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B.G. Firmani

@bgfirmani.bsky.social
163 followers 198 following 160 posts

Writer. Longtime New Yorker. Believer that while the arc of the moral universe may be long, it bends toward justice. Finché c'è vita, c'è speranza. www.bgfirmani.com

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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 14h
Rally tonight in Foley Square to protest the shooting of Oscar Belgal by ICE goon squad. #AbolishICE #ICEoutofNY #HandsOffNY #FascistsBoundToLose
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NYCLU @nyclu.org · 15h
Say his name: Oscar Belgal.
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Hands Off NYC @handsoffnyc.bsky.social · 23h
EMERGENCY PROTEST IN NEW YORK TONIGHT 5:30PM FOLEY SQUARE. ICE shot a man with his 5 year old in the backseat. We cannot let this be normal. Be there.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 9
EMERGENCY PROTEST ICE SHOT A NEW YORKER
WITH HIS 5-YEAR-OLD IN THE CAR
FOLEY SQUARE
5:30PM
HANDS
OFF
NYC
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 09/10/2026
I am angry tonight. Because tonight ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his five year old child was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.
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Hands Off NYC @handsoffnyc.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
No more.
ICE SHOT A MAN IN THE BRONX 
abolish ice now

We have seen the proof time and again in blood. When violent, masked agents come into our communities, people are hurt and killed. This incident marks the 37th ICE or CBP-related shooting since January. We do not need any more. 

These agents shot with the intention to put this man’s life — and the life of a child — at risk. This is the direct consequence of allowing a lawless federal agency to operate with impunity, secrecy, and unchecked, deadly force. 

We demand that DHS release all footage of the shooting and aftermath tonight. We insist on an independent investigation led by the NYS Attorney General in collaboration with the NYPD and Bronx district attorney. The agent who shot the individual must be publicly named and face serious consequences for his recklessness. 

ICE’s violence is not welcome in New York City. We urge Bronx businesses Kingbridge Associates and Target to close parking lots to ICE effective immediately. We need ICE out of New York now.

