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Lauren Olamina

@olamina.bsky.social
394 followers 374 following 2.3K posts

Reading, listening, parenting, watching, eating, cooking, baking, hiking, yoga. Bull City. she/her

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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I won’t finish it tonight, but am enjoying it so far. It’s visually stunning—the sets, the lighting, the costumes—it all looks intentional and striking.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Watching Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak and learned a quick way to make Jessica Chastain look creepy is to dye her hair black.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I do not make pumpkin pie. I grew up on sweet potato pie, and, consequently, pumpkin pie feels like an uncanny impostor. We are a multi culti household, but the kids dislike pie as a concept when it is not pizza, and the spouse will eat both with a slight preference for sweet potato.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My spouse eats squash with only slightly less enthusiasm than I do, enjoying them roasted, in soups, as gnocchi, etc, etc.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My children only eat squash in the form of zucchini bread or pumpkin bread. Both are actively cakes, but we call them bread so we can eat them for breakfast.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Gourds I will be eating. They were part of a display with larger ones, and my child asked if I was getting pumpkins for decorating, and I explained we live in the South, and if we carved pumpkins now, in this false fall, they would rot. These are wee and for eating.
A trio of squashes I will be eating: a green kabocha, a red kuri, and a koginut.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Accurate. This timeline is exhausting. www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLRFFsx9/
tiktok.com
History class in 2076 gonna be crazy
TikTok video by Morgan Evelyn Cook
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Spooky season is the best season.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There’s a body of research on the way people of color have been physically affected by the stress of racism (in addition to racist systems affecting medical care). Stress leading to negative health effects isn’t new, but there’s more stressors compounding what people were already dealing with.
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Matthew Somoroff @matthewsomoroff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
just finished Save a Seat for Me, by @markanthonyneal.bsky.social. it’s variously poignant, funny, and disarmingly frank. while it’s very much a book about Black fatherhood and Black family in the US, it contains many insights into the relationships and generational dynamics that define any family.
the first hardcover edition of Save a Seat for Me, sitting on a dark wooden surface. the cover is a bright yellow, with a small line drawing of two chairs facing each other.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I think some of the singular season stuff was for anthology series that tell one story per season, and then tell a different story with different characters the next. True Detective comes to mind.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ah! IMHO, the first three seasons were quite good, but the show didn’t maintain that quality. I tapped out around season 7, and it had already gone downhill.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
He was so very talented and improved everything he was a part of.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I hated Negan with the heat of 1,000 suns and couldn’t continue watching the show as he became more prominent, and after he killed my favorite. Plus, after a few years, it felt very repetitive and monotonous.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
😬
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Quick take on the new A Different World: film craft is there—it’s visually beautiful. I don’t like the depiction of Whitley in this series, as it doesn’t reflect all of that character’s growth over the original series. It is interesting, but mirthless, and very soapy. Worth checking out, though.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Image from the film Back to the Future. Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, and Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, look on in the warm glow of tire tracks on fire. Doc wears a lab coat and holds a large remote with two hands, and Marty wears a jean jacket and red puffy vest.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Thanks!
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I found this response to NHJ’s articles thoughtful. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
wbur.org
When you're a Black student in America, nothing is simple
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones enrolled her daughter, Najya, in an under-resourced, mostly Black public school, to fight for equity for all Black children. But as Najya grew up she became angry with h...
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This story brought me back to Kara, one of the mothers in my book, There Is No Place for Us. She was homeless with her four kids while driving for DoorDash. They had to pee in bottles so bathroom stops wouldn't make her late. After gas, she earned $6.50 an hour—75 cents less than the minimum wage.
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AFL-CIO @aflcio.org · 25/09/2026
Happy 9 to 5 day, Sister Dolly. We miss you ❤️
Photo of Dolly Parton in the movie "9 to 5."
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In Durham bbq news, a place I will not be taking my substantial appetite: www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8T4nRyL/
tiktok.com
You may have heard recently that a new Texas-style barbecue joint is hoping to open in downtown Durham. Here’s a little background on Dampf Good Barbecue and the family behind it. #durham #barbecue #n...
TikTok video by Matt Lardie
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Any recommendations for cozy fiction featuring Black characters? I don’t care if it’s cozy fantasy or cozy mystery, but, at some point, there should be members of a found family enjoying a hot beverage and a sweet.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Timothy Pigford, Who Fought Bias Against Black Farmers, Dies at 74 Gift link; no subscription required. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/u...
nytimes.com
Timothy Pigford, Who Fought Bias Against Black Farmers, Dies at 74 (Gift Article)
He was the lead plaintiff in the landmark 1997 lawsuit Pigford v. Glickman, an attempt to redress the Agriculture Department’s historic racism.
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 24/09/2026
“It’s fall, fuckfaces. You’re either ready to reap this freaky-assed harvest or you’re not.” buff.ly/pykYN6f
buff.ly
It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers
For the seventeenth year: Welcome to autumn, fuckheads.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Oh, so I ended up enjoying Spider-Man: Homecoming more than I expected. I’ll probably watch the others when I get around to it, even though a lot of plot points have been spoiled for me.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Ah, I hear you and appreciate the clarification.
