Three writing exercises to help face difficult times, injustice, anger, and the news.
Writing for liberation exercises: Processing injustice, anger, and overwhelming news
Top free news, analysis, and creative newsletters
If you're sick of scrolling through endless social media ads and other types of spam to get to decent content, newsletters are one option that can help you stay up-to-date and informed in an intentional way, without all the other crap getting in the way. Below I list some quality, free, non-promotional newsletters. These are... Continue Reading →
Politics of silence and the loudness of poetry
On Friday, there was a mass shooting in Chiapas, Mexico, and seven Tzotzil people were murdered. But there was zero coverage in the English media, because it happened in Mexico and not the US, and because they were original people, not wealthy tourists. The seven people had fled their homes due to violence in the... Continue Reading →
What real “balance” in the media would look like
When the mainstream media world talks about the importance of balance, or "both sides of the story", what they are really doing is justifying also talking to the rape victim's attacker, to the cop who murdered the Black man, to the violent right wing in Venezuela, to the coup plotters, and to the company that... Continue Reading →
Facebook’s latest changes are great for its profits and bad for independent media
Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook would continue to de-prioritise shared public content like news, videos, and links and would favour “family and friend” content like personal photos and thoughts. He made out that “meaningful interactions” were at the core of the decision. But that's just thinly-disguised spin. Facebook isn't a social media company. It... Continue Reading →
The shady side to the fact checking trend (and alternative methods for sorting through the lies).
Since the lying, incompetent orange man became the Republican candidate in the US, then president, fact checking websites and other content have been trending. Fact checking has become a buzzword. Part of that comes down to US-centrism: after all, lying rich people are running most countries, as well as most of the transnationals that are... Continue Reading →
Writing for liberation exercise: news writing prompts
Here are some writing prompts for a story, poem, vignette, spoken word... taken from the current news. Rebel! Imagine! What would that be like? What could happen instead?Or what's the worst or best that can happen? A French police officer accidentally fired a gun during the president's speech. Then.. A woman who kept a £20... Continue Reading →
resistance words 