- Rebecca Rodriguez, Co-Director of Hands Off NYC
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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
So proud of this kid.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A heartbreak to hear of the death of Joe Sciorra, such a lovely, warm, delightful man. Dr. Sciorra was a folklorist and cultural historian, part of the beating heart of the Calandra #ItalianAmerican Institute. Riposa in pace, Joe. @calandrainstitute.bsky.social calandrainstitute.org/2026/10/07/r...
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The City Reporter @thecityreporter.nyc · 07/10/2026
At a press conference outside 26 Federal Plaza, immigrant advocates and family members of those detained gathered to raise awareness about the arrests. They urged immigrant New Yorkers who have received a “call-in letter” from DHS to get legal help before their appointment.
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'But I'm Not From Ghana': ICE Targets Longtime New Yorkers for Third-Country Deportation
Immigrants with protected status who've lived in the city for decades are finding themselves swept up, shackled and threatened with expulsion.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I just wrote a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social letter: Tell the Senate to Pass Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s Resolution on Israeli Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank!. Write one here: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...
actionnetwork.org
Tell the Senate to Pass Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s Resolution on Israeli Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank!
Israeli settlers and security forces terrorize families in the occupied West Bank, drive Palestinians from their homes, beat and shoot people, and jail children, all with the support of the Israeli st...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Journalism should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Loved watching this #documentary, "Breslin And Hamill: Deadline Artists" (2018), directed by Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy, about the (flawed but) witty, one-of-a-kind, big-hearted Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ways to address the traffic-hogging and increasing stupidity of #AI #google searches. One reader: "... I go directly to Wikipedia as my first source, then to DuckDuckGo, (with AI disabled) then to Reddit and only to Google as a last resort." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
‘I miss old Google’: readers tell us how they search the internet in the age of AI
A feature called AI Overviews has been a profound change, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shifting
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 25/09/2026
Thousands came out to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New York City. As he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, protesters shouted, "Stop the killing" in Gaza and accused Netanyahu of committing genocide against Palestinians.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"Klein: We didn’t write the book because we think these people are fascinating. We wrote this book because we want people to fight them and beat them." Such a good interview with @naomiaklein.bsky.social and @astra.bsky.social about END TIMES FASCISM. #booksky www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/m...
nytimes.com
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor Say the End of the World Is Now on the Table (Gift Article)
In a new book, the writers argue that a powerful coalition of “end times fascists” is just fine with the earth’s demise.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Just got our copy END TIMES FASCISM and very excited to read it! Thank you for writing this book.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I'm attending No Kings's event, “No Kings: Vote Early: Election Protection 101” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
mobilize.us
No Kings: Vote Early: Election Protection 101 · No Kings
Join the No Kings coalition for this call to learn how you can take action wherever you are to protect our elections this fall. We’ll cover how to get out the vote, the importance of voting early, pol...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
For this 25th anniversary of 9/11, I wrote about working in the #WTC complex, how as a writer I seemed to be mistaking my life for a systems novel that would have a shapely trajectory, and a friendship with my officemate Michael that sustained me. These are my keys. www.bgfirmani.com/2026/09/10/t...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Steinem could always care enough to cry in part because she always believed that human beings not only should — but really might — be better than they often are." I loved reading this piece on Gloria Steinem by @rtraister.bsky.social. www.thecut.com/article/glor...
thecut.com
Gloria Steinem Loved Women
The feminist icon, who has died at the age of 92, epitomized the contradictions and hopes of the women’s-liberation movement.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“All my works are steps on my journey, a struggle for truth that I have waged with pen, canvas, and materials. Overhead is a distant, radiant star, and the more I stretch to reach it, the further it recedes.” From INFINITY NET (2011, trans. Ralph McCarthy). Rest in peace, Yayoi Kusama. #booksky
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Inspiring story of #unity and #determination. "'We’re just not used to winning,' said Dr Valeriah Big Eagle, who directs the Black Hills work of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy nonprofit based in Rapid City....'The only weapons we had were our prayers'" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
A rare win in Indian country: how tribes drove out a mining company in one week
At the sacred prairie of Pe’ Sla in South Dakota, Indigenous and environmental groups banded together to halt drilling
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Thinking of the great W.E.B. Du Bois, born in Great Barrington, MA, on 2/23/1868, died #onthisday, 8/27/1963, in Accra, Ghana. This sculpture in front of the #GreatBarrington library by Richard Blake was unveiled last year. @theberkshireedge.bsky.social theberkshireedge.com/w-e-b-du-boi...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
“Neither a gallery-affiliated fine artist nor a job-hungry commercial artist, he had more or less committed career suicide...living purely through, and for, his work.” Lovely Chris Ware tribute to #artist and "paintoonist" Jerry Moriarty in @nybooks.com. #comix www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
nybooks.com
Jerry Survives | Chris Ware
As an artist in the second half of the twentieth century, Jerry Moriarty did everything you weren’t supposed to do: he painted people, he painted places,
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
It's excellent, yes. And the ending is devastating. Thank you for writing!
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
#amreading PARADISE (1994) by Abdulrazak Gurnah. I loved this book. Gurnah won the Nobel in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." www.nobelprize.org/prizes/liter... #booksky
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Sick that it was $1200 in 1983! And clearly the non-distraction part is working well ...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Rest in peace, Johanna Fernández. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/u...
nytimes.com
Johanna Fernández, Historian of the Young Lords, Dies at 55
She wrote an award-winning book about the leftist collective, a Latino counterpart to the Black Panthers.
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Classic Gay Men 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 @classicgaymen.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
#goodgayreads: Thomas Glave — Whose Song? and Other Stories (2000) A collection of queer Caribbean stories that move between erotic, political, and deeply interior. Glave writes gay male desire with a kind of sharp, lyrical honesty that still feels ahead of its time.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
“Our ongoing investigation reveals over 1,300 deaths in an inhumane, destructive system that continues to escape accountability.” Devastating #documentary, THE ALABAMA SOLUTION, shot on contraband cellphones by incarcerated men. www.thealabamasolution.com
thealabamasolution.com
The Alabama Solution | Academy Award-Nominated Documentary on Alabama Prisons
The Alabama Solution is an Academy Award-nominated HBO documentary by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman investigating violence, corruption, and over 1,300 deaths in Alabama’s prison system.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
