Tor.com | July 10, 2020
“Head below for the full list of horror and genre-bending titles heading your way in July!”
Other People’s Pets by R.L. Maizes was included on this list! This title will pub July 14, 2020.
The Wall Street Journal | July 8, 2020
“Cullors is part of the collaborative project ‘In Plain Sight,’ which recruited sky-typing air fleets to write messages against mass detention and incarceration and which began the weekend of July 4: What I feel really moved by is this idea that you can look up and see a message that’s affirmative.’”
Follow the link above to read the full article.
O Magazine | July 7, 2020
”Everyone knows that summer is the perfect time for bookworms to dive into a juicy read, whether it's an irresistible beach read or a page-turning thriller. As much of the world still quarantines, reading is fundamental to engage our minds and imagination, especially during the dog days of summer when we all have more time in the day to unwind at the beach with a book or simply at home with a chilled glass of rosé.
But there's one challenge: Finding the right book for your mood can be hard, considering that there are so many amazing options to choose from. Luckily, the Reading Room team at O already helped round up some of the best books of summer 2020, works written by women around the world that will transport you. But if you still don't know where to start, I took things one step further and looked to the stars to help us each find the best book to vibe with our celestial personality.
So sit back, relax, and let the cosmos pick out the best book for you to read this summer, according to your zodiac sign.”
My Mother’s House by Francesca Momplaisir was included on this list (Aries). Follow the link above to see the full list.
California Book Awards | July 6, 2020
Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis is a California Book Award Finalist for the fiction category! Follow the link above to see the full list of finalists.
CNN | July 6, 2020
“Over Independence Day Weekend, 80 artists asked Americans to look up at the skies. Throughout July 3 and 4, messages related to immigration were written at 10,000 feet by World War II military planes, sky-typed over 80 sites related to the country's network of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, immigration courts, and the southern border. The idea was to bring attention to these facilities, which may not be familiar to many Americans.
The project ‘In Plain Sight’ is led by Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artists Rafa Esparza and Cassils.
‘(We have) come together to fight the culture of incarceration and focus (our) attention on abolishing ICE,’ said Cassils over a video call.
The artists involved included Hank Willis Thomas and Dread Scott; Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors; artist and TV producer Zackary Drucker; and designer and former Black Panther member Emory Douglas. Each artist chose a message to have temporarily written in the sky above a particular site.”
Follow the link above to read more.
BET | July 5, 2020
“Issa Rae is using her platform for good.
On Thursday (June 2), the Insecure star shared with her 2.7 million Instagram followers the groups and organizations she’s supporting during nationwide protests over police brutality.
Among the ones she highlighted include, Black Lives Matter, Regional Bail Funds, Defund the LAPD, BLD PWR, National Police Accountability Project, ACLU and Black Table Arts.”
Click the link above to read the entire article.
The Trend Spotter | July 5, 2020
“Gigi Hadid is releasing a second part to her ‘Gigi’s Journal’ series. The supermodel is a guest editor and the Creative Director of the series, which is a part of V Magazine. In this edition, she called for contributors to take part, and more than 20,000 responded. She then re-opened the submissions to represent more artists of color. Gigi worked on the first edition in 2017.
‘I felt strongly that it was important to me, and responsibility of mine and V Magazine, to make sure we are amplifying Black-American voices using this platform and privilege,’ she said. The spreads feature pieces by Patrisse Cullors, who founded the BLM movement, activist and chef, Sophia Roe, and many others. You can pre-order the Journal online – it will debut on July 15th.”
Follow the link at the top of the page to learn more about “Gigi’s Journal” series.
NPR | July 4, 2020
“As Americans celebrate Independence Day, a group of artists and activists are flying pro-immigrant, anti-incarceration messages in the skies. They hired fleets of airplanes to sky-write their slogans over 80 locations, including immigration detention facilities, jails, courts and the U.S./Mexico border.
[…]
‘Care, not cages’ is the phrase artist Patrisse Cullors sent over the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles. The co-founder of Black Lives Matter chose to echo the rallying cry of L.A. activists fighting mass criminalization of immigrants and U.S. citizens.
‘L.A. County is the largest jailer in the world,’ she says. ‘Half of the people that are in the jails are there because they can't afford bail. If someone goes inside who's undocumented, instead of being released, they're actually given over to ICE. So what we are challenging the county to do right now is to actually invest into our communities through an alternatives to incarceration fund.’
Each of the sky-typed phrases were followed by a hashtag leading to a website by immigrant justice organizations involved in the project. Among the participants were an ACLU lawyer, Central American immigrant organizations and Native American and Japanese American activists.”
