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Chantal James

@chantalalive.blacksky.app
48K followers 1.7K following 79K posts

Check your vernacular & then I’ll get back to ya. Essayist poet philosopher & writer of the novel NONE BUT THE RIGHTEOUS & the novella FES IS A MIRROR. She/her www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/67…

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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 23h
Ok y’all will love this picture of me as a little cutie pie toddler with ribbons in my hair enjoying my dad’s pancakes for breakfast my mom shared.
Me as a toddler eating breakfast
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 11/10/2026
This is a really cool picture my mom shared. It’s me as a kid with my great grandma James, we would visit her at her farmhouse in the Virginia county where my dad’s from every time we were in the county. She died as the oldest living person in the state of Virginia at 113 when I was 26.
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 11/10/2026
My mom shared this picture of me when we were out at my brother’s art talk. The enigmatic mad shaman incarnate as me on her birthday today!
Me smiling in a booth
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 11/10/2026
It’s very personal but I want to share my man’s loving birthday message to me. This is why I love him with all my heart & will never seek another for life.
Today
Happy birthday, my love
You are so special to me, and I'm so grateful to have you in my life. May your birthday be filled with love, happiness, good health, and beautiful moments.
You deserve all the best things life has to offer. May all your dreams come true, and may we share many more beautiful memories together. I love you so much, today and always.
3:59 AM
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
Here’s me today! I’m at peace today. Isn’t that great? In a suffering world that I have no delusions is in great crisis, as a suffering person in it, I have peace in my heart! I give thanks to my creator god, to all my spirits including the ancestors whose blood runs in me that I know joy.
Me smiling with greenery behind me
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
It’s time for me to refresh with my Cheerwine my parents have procured for my comfort in bulk for my stay with them. This is the single most delicious & delightful soft drink on earth only available in NC that y’all poor deprived souls don’t know nothing about. A pity! @backinmyhood.neocities.org
A can of Cheerwine
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
Here’s some local Black papers to the Triangle area of North Carolina my mom has & gave me to look through. We love the local Black press! Black newspapers have a long proud legacy of keeping community crucially informed. @solomonrmissouri.com
The Carolinian, the Triangle Tribune, and the Carolina call, Black North Carolina newspapers
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
Jumaa Mubarak my dear sweet soul sister Baraa. I’ve gone to North Carolina to see my parents for a few days. This is my view right now of the pond through the trees. I send all my love to you & my nephew Ibrahim.
Trees in a forested area with a pond behind them
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
Here’s my dinner plated. Eat y’all’s hearts out!
Biscuit, two fried chicken drumsticks, potato salad, and stewed kale on a plate
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/10/2026
That’s my dad frying his chicken, he said he went back to his original recipe with with his marinade. My mom’s putting her biscuits in the oven. We getting our grub on.
My dad’s torso and the pan of fried chicken on the stove
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 08/10/2026
Since I’m an HBCU alumna of middle aged maturity, a cap repping my Alma mater Spelman college is going to be requisite for a day of travel. @mewefree.bsky.social
Me in my Spelman hat
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 05/10/2026
I wanted to show y’all my auntie’s yard signs. Y’all know I enjoy giving y’all mundane slice of life reportage of what it’s like to be a mad person living in a working class Black DC neighborhood renting a basement apartment from her violently sanist aunt with her Moroccan partner she’s gaga over.
Yard signs in a yard with ivy, the farthest one says imagine being scared of diversity but not dictatorship, one’s a purple sign for our new social mayor incumbent Janese Lewis George, one for Zachary Parker as our ward 5 council member, one for the Free DC movement
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 05/10/2026
So I have this to share which is a call to anarchists to support Free Koulchi, with me being a Black anarchist in network & solidarity with anarchists worldwide especially Black one. @walaal.blacksky.app
THIS IS A CALL TO ALL
ANARCHISTS IN MOROCCO AND OVER THE WORLD TO JOIN THE FREE KOULCHI ACTIONS OF SOLIDARITY WITH POLITICAL DETAINEES IN MOROCCO
هادا نداء لكَاع الأناركيين.
ات في المغرب وفالعالم باش
يلتحقو بالأشكال التضامنية ديال
فرى كولشي مع المعتقلين.ات السياسيين.ات في المغرب.
