iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Vera @danvera.com · 04/07/2026

For over 30 years Red Hen Press has done the hard work of making a home for literature that reflects the country we want to live in: free, rebellious, and gloriously diverse! Our future flowers from imagination! Please donate to support this vital work! @redhenpress.bsky.social gofund.me/f92a230f8

gofund.me

Donate to We Need Your Help to Save Red Hen Press, organized by Red Hen Press

A Message from Kate Gale, Publisher and CEO, and Tobi Harper Petrie, Deputy and… Red Hen Press needs your support for We Need Your Help to Save Red Hen Press

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Mattilda B Sycamore @mbsycamore.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Next step: end the Met Gala💫🌟⚡💥

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Igor Sushko @igorsushko.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Kyiv burns as Ukraine no longer has any Patriot interceptor missiles - the only defense against Russian Iskander ballistic missiles. Vice President Vance recently bragged of his "proudest" achievement - cutting off military support for Ukraine.

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dan sinker @dansinker.com · 15/04/2026

Just a reminder that JD Vance has been a Catholic for less time than Nacho Fries have been on the Taco Bell menu.

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The Inner Loop @theinnerlooplit.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Come celebrate our 12th anniversary at the April reading event! Join us at Shaw's Tavern on April 21st to hear from our featured reader, Dan Vera, alongside nine other local writers returning to the Inner Loop mic! We cannot wait to commemorate this occasion together! RSVP at the link in bio!

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Christina Daub @christinadaub.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Say goodnight to every part of my anatomy from “Insomnia” by @greggsha.bsky.social from his book Speaking in Italics, Souvenir Street Books, 2026 @danvera.com #smallpoemsunday #poetry @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Insomnia

In bed, at night, on crisp, patterned sheets,
I dream of sleep. Eyes wide open, body tense as a wire. I count and recount all the sheep
in the yard. Say goodnight to every part
of my anatomy that I can name. I recall
the events of the day, swallow them as if
they were some kind of narcotic, sleeping

potion. Snippets of conversation play over
in my head; edited, polished, grammatically correct. But the words are no lullaby, only manage to keep sleep at bay. As a last-ditch effort, I try to fool sleep. Eyeballs rolled
up, rapidly moving behind eyelids that
snap open like window shades.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 26/03/2026

"Ignorance" in New Orleans.

Detailed stone carving of a dog/wolf figure in sandstone

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Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling @rubenbolling.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Very sad to learn that Biruté Galdikas, world-renowned orangutan researcher, has died. With Jane Goodall (chimps) and Dian Fossey (gorillas) she was one of the Leakey “Trimates,”studying the great apes in the wild. She became a tireless advocate for orangutans and their habitat. #nopalmoil

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 26/03/2026

Don't lose your place.

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I wish this didn't seem so relevant so often: "In mainstream discourse, it's become standard to blame the excesses of the right on liberals, the left, feminists.... It's a way that the right is granted masculine prerogatives and the left feminine responsibilities for the right's behavior."

meditationsinanemergency.com

The She Made Him Do It Theory of Everything

The rhetoric and logic of the abuse of power operates similarly at all scales, which is why I've found feminism such useful equipment for understanding authoritarians in public and political life. Bec...

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Peter Montgomery @petemontdc.com · 05/03/2026

More love, please!

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Washington Writers’ Publishing House @wwph.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Will we be seeing you at #AWP in Baltimore?? We hope so!! And always find us at www.washingtonwriters.org #writers #poets #AWP26 #writingcommunity 💙🌈🏳️‍🌈✍️✍️💕

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 04/03/2026

Happy to share the cover of my new book of poems, Celestial Fire: Songs for A Love That Dares, officially out from Beothuk Books in April but appearing at Saints & Sinners in NOLA at the end of the month. Book description below. #poetry #gaypoetry #queerpoetry #lgbtpoetry #latinopoetry #latinxpoetry

Rectangular cover of a portrait oriented book of poems featuring a white banner centered in front of a vibrantly multicolored abstract watercolor. The title of the book, Celestial Fire: Songs For A Love That Dares, is centered in bright red letters on the white field. At the bottom of the cover in white letters against the watercolor are the words, "Poems by Dan Vera"

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Christina Tudor-Sideri @dreamsofbeing.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

A Salten Urn, Joshua Rothes

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Imagine her face, having kissed her husband’s forehead for the final time, thinking that all skin is dead by the time anyone kisses it.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 25/02/2026

Star-shaped lights above the table where we met to share poems. A photo memory from the first year of the LGBTQ Poetry Fellowship at the Arts Club of Washington in 2023. So happy that this project has continued with other poets! #dcpoetry

View from below of a five-pointed lighted chandelier against the background of a white ceiling.. geometric and sparkly.

