tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 1hIn a note to herself, Octavia E. Butler said, “What shall I do? Write. When shall I begin. Now.” “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.” 0113
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026James Baldwin on the labor pains of writing a book. “I ain’t joking and believe me it ain’t no fun at all. And that’s where I am, brow covered with sweat, scared to death, wishing I’d never met the mighty motherfucker... but I did and it got me pregnant.” 0122
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026In 1986, James Baldwin delivered an address at the Issyk-Kul Forum in the Central Asian Soviet Republic of Kirghizia. His handwritten notes of his lecture include the phrases “absence of Africa in the historical record” and “the necessity of envisioning a world without nations.” 072
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Toni Morrison said, “The public persona… Having a public self first before you have a private self is what is alarming.” “I don’t mean to be glib, but if you’re not good company for yourself, you have to work to become the kind of person whose company you enjoy.” 052
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Ta-Nehisi Coates said toughness is vital for writers. “To not get knocked out. You need to be able to take brutal critique and tolerate awful people. But more than that, you need the physical courage to look at a blank screen, and write… courage to confront your own awfulness.” 0102
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026All of us need political education for something. Even those who do the readings or the work. I will die on this hill. 0102
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026@prisonculture.bsky.social Hi Mariame. If you haven't seen this, thought you'd appreciate the point that Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor makes about abject individualism as part of reactionary politics. 180
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor said, "People died for the right to vote. But people also died for democracy and justice and inclusion, and voting does not necessarily secure that. When people say that, they ignore the most important factor in creating progress in the United States: social movements..." 0217
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Octavia E. Butler said, “Be quiet... write.” 0174
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Ella Baker said the charismatic leader often becomes a leader through the media and “gets to the point of believing that he is the movement.” “Such people get so involved with playing the game of being important that they... don’t do the work of actually organizing people.” 071
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Zohran Mamdani said, “No matter what you do, make sure you can recognize yourself in the mirror at the end of the day.” 0101
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I am frequently reminded of Fred Hampton’s point that “we have to educate the people as to who their enemy really is.” And that “the people” includes all of us. 0182
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Discerning what’s annoying AF from a political threat seems a useful task for more of us to take up. 061
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Sometimes academic shared governance can result in class confusion, suggesting labor is a partnership between bosses and workers. 040
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026It’s weird how Mamdani doesn’t get examined or picked apart as the first Asian American mayor of NYC. 030
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026The Spanish Prime Minister, who has gotta be one of the hottest lefty politicians out here, is set to meet Mamdani, who is also really good looking. 020
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Despite everything, I still believe in good teaching, good writing, and the importance of hip and glute strength. 0173
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Today is George Jackson’s birthday. Along with being a revolutionary he was a writer who inspired other writers. Walter Rodney, Angela Y. Davis, James Baldwin, C.L.R. James, and Joy James emphasize his impact. On his reading and writing practices in prison: www.nytimes.com/1971/06/13/a...nytimes.comA Talk With George Jackson (Published 1971)G Jackson int by J Mitford; text 061
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Octavia E. Butler said, “Our stories are supposed to be fiction, our promises are not.” As she wrote on her calendar, “Keep your word.” 092
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026About new journalism, which bridges fiction writing and journalism in the telling of real-life events, James Baldwin said, “I think the great difficulty or danger is not to make the event an occasion for the exhibition of your virtuosity.” Could say the same for reader response. 030
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Too often we counter neoliberalism with sanctimony and self-congratulations. 030
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Community is needed and can be good but it is often invoked in a way that serves a deskilling agenda in terms of labor and jobs. 041
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026A lot of think pieces remind me of June Jordan saying, “Writing from my heart I made, I think, a serious mistake. I said nothing about power.” 070
Reposted by tamara nopperwordsbydumi.bsky.social @dumilm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I’ve got a million thoughts in NHJ recent article, but here are 5 wordsbydumi.substack.com/p/five-thoug... 3108
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Jennifer C. Nash and Samantha Pinto note, “Much of the feminist response to the exhausted position has been to proliferate theories and practices of alternative care: to argue that we need to care more, to share the work of care, to celebrate and champion care as an antistate mode...” 021