#FREE KOULCHI
@azday.unite, doar_tilila, organizedanarchism and agraw.anarchist
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 03/10/2026
So my neighborhood, our few blocks are a neighborhood called the Stronghold in DC, is holding its annual block party today. It’s organized every year, there’s good food & music all day & a health tent & vendors who are neighbors with businesses. Kinda overcast today but a slice of my urban life.
Tents and random people standing around in a street
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 03/10/2026
My good friend Mitqal who was on here reaches out occasionally with needs, like when he survived the bombing of a wedding. He now asks for a warm tent & bedding & clothes for the coming winter. Here’s his son Firas delighted about supplies for his school from UNICEF. www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-...
Mitqal’s son Firas with his new school supplies from UNICEF
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 03/10/2026
Oh I meant to actually show this picture of my scholarly book on Haitian Vodou to the homies. @tichatnwa.bsky.social @pixiethinkss.bsky.social @hnysuklchocolat.blacksky.app
Haitian Vodou by Mambo Chita Tann on my chair
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 02/10/2026
This is really for grippy sock nation. Y’all the true soldiers who know about this. A tiny psych ward safety pen I took home. They won’t give us real pens because they say we’ll stab each other or ourselves. @moxiest.art @ladyartaud.bsky.social @metroplex.northsky.social @mewefree.bsky.social
A ting safety pen from a psych ward on a chair
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 02/10/2026
This was me setting out this morning for my psychiatrist’s appointment. I must appear as well as I can, though he also needs me to be honest & not fake it so he can actually treat any real problems. As my spiritual talisman I’m wearing a peice by @permanentalien.blacksky.app I keep on my altar.
Me in a light puffy jacket with my brown leather bag on my shoulder and a tan colored cap wearing a necklace of metal chain, black beads, and cowrie shells
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
So y’all, I’m preparing to dine like royalty in a week because both my parents are expert home southern chefs & we always ate amazingly growing up, & they asked my ideas on the kinds of things I might want to eat for groceries, & I sent this. To whet y’all’s whistle who appreciate cuisine.
Here's what I came up with:
Bacon, sausage, scrapple, grits, eggs, pancakes, biscuits, country potatoes for breakfast
fried chicken with potato salad and vegetable sides such as stewed kale beef stew, roast beef
smothered chicken with dides
fish like salmon and steel toe trout
turkey deli meat and sliced cheese with mayo and mustard and bread for sandwiches
barbeque ribs if possible
Mommy's cornbread if possible
mixed salad greens with caesar dressing, broccoli, spinach, kale, collard greens, green beans for vegetables
any basic meat entree like ones we ate growing up, though I don't like pork chops
drinks available. I need a lot of bottled water, and i like juice, especially orange juice and juice blends. it would be great to have some cheerwine though i won't focus on drinking sugar sodas.
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
My beads today are for my lord Elegua, who governs the crossroads & the thresholds between portals, dwelling in darkness as a benevolent but brutal trickster. I got these beads from my sib @vibratehighershop.bsky.social who also has dual orisha at their head.
Me outside in a neon orange shirt with green cardigan over it
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 30/09/2026
Novel research. Gotta get into this one with some underlines & marginalia. What y’all know bout this? Y’all don’t know nothing about our mad prophet abolitionist revolution who saw signs & visions & led his people to rise in revolt against white men who claimed to own them? @mewefree.bsky.social
The book Nat Turner’s slave revolt by Herbert Abthekeker on my kitchen table
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 30/09/2026
We’re going with this look today. A yellow head wrap for Oshun, in voodoo we sometimes cover our heads to protect & concentrate our energies as women. I’m wearing my ancestral talisman, a pendant of the Virgin Mary that belonged to my grandma who passed who bought this house in the crack era.
Me in great shirt in front of books
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 27/09/2026
In a reply on my newsletter Tiona @tionanmcclodden.bsky.social attempts to frame me as some sort of insane criminal victimizer, says reaching out after a while as a friend was harassment, she needs a restraining order so I won’t harm her in Philly as was never my intent. @prisonculture.bsky.social
Chantal James has been harassing me via DM, email, and Bluesky since she contacted me aggressively out of nowhere on Sept. 4 via IG DM. I hadn't engaged with her since 2024 via text, and she no longer had my number. Her harassment of me and others has continued since then and is ramping up. I spoke with Chantal via Zoom on Sept. 10th, two days after my father passed on Sept. 8th, to try to stop the use of my name in a horrific campaign against friend and artist Intisar Abioto and to have that conversation recorded while I was dealing with my father's affairs. On that call, she admits to purposely harming Intisar through slander and misusing my name to threaten her; she acknowledges that it was wrong yet refused to remove the harmful posts because she said
"Anarchist" were learning from it. She has sent Intisar hundreds of emails and texts. Because she has recently been committed, she is now using this as a way to further harass us both. To counter this horrific slander, I created a Bluesky account so everyone can see this information. To allow myself time to grieve this moment, following my father's interment this upcoming Friday, I plan to share all documented harassment for the record - all emails, dms, etc. Today, to counter this deeply dishonest post, I have shared the email her mother sent to Intisar and me on Sun, Sep 13, 9:50 AM, confirming that it was her mother who called the authorities for a wellness check, not me or Intisar. To counter
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
Portrait of a mad prophetess.