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Joel D. Anderson @joelanderson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
What I think about this is: For black parents, there’s no one clear correct answer. My parents chose the other route and while it worked out academically, I was mostly unhappy with my educational experience and missed going to school with my friends in our neighborhood.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
And here: www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TUUaqE/ There are also Black parents commenting here and elsewhere about these challenges. It is not the same for white parents of white children.
tiktok.com
nikole hannah-jones & where should Black kids go to school? 👩🏽‍🏫 #nikolehannahjones #blackgirltiktok🤎 #nytimes #publicschool
TikTok video by Chris
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
See here: www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TUauux/
tiktok.com
Getting tired repaired while thinking about Nikole Hannah-Jones and the conundrums of school choice. #nikolehannahjones #blackparents #blackstudents #schoolschoice #fyp
TikTok video by keneshiagrant
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It’s not the same. White parents of financial means who opt to send their children to a predominantly white school because it’s better academically do not have to worry about their children socially in the same way.
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 22/09/2026
“About three months after Grady’s warning, a caravan of Klan and Nazis, led by a former FBI informant also working with the police, drove into a Black public housing community in Greensboro and opened fire on an anti-Klan march”
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I recommend both articles, as Nikole Hannah-Jones is thorough and thoughtful in both. Really, you all of her work is great, IMHO. This is a gift link for the 2016 article: www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/m...
nytimes.com
Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City (Gift Article)
How one school became a battleground over which children benefit from a separate and unequal system.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“As long as we continue to rescue our own children from the failing schools where we allow other people’s children to languish simply because those children have been born Black and poor in a nation of racism and riches, there is no absolution here. Not for me. Not for you. Not for any of us.”
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
While the article wrestles with the complicated choices middle and upper class Black parents make about their children’s education—a pithy commenter called the choice “paying for therapy or paying for tutors”—it doesn’t lose track of the bigger concern. It ends with:
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Gift link; no subscription needed. This, coupled with the 2016 article, is very interesting. In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/m...
nytimes.com
In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (Gift Article)
A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.
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Shanna "Read Black Fantasy" Miles @srmilesauthor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
While you're thinking about disadvantaged children and their access to higher education and a better future please consider purchasing an SAT Prep book for some of my high school kids! www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Good morning, it’s the 21st day of September
youtu.be
Earth, Wind & Fire - September (Official HD Video)
YouTube video by EarthWindandFireVEVO
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 20/09/2026
Holy smokes I fuckin' did it. As promised, I hard launched before Yom Kippur, with hours to spare! I am going to take a nap.
soraya.press
Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself
Look at me. I’m the publisher now.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Alas, I am not aging that way, but appreciate that they didn’t pull some bs by casting an actress who has always been considered attractive and claiming she’s just bland looking. This is not some “glasses and a ponytail make you homely” patronizing foolishness.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I’m a weirdo and just watching the Holland Spider-Man for the first time. From folks my age, I’ve heard some bristling about Marisa Tomei playing Aunt May, who is sometimes depicted as matronly. I’m pleased that there have been multiple gags about her being a hottie, age be damned.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Duncan Sheik, Who Traded Pop Stardom for Broadway, Dies at 56. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/a...
nytimes.com
Duncan Sheik, Who Traded Pop Stardom for Broadway, Dies at 56 (Gift Article)
Weary of the heartthrob label after his 1996 hit “Barely Breathing,” he pivoted to musical theater and won two Tonys for composing “Spring Awakening.”
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Not as old as Palpatine.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Star Wars: Emperor Palpatine's Unlimited Power
Alt: GIF image of Emperor Palpatine saying “Unlimited power!” from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. He shoots lightning out of his hands. His skin is gray and wrinkled. Shot from the shoulders up. He looks extremely excited.
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This is embarrassing 😬
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
static.klipy.com
It'S True Tho
Alt: GIF moving image of Janet Jackson with full bangs and hair covering her ears in a high-necked garment putting a potato chip on her mouth and chewing and moving her eyes expressively. The text below says, “It’s true tho.”
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Michael Harriot @michaelharriot.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Notice how those “apolitical” people ALWAYS end up siding with the oppressors
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
What the actual hell?
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
From the article: “Under the Trump administration, the E.P.A. has stopped estimating the public health benefits of reducing pollution in the cost-benefit analyses necessary for clean-air regulations. Instead, the agency has estimated only the costs to businesses of complying with the rules.”
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Lauren Olamina @olamina.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Gift link; no subscription required. Well sh*t. E.P.A. Expected to Erase Limits on Climate Pollution From Power Plants www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/c...
nytimes.com
E.P.A. Will Erase Limits on Climate Pollution From Power Plants (Gift Article)
Generation of electricity is the second largest source of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases in the United States.
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