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Like Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.” “Do the thing and you will have the power.” 0886290
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Finally saw Big Freedia! Their outdoor concert is around the corner from my gym, lol. 071
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Cheryl I. Harris said, “Critical scholars and activists have documented the oppressive nature of debt for the poor and working class,” but less explored is how “extraction, dispossession, and accumulation through debt are connected to racial and racializing projects.” Word. 091
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Annie Dillard said writers should read for pleasure, “follow your own weirdness,” and get involved in other stuff that does good in the world. And to remember that we “need exercise, too, and people.” 0232
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Octavia E. Butler said, “What good is a writer who doesn’t write. We are trash if we don’t write. We’re good for nothing if those words aren’t down.” 092
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026I appreciated Macklemore's statement for many reasons, including it didn't treat solidarity as a pissing contest. 080
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026@prisonculture.bsky.social You might have read this. But, just in case, I had to share with you what W.E.B. Du Bois said about sociology in 1903. Hilarious. 1161
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The foundation of what is now known as U.S. carceral studies is the scholarship of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and W.E.B. Du Bois. 0152
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026W.E.B. Du Bois's article "The Spawn of Slavery: The Convict Lease System of the South," published in 1901. www.crisisopportunity.org/articles/PDF...crisisopportunity.org 062
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Focusing on “class issues” instead of addressing the ”culture wars” can be an act of evasion. 020
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 12/09/2026James Baldwin said that “socialism in America… is an utterly intolerable idea, and those in power, as well as the bulk of the people, will resist so tremendous a heresy with all the force at their command.” Yet “present economic arrangements doom most of the world to misery.” 0111
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 12/09/2026John Brown by W.E.B. Du Bois. Free. Du Bois had wanted to write a biography of Nat Turner but ended up with Brown. From reading the book I learned abolition was, for the Browns, a family affair. A bunch of them took action. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62799gutenberg.orgJohn Brown by W. E. B. Du BoisJohn Brown by W. E. B. Du Bois. Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers. 012137
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Kansas football talking about slavery and John Brown. What a time to be alive. x.com/KU_Football/...x.comKansas Football (@KU_Football) on XIt is that deep. 020
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Sometimes when I point blank ask a question in a meeting, I think of June Jordan saying, “I don’t pull punches so much, at all, as I used to in committee meetings and so on. I really pretty much say exactly what I mean... If you disagree, you can just disagree.” 090
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Sometimes I think about how Malcolm X’s comment regarding chickens coming home to roost was made during the Q&A. 040
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Sometimes we’re just miserable––and there are a lot of reasons to be––but not politically right or even interesting. It’s like Toni Morrison said, “The misery does not validate the work.” 0156
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026It’s exciting to see the headlines about progressive change and winning against the much wealthier candidate and knowing you played a small role in that by getting your ass out and canvassing several times. People power––or, as my friend called canvassing, ass power––matters. 060
Reposted by tamara nopperDavid Morales @davidmoralespvd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Thank you, Providence. 🫶🏽 817542
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026The democratic socialist who just won the primary in Providence ran on a campaign focused on economic needs and embraced issues and people—coded as DEI—that strategists and pundits claim are a liability to progressive campaigns. It can happen. It did happen. 012422
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026I’m so glad I made my ass go out and canvass. 080
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026A democratic socialist and professional wrestler who ran on capping rent hikes just won the mayoral primary. 0130
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026The candidate I canvassed for this summer just won! Promised a cap on rent hikes! LFG!!! 0220
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Ta-Nehisi Coates warned of “people who B.S... smart about one thing, and so they play into this notion that they’re smart about everything else.” Related, Toni Morrison said that a pitfall of success is “you can begin to talk about things you know nothing about.” 082
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Drama is not new. But the way it can be monetized and be used to build a brand... 000
tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I still appreciate this from Ta-Nehisi Coates. “I want to be a really decent person and a great writer. That’s what I want out of my life. And that’s not small… Like, being a decent person is not a small thing and it’s not an easy thing, by the way. It really, really isn’t.” 0244