Me in a chartreuse sweater with a grey t shirt under it and gold earrings against the Basquiat print in my living room
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
Abood is the young brother of my dear friend Hammam who works hard as a volunteer nurse while he’s still homeless & must support his brother’s severe disabilities of epilepsy & autism as well as his asthmatic mother while they’re starving. Abood is an amazing artist who drew this portrait of me.
Abood holding a portrait of Chantal Abood’s portrait of Chantal against a refugee camp in Gaza
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
I meant to share this with all y’all earlier. It’s very touching & sweet. My mom had this bouquet of flowers delivered & waiting for me when I came home from commitment in brutal psych facilities a couple days ago. @prisonculture.bsky.social @hystericalblkns.bsky.social @elmcitytree.blacksky.app
Flowers in a vase on a messy kitchen table
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 25/09/2026
I told y’all I was finna scandalize my mom as her mutual here with profanity? She’s an upper middle class AKA who rolls with high Black society in North Carolina. Y’all thought I was joking but she discussed it with my psychiatrist who gives no fucks & here’s what I said. @elmcitytree.blacksky.app
Mother)
And again enting with my doctor he says you are concerned with my using profanity online as you discussed with him. I have used profanity everywhere since I was a child keeping it out of polite company for prim and proper society people like you. People in my online audience are not scandalized by profanity, many in the world accept profanity as normal. I have enjoyed verbal vulgarity my whole life among others it's not a big deal to. It's not any sign of mental imbalance, just my free speech acceptable to many. You are a member of the Black southern bourgeoisie in a sorority and women's social club who wears pearls. I am your bohemian, artist
daughter who hangs with the scum of society as part of them and cuss words are zero issue for me and who is my audience
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
Y’all, here’s a powerful prayer my cousin Karena prayed over me when I shared an image of my wrist with the medical bracelet from the psych ward in it from my uber home for the hospital on insta. I am covered by the love of many mighty prayer warriors in all I do
6:11 AM
Replied to your story
0820000006-13
Love you and praying for protection, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
Y’all here’s the medical bracelet from my stay in the psych institute I keep on my wrist at all times there.
My hospital bracelet and a hairband on my arm
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/09/2026
What it be like, what it do, what’s happening, what’s up?
Me in on my front stoop in a tank top against an iron fence covered in ivy
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 09/09/2026
Our friend the farmer Mohamed Ahmed in Gaza asked me to reach out to his friends & tell you he needs support. The pictures are his gift to you. @neolithicsheep.bsky.social @mollietindle.bsky.social @courtneymilan.com @bangiigekek.bsky.social @anna-orridge.bsky.social chuffed.org/project/help...
Beautiful blossom in sandMohamed’s hand tending a plantMohamed’s hand tending a plant
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 06/09/2026
I aneed to address this to show y’all what’s truly happening with user gamera obscura’s severe antiblack harm she caused me when she really chose to agitate some of the hugest bigots here to harass me with racism for calling out antiblackness. Here a Zionist who’s blocked & stalks me from a burner.
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 06/09/2026
So I send her emails that she never responds to & I’ve sent volumes of them explaining clearly to strike terror in her about the fact that this really happening as a consequence of her actions that I am testify what she did to me to all. I want y’all to see this on madness. @tichatnwa.bsky.social
I love rolling with my fellow mad people. You'll never in life understand because you're an ableist with no ability to appreciate and understand mad people and zero desire to.
Tons of my friends are other mad people.