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

talking about poetry with a group of young people full of imagination and compassion gives me so much joy. and hope.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 25/02/2026

Anyone needing MORE words for last night’s hideous #stateoftheunion (it's almost like @grandiloquentwords.bsky.social planned their words for this week to help us all out!)

Three recent pages from the Grandiloquent Word of the Day calendar, featuring the words Twaddle, gombeen and inaniloquent. Twattle is a verb meaning "to talk much and idly; to gabble, to twaddle." Gombeen is a noun for "A mean, underhanded, corrupt person; usually applied to politicians." and an adjective meaning "corrupt, shady, underhanded." Inaniloquent is an adjective which means "Given to talking insanely; loquacious; garrulous."

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Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

The talk to your friends app and the witness the horrors app being the same app is not great for the mental health is it

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Michelle H. Davis @lonestarleft.com · 13/02/2026

Y’all. OMG. Y’all.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 09/02/2026

A poem for Carmen Miranda on her birthday, “All Oranges and Bananas Now” from my book Speaking Wiri Wiri ( @redhenpress.bsky.social) #poem #cliophrasis

youtube.com

A poem for Carmen Miranda

YouTube video by Dan Vera

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Peter Montgomery @petemontdc.com · 09/02/2026

Far-right Christian nationalist pastor Dale Partridge has some thoughts about Bad Bunny's halftime show. Well, thoughts may be too generous. He has a reaction.

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Angela Taylor @angieptaylor.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

There are US states where professors could be fired for walking their students thru a critical analysis of the Bad Bunny halftime show.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 09/02/2026

Was that Bad Bunny Lebron reference to Lolita or James? That section right after LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii, makes me believe it was Lolita Lebron, which would be astonishing! 🔥

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

40 members of the audience were treated for hypertension. 20 year old dark haired beauties found their heads had turned a Moses White. From: Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam By @danvera.com Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social

youtu.be

Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam, by Dan Vera

YouTube video by Poetry in Parks

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Dan Ancona @danancona.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

honestly about as big of a psychospiritual fuck you to ICE as i can imagine

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Prof. Anthea Butler @antheabutler.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

The Americas is going to have every sorry ass pundit trying to write something negative but hey that was correct

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 13/07/2025

“We create — poems and paintings, stories and songs — to find a language for the bewilderment of being alive, the failure of it, the fullness of it, and to have lived fully is not to have spared yourself.” Astonishing loveliness in @mariapopova.bsky.social essay on AI. h/t @jenbenka.bsky.social

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Mags Display Name @mags.colvett.online · 13/07/2025

Sarah Schulman in The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity on two of the qualities that made ACT UP effective: it “was not a consensus-based movement” and “went action first, not theory first”

But reading this statement calling for flexibility and context from the BDS movement reminded me of the basic takeaways Jim Hubbard and I cohered from our decades of study of ACT UP.

1. ACT UP was not a consensus-based movement. Their statement of unity, "Direct Action to end the AIDS crisis," emphasized direct action in contrast to social service provision. Basically, if someone had an idea that would move us closer to ending the AIDS crisis, they could do it.

When others disagreed, they would debate and argue. ACT UP was a very confrontational place as a result of the high pressure of the suffering among us, combined with pre-gentrification New York culture. Lots of yelling. But if in the end you had an idea that was direct action to end the AIDS crisis and I didn't want to do it, I wouldn't try to stop you from doing it. I just wouldn't do it. I would go find my five people to do my idea. And in this way, there was a broad range of many different kinds of actions with different methods and aesthetics, aimed at different social milieus, that would take place at the same time.

My own study of history shows me that movements that try to force everyone into one analysis or one strategy always fail, and I can't find any historical exceptions. Trying to make pcople all agree on approaching the problem the same way is not effective, and this is because people are different and therefore can only be where they are at. It took me decades of therapy to accept this. But the fundamental truth is that people will always be different and therefore real leadership is rooted in facilitating people being effective from where they are at.

2. Second, ACT UP went action first, not theory first. The reason was not ideological. ACT UP was driven by people with AIDS whose clocks were ticking. They had immediate needs that had to be won as soon as possible, and so the method had to be effective. As a result, there were concrete goals; our job was to figure out how to make them winnable by coming up with solutions that were doable.

Part of this process was people in ACT UP becoming the experts on the issues. They avoided the infantilization process that comes with asking the powers that be to solve problems. They will never solve our problems, primarily because they don't want to and don't know how to, since their power is derived from the status quo. So, to create change, we have to be highly informed and design the reasonable, winnable, and doable solutions ourselves. This means taking action in the realm of the real.

As Maxine Wolfe, one of the leaders of ACT UP, often pointed out, if we go action first, our theory will emerge because we have to make decisions about how to enact the action. And this is how our values are cohered. If instead we went theory first, we would be instantly polarized by theoretical differences, with nothing concrete at stake.