Follow the link above to read more or listen to the piece.
The New York Times | July 3, 2020
“The Thunderbirds and Blue Angels that President Trump plans to send flying over the National Mall this Fourth of July will have some stiff competition from a group of 70 artists looking to spread their own messages across the nation’s skies.
Two fleets of five skytyping planes each are set for takeoff across the country this Independence Day weekend armed with calls for the abolition of the immigrant detention in the United States as part of the project ‘In Plain Sight.’ (Developed from older skywriting technology, skytyping planes inject oil into their exhaust systems to produce a white smoke that is released into the sky by a computer-controlled system to produce precise letter-writing.) Phrases like ‘Care Not Cages,’ ‘Unseen Mothers’ and ‘Nosotras Te Vemos (We See You)’ will momentarily hover above 80 locations — including detention facilities, immigration courts, prisons, borders and historic sites like Ellis Island — before dissipating into the atmosphere. And some of the messages will be skytyped in nearly 20 languages, including Hindi, Kurdish, Lakota and Punjabi.
The project started a year ago when the artists Cassils and rafa esparza teamed up with a goal of forming a coalition of artists and activists determined to address the ills of mass detention. The initiative’s members include the lawyer Chase Strangio; a founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors; and the artist Hank Willis Thomas — alongside 10 partner organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Raices and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.”
Click the link at the top of the page to read more about “In Plain Sight.”
Vox | July 2, 2020
“Black Lives Matter was created in 2013 by three Black women — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi — in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. Over the last seven years, it has evolved into something much bigger: a broad multiethnic liberation movement focused on criminal justice reform, racist policing, and adjacent causes.
During the course of this shift, the movement has not only expanded but become more radical in its demands for equality across the board. And yet, surprisingly, this has increased, rather than diminished, its appeal.
BLM had little support across the country as recently as 2017. But it has become steadily more popular, and in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, its popularity has surged to the point that it’s now supported by a majority of Americans. By any measure, that suggests BLM is succeeding — culturally and politically.
But how should we think of Black Lives Matter as a historical phenomenon? Is it the sort of radical social movement we’ve seen before in this country? Or is it something new, something different, without any precursors?
To get some answers, I reached out to Michael Kazin, a professor of history and American social movements at Georgetown University and also the co-editor of Dissent magazine. We discussed how BLM fits into the long tradition of American radicalism, what its proponents can learn from previous eras, and why he thinks BLM is both a political and a cultural struggle.”
Follow the link above to read the conversation.
Publishers Weekly | July 1, 2020
“Poe Foundation CEO Jules Worthington-Smith, the protagonist of this smoothly plotted thriller from Lillie (Little Voices), wakes up one morning with a hangover at home in Providence, R.I. The night before, Jules hosted an event honoring celebrity professor Terrance Castle, but she remembers little of it. Then Det. Frank Ramos arrives at her door and shows her a wallet that she identifies as hers. Ramos tells her the wallet was found next to a murder victim in an alley. The police take Jules to the crime scene, where she learns the victim is Terrance, whom she vaguely recalls meeting at a bar after the event. The only suspect in the killing, Jules soon loses her job and her reputation. As she struggles to piece together what happened that night, she launches a vlog with the purpose of uncovering Terrance’s murderer. Along the way, Jules must contend with her fraught family history and her drinking problem. Lillie keeps the suspense high up to the shocking ending. Readers will root for troubled Jules every step of the way.“
For the Best by Vanessa Lillie will be published September 1, 2020!
Marie Claire | June 30, 2020
“To say it was the moment I’d been waiting for all my life would be a lie. Rather, it was a pivotal career turning point I’d never allowed myself to dream of in more than a decade of trying to make it as a writer. My first novel for adults, All the Broken People, suddenly had multiple publishing houses vying for it, and hardest to believe of all—film and TV offers had also begun rolling in.
So like all fancy people waiting to speak to Hollywood bigwigs, I was hiding out in an emergency-exit stairwell in a loft space in SoHo, a beat-up notebook in my hand, the producer’s printed-out IMDB pages littering the steps. At the ad agency where I was working, it was the only place where the Venn diagram of personal privacy and quality cell reception made sense (curse you, open-plan offices). The call was going great—my fingers might have been shaking the whole time, but I kept my voice smooth (and bonus: no one burst into my stairwell)—but then the question came: ‘I love how you handled the issue of abuse…is this based on real life?’