For your readers, Bill, and for yourself!
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Aw, love this! Clifford Brown, the one and only.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Really digging watching THE PRISONER on @criterionchannl.bsky.social. I watched it on the local PBS as a teenager in the ’80s and loved it so – the mystery, the look of it, the protest against systematization, the excellent weirdness of Patrick McGoohan and his big expressive forehead. #BeSeeingYou
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I just wrote a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social letter: Invest in Communities this Summer. Write one here: actionnetwork.org/letters/inve...
actionnetwork.org
Invest in Communities this Summer
This summer, during what is the peak agricultural harvest season in many states around the U.S., we will consume fresh fruits and vegetables that have been brought to our tables because of the labor ...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Delightful piece by @emmaalpern.bsky.social on Joyce Carol Oates and her zesty tweets: “Ironic that I am a judge for the Truman Capote award when Capote in a druggy interview said he hated me & that I should be executed. LOL.” !!! @vulture.com #booksky www.vulture.com/article/joyc...
vulture.com
Joyce Carol Oates Can’t Quit
T​he octogenarian is on her 50th short-story collection and 15th year as an X power user.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Arthur Machen! Such rich, musical, textured prose, so far beyond just “weird tales.” THE HILL OF DREAMS (1907) is particularly devastating, with a writer in a London garret driving himself mad. Excellent discussion by Michael Dirda in @nybooks.com. #booksky #horror www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
"I’m taking a risk to speak on behalf of the Black people in my communities; I’m calling you out, white people." Timely, illuminating article by the brilliant and brave Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis @revdrjacquilewis.bsky.social to read and think on. #RacialJustice jacquilewis.substack.com/p/dear-black...
jacquilewis.substack.com
Dear Black Family (and white people reading)
Some thoughts from an Angry Black Woman for the White People Adjacent to our Rage
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Hands Off NYC @handsoffnyc.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Today, New Yorkers marched for Good Trouble, and left behind flowers & banners outside 26 Federal Plaza, a place that’s turned into one of fear & violence for immigrant families. Our message is simple. We see you, we love you, we’re with you, and we won’t stop until everyone is free.
On a fence that lines the exterior of 26 Federal Plaza—a site of terror and violence for immigrant families in NYC—hangs hundreds of banners that say “Protect Immigrant New Yorkers”, “Defend the Black Vote” , and “Free Them All” next to posters with the faces and names of people killed by ICE and flowers.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
"...military service for Black Americans has been a powerful symbol of their commitment to a country that has not always shown commitment to them." I'm antiwar but incensed by Hegseth's treatment of Black service members @clintsmithiii.bsky.social @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
Being Black in Pete Hegseth’s Military
The secretary of defense is sending the message that Black service members are not welcome.
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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
It's time to SHUT IT DOWN!
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
It's true. And absurd that I'm on any social media platforms at all, but ...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
I'm attending American Civil Liberties Union's event, “ACLU Know Your Voting Rights: Good Trouble Lives On” on Monday 7/13. @aclu.org Sign up to join me. www.mobilize.us/aclu/event/9...
mobilize.us
ACLU Know Your Voting Rights: Good Trouble Lives On · American Civil Liberties Union
About this event Our voting rights are facing unprecedented attacks. They want us to feel discouraged and confused. But that’s not who we are. We’re honoring the courage, sacrifice, and struggle o...
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
"We’re being optimized...to become more efficient consumers, by companies and other entities that have monetized our attention and sell it to other companies or entities for a profit." A great, heartfelt article critiquing #AI by @dchiasso.bsky.social. @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
nybooks.com
Think for Yourself | Dan Chiasson
One of the most dehumanizing effects of AI is the short cuts it offers through the gaps and impasses intrinsic to the act of writing.
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
How thoughtful, moving, heartfelt + smart is this #July4th address by our Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an actual human being who cares about other human beings. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxRUkGAM-w&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2F
youtube.com
Mayor Mamdani Delivers Address Marking America’s 250th Birthday
YouTube video by NYC Mayor's Office
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
#amreading A GIRL RETURNED (L'ARMINUTA) by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, trans. Ann Goldstein. What a sensitive, moving novel, with an unexpectedly sweet ending. I love that this writer worked as a dentist. She published her first #novel @ age 49—as did I! #Booksky #Abruzzo @europaeditions.bsky.social
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Luca Migo @victinibcn.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
NYC Pride hits different with a new mayor in the mix! 🏳️‍🌈 Zohran Mamdani took to the streets of New York — and the city showed up, loud and proud. This is what leadership looks like. Welcome to the parade, Mayor. 🗽
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Rest in peace, Jerry Moriarty. I took a drawing class at #SVA with Jerry years back and he was a true one-of-a-kind - generous, encouraging, obsessive about the work, a crazy delight to talk with. Full of stories and a kind of adolescent excitement about #art. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/a...
nytimes.com
Jerry Moriarty, Painter Whose Brushstrokes Elevated Comics, Is Dead at 88
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
#amreading SOZABOY, a powerful anti-war novel brilliantly written by Ken Saro-Wiwa. He and 8 other Ogoni activists were executed by Nigeria's military dictatorship in 1995 to silence their criticism of oil multinational Shell's devastation of Ogoniland. #Nigeria pardoned Saro-Wiwa in 2025. #booksky
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B.G. Firmani @bgfirmani.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Really cool to see this digitized archive of fascinating public domain items from the James J. Periconi Collection of Italian-language American imprints. Thank you, @jstor.bsky.social and @calandrainstitute.bsky.social! #Immigrants #ItalianAmerican #radicalhistory www.jstor.org/site/queensc...
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Janai Nelson @janainelson.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
BREAKING: Court Rejects Alabama House Map, Calling It Unfair to Black Voters Our teams have been working nonstop around the clock since the Callais decision to defend the maps in Alabama. This is a critical victory & affirmation that Black voters deserve fair maps. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/u...
nytimes.com
Court Rejects Alabama House Map, Calling It Unfair to Black Voters
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Blue Note Records @bluenoterecords.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Sonny Rollins (1930-2026) www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/a...
nytimes.com
Sonny Rollins, Giant of the Jazz Saxophone, Is Dead at 95
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Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson @ashdashlee.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Every time a white person disengages from another white person, the regime gets stronger. I just published an essay about it. A defection map for the fight we're already in. White folks especially: read it, holler back, share it. medium.com/@ashleewooda...
medium.com
Go Get Your People
A Defection Map for the Fight We Are Already In
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end. Speak your truth, fight and believe.
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