We're the insane people with severe mental diagnoses the rest of people in society like you hate to your blood because we're different from you. Though we are severely disabled and crippled, we have the true capacity to bear others suffering, to handle the most brutal trauma others come to us with. We travel realms of reality sane people like you have absolutely no access to. We are the human superiors of cruel cowardly sane people like you as mad people, it is your sane world that is so deceived. -C
• ••
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 03/09/2026
You guys remember I told you my parents drive a couple hours to the Outer Banks from Raleigh each summer to rent a house on the beach hanging with some of my aunts & uncles & their lifetime Black account friends? This is them from the pic they just sent. Aren’t they adorable?
Many older Black people smiling and looking joyful outside against the sky at the beach
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 31/08/2026
My sister Heba says: Urgent humanitarian appeal 🇵🇸 My family urgently needs food, clean water, medicine, and safe shelter after our home was bombed in Gaza. We need €250 to cover our basic needs. Any donation, can make a real difference. Please don't let us down 🙏🏻⬇️🍉🕊️🫂 gofund.me/c3bf6fb78
Heba is standing in her hijab and nice clothes with horrible rubble in the background of herHeba’s sons playing in Gaza
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 30/08/2026
So this is what I texted my mom to explain this, she’s one of my many important caretakers for my madness, because I think it’s a good explanation. She’s really on here as @jprouson.bsky.social @coolhand.bsky.social @moxiest.art @mewefree.bsky.social @metroplex.northsky.social
My being in relation with you all as this group who supports me out of true care for me is the actual factor that allows me functionality in society as a mad person, as mind blowing as that is, you know it's true because you've seen how l am at my absolute rock bottom
Today 5:16 PM
For all of the time humanity has been on earth, mad people like me have required serious community care so we can be supported to give humanity the gifts of our madness
Read 5:41 PM
Text Message • RCS
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 29/08/2026
Amir is just a cutie pie & sweetie pie. Loves his family with all his heart. A pure soul like him is surrounded by violent atrocities. He’s special since he never hardens, he stays gentle. They survived bombing near their tent & his mother has a bad eye condition. Help. chuffed.org/project/help...
An Israeli bombardment in Gaza near the location of Amir’s family tentAmir’s mom lying sick in bed with an eye patch and a patch on her hand connecting her to fluids for treatment
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 29/08/2026
So since I’ve been getting my professionalism as a writer so legit setting up a manuscript consultancy & needing to flesh out & start writing the novel burning me in a while to go for a fellowship opportunity I wanna share my new artist’s statement on my CV. This is me as an artist.
ARTISTC VISION
My vision as a multi-genre artist and intellectual who publishes novels, poetry, and both lyric and critical essay is to serve the African diaspora from my role within it as a shamanic storyteller or griot. Much of my work concerns the Black American south, but I extend to the continent of Africa and mssy vision is expansive of Africans worldwide.
Characteristic of my fiction is its formal and stylistic experimentalism and innovation, which I use as a tool to break the paradigm white supremacy sets on how we experience space and time and comes out of a fundamentally African worldview, where the supernatural is reality.
This is also how I use my gifts as a mad person who travels realms of altered perception naturally in my neurodivergent ways of being in my creative work, both fiction and poetry.
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 28/08/2026
So here's my artistic statement. This is real literary dork stuff where I explain my artistic vision, & madness & being of the African diaspora are inextricable to my artistic vision. You will learn of the book I intend to write vaguely, keep it on the hush. No one can write it but me, you can't.
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 27/08/2026
Y’all I need to hip you to this bomb snack from the corner store. It’s Utz special edition Sizzlin Summer Burger flavor. DMV know Utz chips as of superior quality as a cheap snack. And I have to say, these chips lived up to their promise in every way. Delightful crunchy chips tasting like a burger.
A bag of Utz Limited Edition Sizzlin Summer Burger chips
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 24/08/2026
Y’all it’s official that Luigi Mangione is my president. I’m reposted by & followed by the official account for reposting all Luigi posts now, making this pretty legit.
7:35
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24 / 7 Luigi Mangione Posts and 3
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Luigi Mangione is my president, sorry. I pledge allegiance to him as my head of state.
A righteous Italian dude who put himself on the front lines of the people's battle against billionaires exploiting us who chills with the Black guys in prison.
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 23/08/2026
Here’s an awesome blurb on my first novel None but the Righteous from a critic at the LA Times who greatly respected my work that you’ll find on bookshop.org. To give you an enticing view of what this book holds for you.
10:36
B Bookshop.org®
Search books, authors, ISBNs
All orders support local bookstores.