I froze. I’d been ready to talk about my training as a journalist, my five published YA novels, my interest in potentially adapting the book into a screenplay myself. I was not prepared to answer such a deeply personal question on a professional phone call. What’s more, All the Broken People, which follows Lucy, a young woman who escapes a dangerous boyfriend but gets more than she bargained for when she befriends her new neighbors, isn’t entirely about domestic abuse. It is one part of Lucy’s story, yes, but her relationship with modern femme-fatale, Vera, who convinces Lucy to help her fake her husband’s death, is more central to the novel. Shaking away my surprise, I muttered a quick ‘no,’ and the call went on.”
Vanessa Lillie, author of Little Voices, was quoted in this article from Marie Claire. Follow the link above to read more!
BET | June 29, 2020
“Patrisse Cullors, Viola Davis, Sterling K. Brown, Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg and others honor Black Americans who were murdered as a result of systemic racism.”
Follow the link above to watch the highlights.
The Washington Post | June 29, 2020
“In the middle of the 2020 BET Awards on Sunday night, celebrities from Jamie Foxx and Viola Davis to Kendrick Lamar and Tracee Ellis Ross appeared on video screens together to read a long list of names: George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Trayvon Martin. Elijah McClain. Sandra Bland. Stephon Clark. Rayshard Brooks. Medgar Evers. Michael Brown. Ahmaud Arbery. Tamir Rice. Emmett Till. Malcolm X. Martin Luther King Jr. And many more.
‘Unfortunately, these names represent only a fraction of the black lives we’ve lost to the over 400-year-long pandemic called racism,’ said Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. ‘We can’t allow this cycle of pain and oppression to continue any longer. It ends now. We will not lose.’
During the three-hour show (prerecorded remotely because of the novel coronavirus pandemic), nearly every artist addressed the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality amid the national reckoning over racial injustice. Host Amanda Seales started and ended the telecast by talking about Taylor, who was shot and killed by Louisville police in her apartment: ‘Breonna Taylor’s killers are still walking free,’ she said to close the show.”
Follow the link above to read the entire article.
Newsweek | June 26, 2020
“Seven years have passed since Patrisse Cullors and fellow activists Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi launched the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the acquittal of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager shot while walking home in Miami Gardens, Florida. Cullors talked with Newsweek chief correspondent Chantal Da Silva about what's changed since then, what hasn't and what the BLM movement means today, in the wake of George Floyd's death and its impact on the movement for racial justice. Here are edited excerpts from the interview.”
Follow the link above to read the entire interview between Patrisse Cullors and Newsweek.
Hypebeast | June 26, 2020
“Dev Hynes, Doja Cat and Aloe Blacc are among the names performing in a live stream this weekend to raise funds in the fight against racial injustice.
Black Power Live will be hosted by #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, and will feature performances from a range of musicians, poets and activists, all streamed live through Twitch.
The event is intended as an opportunity to reflect on the next steps in current movement for social equality that is taking place worldwide, while celebrating the achievements of activists and protestors so far.”
Follow the link above to learn more about The Black Power Live stream.
Entertainment Tonight | June 26, 2020
“Some famous names have signed on to appear on Nick News' latest special! ET can exclusively announce that Chance the Rapper, Simone Biles, Naomi Campbell and Lay Lay will all appear on Kids, Race and Unity: A Nick News Special later this month.
Alicia Keys is set to host the virtual event, which will focus on the protests and social movements sweeping the nation in an effort to ‘amplify the voices and experiences of Black kids across the country amid current events.’
The special feature young activists like 12-year-old Keedron Bryant, as well as leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement -- Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi -- the latter of whom will be answering questions submitted by kids.
Kids, Race and Unity: A Nick News Special will air Monday, June 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon, TeenNick, and Nicktoons. After the episode airs, viewers can check it out on all of Nickelodeon's digital streaming platforms.”
Be sure to watch the Nick News special!
Newsweek | June 26, 2020
“Can eight minutes and 46 seconds change the world?
From London to Lisbon, Berlin to Brisbane, Pretoria to Paris, as well as Toronto, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and scores of other cities in dozens of other countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, the answer, increasingly, seems to be yes.
In the month that's passed since George Floyd was killed and that horrifying, heartbreaking nearly nine-minute video revealed his treatment by four Minneapolis police officers, protests have spread beyond the U.S. and around the globe. The themes are at once universal—demonstrators demand justice for Floyd, and call for police reform and an end to systemic racism—and unique to the particular challenges of racial justice in each country. Protestors invoke the names of Black people killed in their country along with Floyd's, topple symbols of racism specific to their culture, point to what they believe are egregious examples of inequality particular to where they live.
The overarching message that ties the global protests together: ‘Black Lives Matter.’”
Follow the link above to read the entire article.