Paved the Way for Complex Black Characters on TV
Well before primetime shows like 'Empire,' there was 'The Young and the Restless' and 'All My Children.'
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Saw this vid of Teena Marie talking about taking her daughters, plural, to see Aretha backstage at a show. Someone in the comments reminded that Maya Rudolph is Teena’s goddaughter. Maya was/is in a Prince tribute band but her godmother’s situationship was Prince’s worst enemy. My brand of chaos.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I didn’t know Jamal Bryant organized the Target quote-un-quote boycott nor that he had this much clout to get so many of yall to do so
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Cause now I gotta figure out how to make a graceful exit (if yall don’t know me, know that I am the king of courtesy and social grace) without looking lonely and desperate (since I am a Libra above all else)
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
98% of the time if I go to an event alone I’m good — always see someone I know, can enjoy my own company, etc. That 2% when it’s evident I need a wingman though? Takes me to the depths of my self-esteem I haven’t seen since the ‘90s
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Maybe it’s the seasonal depression lifting but I feel like writing.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
“Justify” x Norman Connors, Ada Dyer and The Jones Girls
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Didn’t realize Tayari Jones was eight years between books until she told Seth Meyers just now. I feel better now lol
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
We were having a conversation about where the highest concentration of scammers are, Nigeria or Atlanta? And I piped in and said the actual final boss of scammers is the Black gay bottom with a corporate AMEX.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
But also
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
That mixing feature on Apple Music when you’re on shuffle is diabolical and catches me off guard every time. You’ll be listening to Neither One of Us Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye transitioning to I Can Tell
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Think I missed my calling in whatever it is Marie Kondo and them be doing because I’ve been organizing a friend’s house on and off for the past few days and with the way it’s been lifting more emotional than physical weight off said friend, HGTV might need to see me
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I wrote something on how Detroit’s mayor wore Cartier frames in public, the first(?) time a sitting mayor has done so, and how it reflects a larger culture shift pushed by influencers — including one who unexpectedly died last weekend: michiganchronicle.com/a-bejeweled-...
michiganchronicle.com
A Bejeweled Detroit Style is Going Mainstream. Its Biggest Influencer Won’t Live to See It
A Bejeweled Detroit Style is Going Mainstream. Its Biggest Influencer Won’t Live to See It
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
At this restaurant I shall not name and remembered the pettiest reason why I haven’t been here in a while cause they have books on display from every local author and none of my shit lmao. And don’t let my mama come here cause she’d be talking to the manager about it
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Saw on TikTok someone describe Minnie Riperton’s “Les Fleurs” as an “ethnic Black American hymn” and I just…
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
And here we are, a 60-year journal of how the late Jesse Jackson spent his time in Detroit, making a case that while he was loved everywhere, Detroit had some of the biggest impact on his trajectory — and why the city needs to be discussed more in Black history: michiganchronicle.com/jesse-jackso...
michiganchronicle.com
Jesse Jackson’s Detroit: How a Country Preacher Spent Six Decades in the Motor City
Jesse Jackson’s Detroit: How a Country Preacher Spent Six Decades in the Motor City
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Reposted by Aaron Foley
Ryan H. @ryan.blacksky.app · 20/02/2026
I grew up with Naima and Nia, bc they were living two doors down from my grandmama on Lesure, which meant every new episode was damn near storytime. It was a real victory for the crib
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I can’t remember who came first on ANTM whether it was Eva or Naima, but baby that season Naima won? Once we found out she was hometown? All of Michigan State was locked in.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Vivica starring in a prestige film hitting theaters at the same time as her Y&R run is honestly iconic
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I’m about to publish a 5,700-word piece I wrote over the last few days and realized if I do this nine more times, I’ll match the length of my first book.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
I love all my Aquarians and Pisceans but it’s too many of yall born around this time, I’m tired of being broke Q1 of every year
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
RIP Jesse Jackson, whose colorful personal life inspired the play “Purpose” originally staged in Chicago with Tamara Tunie as a politico’s long-suffering wife successively played by LaTanya Richardson after its move to Broadway, thus clearing her schedule to star in #BeyondTheGates
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
MC Lyte in “Cold Rock a Party” says “wetter than the waters of Kalamazoo” in one verse and how did this slip past me? Cause I’ve been listening to this song since middle school, but anyway ma’am, what water in Kalamazoo?
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
It definitely was not this many 40-somethings dying like this when I was a kid, that’s for sure
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
From all over. Chicago, NYC, west coast. Lot of it has to do with new corporate jobs in town/attracting recent grads.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
But also, there’s this expectation that if you’re Black and move to a Black city/region, they have to feel “home” and/or have that spiritual connection à la Ghana/New Orleans/the Deep South. Detroit ain’t Ghana, babe, it’s a fake Paris with snow and dispensaries. (Which I say with love.)
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Part of what makes this all interesting is that Detroit as a city is experiencing some growing pains in figuring out its new identity. Majority Black city with a lot of new spaces that aren’t majority Black all the time, for one. And a new generation of residents trying to ride the waves of change.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
There’s a conversation on Threads about Black people not from Detroit having trouble fitting in Detroit and it’s…fascinating. I feel like this conversation happened everywhere Blacks moved where other Blacks were established (hello, mid-2000s ATL), but this is the first it’s played out online.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
I’m so behind on Gates. I’m trying to be on DND until Monday but I’ve had to be a furniture mover, interior decorator, assistant party planner, queer elder, big brother, local historian and savior of journalism in the last 24 hours alone. And it’s my grandmother’s birthday tomorrow?
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
If you’re like me and one of your besties isn’t Black and has a February birthday, it’s OK to sing them Stevie’s version of Happy Birthday.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
There’s comfort in knowing that all of Destiny’s Children have 100% had the same millennial mid-life crises like the rest of us. And I know Bey in particular be listening to those Cater 2 U lyrics with 44-year-old ears wanting to die of embarrassment.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
One of my closest friendships exists on the same timeline as Beyoncé’s solo career, so while celebrating said friend’s birthday we had a cute little moment when “Baby Boy” from our freshman year of college came on. But also, we’re in our 40s and so is Bey.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
I really got municipal sons and daughters out here, IYKYK
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Not to continually bring up old shit but yes I can claim an ex that is not only a Barb but (says he got misled into having) voted for DT in the first election
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
My bad
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
think Dittrich is done done after that, inflation is such that nobody is buying furs anymore. Noticed the prices kept going up but the stores kept closing over 90 years
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Thanks to a fab idea from @katstafford.bsky.social, I dove into the archives of the Michigan Chronicle to write the definitive piece on Black Detroiters and their century-long love affair with fur: michiganchronicle.com/good-furs-ma...
michiganchronicle.com
‘Good Furs Make Warm Friends’: A History of Black Detroiters’ Decades-Long Love Affair with Fur
‘Good Furs Make Warm Friends’: A History of Black Detroiters’ Decades-Long Love Affair with Fur
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Not me looking it up and it’s ole boy from A Strange Loop, which I literally saw on B’way
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Watching The Beauty and Fat Jeremy Pope looks like an ex’s ex. All I have for now.
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Aaron Foley @aaronkfoley.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
It’s warmer in the Scandinavian cities I fell in love with than it is where I am in the U.S. and that’s why I’m looking at my options 5-10 years down the line
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