P. Djéli Clark | The Disgruntled Haradrim
@pdjeliclark.bsky.social
Historian. Writer. Jumbie & Duppy Conqueror. Rambler of Things. Doer of Stuff. Brotha From Another Planet | pdjeliclark.com
The Smithsonian cultural anthropologist Richard Kurin describes the 15-year covert effort that resulted in what he and a team of geneticists, genealogists, historians, and anthropologists believe proves that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings—a woman he enslaved.
Researchers Say They’ve Found the Truth About Thomas Jefferson
A secret 15-year effort has produced genetic evidence that one of the nation’s Founders fathered children with a woman he enslaved.
theatlantic.com
Radburn found a letter sent by the company’s board to its agents in Buenos Aires, instructing them to brand enslaved people with hot metal. The brand bore a crown, a symbol of the British monarchy’s role in the trade.
The royal crown branded on enslaved Africans: Britain’s monarchy and the slave trade
From Elizabeth I’s backing of early voyages to royal investment in trafficking companies, generations of monarchs were central to Britain’s slave trade
theguardian.com
Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Lewis—a professor of humanities, African studies, and African American studies at Harvard—wanted to approach Till’s legacy in a new way: not as a case to be investigated, but as an example of the promise the world loses to every act of racist violence.
A New Photo Exhibit Asks a Heartbreaking Question: What If Emmett Till Had Lived?
The multi-artist exhibit at Columbia College Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography seeks to illustrate the true cost of racism.
vanityfair.com
will. be. epic!
Micaiah Johnson@micaiahjohnson.bsky.social · 3w agoThis book almost undid me in so many ways, and I’m thrilled to be launching it from the other side. Really happy this will be a convo with @pdjeliclark.bsky.social rather than a reading, because this book is about places you shouldn’t stay, and bait only a strong community can keep you from taking.
me too!
Lightspeed Magazine@lightspeedmagazine.com · 3w agoWe're excited to see what Nebula, Locus, and British Fantasy Award winner @pdjeliclark.bsky.social comes up with for us! He's the author of A MASTER OF DJINN, RING SHOUT, THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS, and the Dead Djinn Universe stories. 🔔 Click to be notified when we launch! bit.ly/LS-NM-26
In the original series, the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, came up with a philosophy held by the Vulcan people. He called it IDIC: infinite diversity in infinite combinations. It suggests that an ideal society is made up of many different types, all working together.
‘Star Trek’ and NASA have intertwined legacies – the show championed diversity and inspired generations of real space scientists
60 years of ‘Star Trek’: A cultural anthropologist on how the show’s “infinite diversity in infinite combinations” conception helped shape NASA’s vision of the future.
theconversation.com
On Sept. 8, 1966, Nichelle Nichols debuted as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek — one of the first Black women to lead on American TV. MLK was a fan, and talked her out of quitting after season one. See more: https://bit.ly/4diW4pr #NichelleNichols #StarTrek
The Confederate Memorial “is the cruelest monument that I have ever seen…” the most egregious example of racism “It is a pro-slavery, anti-United States monument.”—Ty Seidule, retired U.S. Army brigadier general
Trump officials strip military language criticizing Confederate memorial — The Washington Post
A new sign at Arlington National Cemetery omits wording that said the 32-foot bronze statue “mythologized” the Confederacy and gave “sanitized” depictions of slavery.
apple.news
Criselda Vasquez, American, The New American Gothic, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in, private collection The artist's father, portrayed in the painting, was kidnapped by ICE on 31 March 2026
My favorite is when they tell me how they really like having read my book… that hasn’t actually come out yet.
Chuck Tingle@chucktingle.bsky.social · 3w agomy new favorite scam email is when someone pretending to be a real publishing house is impressed with one of my books and asks if im interested in a deal, the only problem is theyre already pretending to be my publisher and the book theyre talking about is their own dang book
I remember watching The Muppets at night on BBC in Trinidad as a kid. Probably didn’t get half the jokes. But it was still a fave.
50? Moi? How The Muppets rocked the world with anarchy, nonsense and the inimitable Miss Piggy
Half a century on, Jim Henson’s fuzzy felt friends are as influential as Monty Python and the Beatles. It’s been a wild journey of nightclubbing, light operas, duetting with Debbie Harry and tying Joh...
theguardian.com
West Africans practiced smallpox inoculation long before Europeans had ever heard of it, and brought the knowledge with them to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade. Historian Elise Mitchell examines how these stories were “forgotten” amid the hardening of racial ideologies in the 19th century
The world has spent centuries forgetting the African history of immunisation
Historian Dr Elise Mitchell re-examines the early history of smallpox inoculation on both ends of the Atlantic slave trade.
gavi.org
The UN general assembly will vote on Friday on a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.