$49,837,318.93 raised so far!
Q
ㅥ
O
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"[A] profound debut novel... James captures the simple kindnesses of a cup of coffee or a shared cellphone as though they were religious acts. Where a more ponderous writer might lapse into a lengthy stream of consciousness, James uses short chapters to weave a story of fractured time and uncharted pace into the fabric of life after Katrina .. This is a book of faith aching to be laimed, of a land that dares to be edeemed, of souls searching to be free, of all spirits looking for a home. It's a metaphysical book deeply rooted in ancient legacies of subjugation... This is a deeply haunted novel that moves with calm and ruthless determination, like the eye of a hurricane." - The Los Angeles Times
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 22/08/2026
Let me show you why I don’t give a fuck who doesn’t support my work because I’m an unconventional person. Because a user called allthinky; No More Billionaires & one called No More Billionaires. Fuck ICE. Fuck AI just reposted me. So these are folks I attract who support me. They share my values.
4:28
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allthinky; No More Billionaires. Fuck
ICE. Fuck Al. and 1 other reposted your post • 1m
Do you know what happens when places don't have power for days like in Gary,
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 19/08/2026
Last thing before bed. I promised Amir I’d get him help he desperately needs. He got in touch today having narrowly survived a massacre by Israel that killed 6. That’s his real life. He also fears for his mom’s eye condition & needs support for it. Boost & donate here! chuffed.org/project/help...
Amir and his sick mom
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 14/08/2026
This is an old family photo my Aunt Pookie shared with me with the family having good times. That’s my grandparents & dad & aunts & uncle clowning around here.
Old photo of a Black family being goofy and playful
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 12/08/2026
LOLZ. Speaking of me being targeted? Some wimp here got in touch with the press for my novella & threatened to bad mouth the press for my insult of them. But I got free fucking speech under the first amendment to this day. @williamcson.bsky.social @tichatnwa.bsky.social @161bklyn.myatproto.social
Aquarius Press Willow... Aug 6
to Chantal v
Hi Chantal, I hope you are enjoying the summer. I received an upsetting email from someone who says you insulted them on Bluesky. They threatened to bad mouth our press. I told them I didn't know anything about an exchange with you. Hopefully, this will go no further. If nothing happened, please disregard this email. Let's catch up soon about FES.
Best, Heather
c
me 6:59 PM
to Aquarius v
..°
Dear Heather, 1 am sorry if I have misrepresented the press by behaving inappropriately. When people respond to me aggressively
online I often fight back assertively, but | do not think I have ever
behaved in a way that threatens the reputation of the press or has
power to cause the press material harm, and am planning never to. I'll
look forward to catching up to you soon on the book. I frequently
promote it and was honored to see it's one of the press' bestsellers
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 07/08/2026
So I’m flying to Portland for my residency at my friend’s house for Black artists, & preparing. I’m super excited to hang with the homie @tichatnwa.bsky.social in real life. This is my good friend I’ve known decades & haven’t seen for years inviting me. I texted her this for context on my life now.
Today 6:28 PM
Through my online life supporting mutual aid, constantly at all time I field requests for support from people in the most severe situations globally from many homeless people here to many Palestinians and even someone surviving genocide in Congo. I'm in constant communication with people in deep crisis and trauma all day lifting their needs for them to get funding and many of them come back to me thanking me for how they ate when they were hungry or were sheltered when they had been unhoused
Text Message • RCS
traumatized suffering people
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 03/08/2026
We’re out here standing against Jeanine Pirro’s fascist antiblack attacks on our city of DC including criminalization of our Black youth just for being kids & this lady dressed like a frog was cute. @freedcproject.bsky.social
Lady in a pink frog suit with “Amphiba” written on the belly holding a sign overhead that said Jeanine Pirro indicts without evidence
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 01/08/2026
Guys you know our friend Amir that @britculpsapp.bsky.social hurt by making fun of when he reached out? His mom & brother are sick. He reaches out to me in heartbreak saying his only phone broke & he can’t get on bluesky for connection. Can we replace his phone? chuffed.org/project/help...
Amir is really sad and crying holding up his broken phone
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 31/07/2026
Thank you @chiitan.love! You see me standing up for & caring about trans people all the time here, you know the rights & dignity & freedom of trans people is genuinely important to me from my heart, & when you come through with likes you affirm that my support of trans folks is received.
Chiitan liking my post
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