And before I head off, another poem that better suits the day.

Marcellus ​“Khaliifah” Williams wrote poetry while in prison, on death row.

Even the family of the victim and the prosecutor's office fought for the state not to kill him. The case against him was all wrong.

As Langston Hughes might have said, "He, too, sings America."

Or sang it, while he could.

Until tonight.

#US #DeathPenalty #Poetry
https://innocenceproject.org/marcellus-williams-on-death-row-poetry-is-a-lifeline/

Tonight's first students get some poetry, via two poems that I love to pair for my advanced learners: Mary Oliver's "The Summer Day" and James Wright's "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota".

Also, @LiseL, my mall had a new gift today: a lovely display dedicated to the originator of a wildly popular 18th-Centurt version of Beauty and the Beast!

I truly never know what I'm going to discover in it next. #Poetry #Literature

Bipolar II means low lows, and only moderate manias (so, no worries of me thinking I'm the second coming, etc).

But manias still manifest for me in getting so wrapped up in projects that I forget to do things like eat, leave the house, sleep. And that goes doubly so when preoccupied by the world.

So, from one nutjob to any others here:

Don't forget to move the soft animal of your body.

Feed it.

Water it. (But not after midnight.)

Then tell it to get its tea kettle offline and back to work.

Whew.

Closing all the news streams and the socials now.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Time to work.

Watch yer hearts, all. 🕊️

So take the breaks you need if you start to see tons of people rushing into propaganda mode for the next while, always worrying about optics over humanity.

Use the tools!

And try to forgive yourselves and those around you for not knowing how to do better in these awful times.

We're all just trying to do the best we can from our subject-positions - even if the best we can do happens to cause more harm.

Nobody gets out of this alive, but we can pick *some* battles along the way.

TTFN, team. 💛

#MediaLiteracy

Relatedly, there's a lot of malinformation on CoSo, but trying to correct it all is futile.

A healthier news ecosystem would be one in which it was safe to comment on the grief of more slaughter, more lost lives, more unchecked war, more leaders unable to de-escalate, more bad allies.

I would trust more people here if they were able to sit with those facts first & show care for the pain that comes from it, without rushing to spin everything.

But hey, we're only human, right? 🤷🏻‍♂️

And here are the infographs I made for this piece: a depiction of an unhealthy news cycle, and a depiction of a healthier one, both seen from the perspective of an average end-user who is going to be inundated with opinions about a given news story either way.

How can we make sure that reader gets the most informative and empowering curation of news possible?

#MediaLiteracy #Journalism #SocialMedia #Culture

Building on yesterday's piece, today we look at a deeper problem for media literacy: the lack of local journalism robust enough, in our new media economy, to provide the everyday standards we need to correct misinformation (when it inevitably arises) and to defend against more sinister forms of disinformation, too. Without this systemic fix, we're merely playing Whack-a-Mole with bad news whenever it arises.

#MediaLiteracy #Journalism #Democracy #BetterWorldsTheory

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-real-challenge-for-media-literacy

Just a light one to start off our week.

Today we look at Cat Park, a simple 15-minute game that offers an excellent introduction to media manipulation and its social consequences.

This game offers a lovely conversation-starter around mis- and disinformation for children, and inoculation-science resources like this one can also help the rest of us to sharpen our vocabulary around related themes.

Highly recommended for parents and educators!

#MediaLiteracy #Propaganda https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-inoculation-science-of-cat-park

All right, I have let go of the Patreon post.

This started as a reflection on Medellín's recent book festival, but it just kept getting deeper and deeper. Now it starts with Boccaccio? And explores a range of recent essays lamenting the decline of readers and book culture? And asks questions about the core role of literature in our deeply hurting world?

Well, it's free-to-read.

You be the judge of its value.

#CoSoBooks #WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity #Literature

https://www.patreon.com/posts/112499632

Here's a fun masterclass in #AI spin.

Can you read this Financial Times article and see *any* concrete use case, outside all the industry jargon interspersed with interview subjects saying that they're highly skeptical of this tech?

"Most software investors ... are betting the big winners will be the existing powers in the software industry—even if it is still unclear how or when the pay-off from #technology will come."

"Move Over Copilots: Meet the Next Generation..."
https://archive.ph/cp4Fx

@AskTheDevil, I've been meaning to ask for a while--

Did you ever read Rabih Alameddine's The Angel of History? It's a book I keep coming back to in moments of despair. In it, a gay poet is haunted by global conflicts that speak to life's capacity for endless suffering (e.g., the US AIDS crisis, and migratory traumas in Lebanon and Egypt). However, he's not alone: Satan and Death are on hand, offering ways through the pain of it all.

Powerful meditation.
#CoSoBooks
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28818930-the-angel-of-history

💛 Beautiful torrential storm to accompany me while I finally put this Patreon piece to bed. I've been dithering over it for too long.

#Soon #AmWriting

I jumped the gun with getting Apple for Slow Horses (waiting for the full season so I can binge), so I've been making my way through Bad Monkey during meals... and it's okay (some cute V/O lines and location work that are giving me ideas for an upcoming fiction project), but it also has Vince Vaughn, who isn't a favourite.

Then I realized that I'm actually watching this show for the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), who just steals every scene she's in.

I want her in EVERYTHING. 😍

#CoSoTV

How did YOU keep your vibes right this week/weekend? 👀