UN to vote on adopting new world map that shows Africa’s true scale
Togo-sponsored resolution calls to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland
theguardian.com
wow. Jury convicts a man of first-degree murder for the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur
Jury convicts a man of first-degree murder for the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur
A jury has found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.
apnews.com
“Captured from Benin, west Africa, Cudjo Lewis was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean and enslaved in rural Alabama, just a year before the Civil War. Earlier this year, 165 years after Cudjo left Africa, his great-great-granddaughter, Cassandra Lewis, returned to receive citizenship from Benin.”
Trafficked on the last US slave ship, Cudjo Lewis never returned home to Benin. But his descendant has
Cassandra Lewis’s Benin citizenship reflects a broader push by African countries to reconnect with diaspora descendants
theguardian.com
Dolly Parton's family asked that, in lieu of flowers, fans make a donation to the singer's Imagination Library. Here's what the charity does ⬇️ www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
Turning Pages: Inside Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Core team of 15 staff and thousands of volunteers and partners help the country-music philanthropist deliver books to kids around the world.
rollingstone.com
The U.S. still owes Antigua and Barbuda nearly $400M after a WTO ruling over internet gaming — and has never paid. #Antigua #CaribbeanUpdate
U.S. refuses to pay tiny Antigua after losing case over internet gaming
U.S. refuses to pay Antigua after losing internet gaming case, sparking international trade dispute concerns.
amsterdamnews.com
UNESCO recognizes Aug 23 as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, set against the backdrop of the opening acts of Haitian Revolution on August 22-23, 1791.
The primary job of science fiction is to discuss the present via the illusion that it is the future
GaBigMike@gabigmike.bsky.social · last mo.As an author of sci Fi isn't the most glaring non prediction social media? Jet packs and robots and ray guns but nothing on oligarchs turning is against each other on socials.
A new study finds slavery still casts a long shadow on the country’s well-being, worsening the health outcomes for Black people in certain locations more than 150 years after abolition.
Slavery linked to mortality gap between Black and white Americans today
New study is among the first to quantify and explain slavery’s influence in contemporary U.S. health disparities
science.org
Good thread. Thank goodness somebody’s following this cuz I don’t have the time. Just run me my measly check already.
Courtney Milan@courtneymilan.com · last mo.HAPPY ANTHROPIC SETTLEMENT EFFECTIVE DAY FOR ALL WHO CELEBRATE!!!!!
OMG
IGN Finds@igndeals.bsky.social · 2mo agoLEGO Icons Transformers Optimus Prime still available for MSRP in spite of being retired. This could be your last chance to get this set for MSRP, hard to know how much longer it will be around. #ad Amazon: https://zdcs.link/z7GE77 LEGO: https://zdcs.link/9w0XkD
The notion of zombies trace back to when African slaves were brutally disciplined and worked to death. It was rumored that some got rendered “soul lost,” so they would toil without rest or protest. Thus within Haitian culture, zombies were victims, robbed of independent will by cruel masters.
‘Black Zombie’ Review: An Engaging Doc on How the Flesh-Eating Hordes of Screen Fame Obscured Painful Real-Life History
Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary 'Black Zombie' looks at nearly a century of zombie cinema through the lens of cultural appropriation.
variety.com
The nation’s audacious 1960s rocket programme was met with ridicule. Now, more than 60 years on, this curious episode is inspiring film-makers, playwrights and a circus show at the fringe.
‘It’s a Pan-African story’: the artists telling the amazing true tale of Zambia’s mission to reach space
The nation’s audacious 1960s rocket programme was met with ridicule. Now, more than 60 years on, this curious episode is inspiring film-makers, playwrights and a circus show at the fringe
theguardian.com
Lots chatter in these social media streets bout Children of Blood and Bone. ALL BLACK EVERYTHING flick got ALL BLACK DRAMA. But this blog ain't bout none of that. Instead, I tackle another related controversy about the joys, rewards, perils, and pitfalls of writing African-inspired fantasy.
Africa, Fantasy, and Worldbuilding
Movie still featuring royal family in film adaptation of Children of Blood and Bone Over the past few weeks there’s been a lot of discourse about the film adaptation of Nigerian-American writ…
disgruntledharadrim.com