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Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

If you’re the kind of person who easily forgets what you’ve accomplished, you need a practice for reminding yourself. Count the years, the finished projects, the progress, the praise, count it all up and use it as evidence against the ever present criticism in your head that you’re not doing enough.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 10/07/2025

"At a time where the government's uncaring boot is pressing down on all of our necks, the best way to fight back is to care. Care loudly. Tell others. Get going.” This piece by @dansinker.com on our present "Who Cares" era is astonishing. dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...

dansinker.com

The Who Cares Era | dansinker.com

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 10/07/2025

search drinks in your camera roll. Random 4. I recall #1 as a tasty cortado from Oak Cliff Coffee and #2 being a concoction we named “Scalia’s Tears“ after a good SCOTUS ruling (those were the days).

4 Photos of drinks including an espresso cortado and three fancy cocktails.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 10/07/2025

A nice crepe shop called HOI PLOYES.

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Kim Wood @drkimwood.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

$10 billion. Every hurricane season. The **entirety** of NOAA requested $6.6 billion in FY25. Or 66% of those estimated costs of hurricanes (thus excluding their efforts to also monitor/warn/research flash floods or droughts or wildfires or severe weather or fisheries or tsunamis or solar flares).

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BostonCatherine @banner19.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Your poem makes me think of my father who escaped the Communist revolution in China as a child to come to this country. From a Maoist dictatorship to freedom. Your poem brings me to the 1600s when my mother’s ancestors arrived on a ship fleeing an English tyrant. Thank you for sharing your poem! 🪷

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 07/06/2025

Jewels of Strawberry High Season in Pennsylvania. Bought these 2 quarts from a kid *literally* just walking out of the 🍓 patch. #strawberry

A hand holding two quart containers filled with ripe juicy red strawberries above a background of green hostas.

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 06/06/2025

Delighted to see my poem "Lingering Fraction" about the Stonewall Riots in Tribes Magazine's A GATHERING OF OUR PRIDE Issue. My thanks to @tribesorg.bsky.social @regie.bsky.social www.tribes.org/a-gathering-... #poetry #pride Check out poems by my 🏳️‍🌈 AIR confreres at Link in 1st comment below⬇️⬇️

tribes.org

Dan Vera — A Gathering of the Tribes

Lingering Fraction   “Some homosexuals claim infallibility in identifying others of their kind ‘by the eyes—there’s a look that lingers a fraction of a second too long.’” “Growth o...

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Janel Comeau 🍁 @verybadllama.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

the thing about “bread and circuses” is that you’re not supposed to double the price of bread and then become the circus

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Christina Daub @christinadaub.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Great new Latino poetry anthology celebrated at MLK Library in DC with poets: @danvera.com @elizabethacevedo.bsky.social and others! #libraries #poetry

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Kim Roberts Meikle @kimroberts-dc.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Great panel of writers, all included in the Library of America Latino Anthology, last night at MLK Library in DC. Thoughtful and inspiring. @danvera.com @alexlregalado.bsky.social @fjaragon2025.bsky.social

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 03/04/2025

Came back from #AWP25 with a number of new books including Didi Jackson's "My Infinity." It was a real pleasure signing with her at the @redhenpress.bsky.social table, but today I've been enjoying her numinous poems. Even read a few aloud to the husband (always the mark of a good book IMO).

Book cover for Didi Jackson's My Infinity, with the Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint's painting, "The Dove No 3 Group IX" (1915).

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Lisa @lisasass.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Put your thumb down for 120 seconds & pause the doom scroll for a #poetry reading with humor & just the right amount of lace and savagery. Yeah, she may have dashes, metaphors, and a funeral in her brain. But this time, it’s *not* Emily Dickinson speaking—it’s a wickedly sharp poem by @danvera.com

youtu.be

Rick Davis Reads “Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam” By Dan Vera

YouTube video by ArtsFairfax

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Maureen Langloss @maureenlangloss.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

“I think it requires a very firm commitment to principle and a willingness to do hard things...We have to be willing to stand up for that. In principle, we have to be willing to speak up, and we have to be willing to say no to funding if it's going to constrain our ability to pursue the truth.”

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Dan Vera @danvera.com · 31/03/2025

Happy National Poetry Month! Don't miss this great reading April 22nd celebrating the landmark Library of America “Latino Poetry” anthology. Honored to read with three other poets from the anthology incl. @alexlregalado.bsky.social @moralesjuanj.bsky.social @acevedowrite.bsky.social! #poetry

Poster for the national poetry month Latino poetry: places we call home, anthology from the library of america. Including photos of the four readers. Reading will include a panel discussion. Tuesday April 22nd at 7:00 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr memorial Library in downtown Washington DC.

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Betty Field ♿️ @justbetty.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Must watch. Volume up!

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