@joiultra

The 2005 landfall of Hurricane Katrina and 2008 Listeriosis outbreak were national crises for the governments of the United States of America and Canada, respectively. Each event was a matter of public health and security. How effectively officials communicated with each other and the public during these times impacted the extent of loss of well-being, livelihood, property, and life.  The…

If you or somebody you know is struggling or will be struggling with having enough food due to not receiving November SNAP benefits (or any reason), I’mma list some Northeast Louisiana resources. Hit me up if you need help. This is the kinda stuff I (and the people and programs I coordinate with) have to do all the time for clients anyway. As I become aware of other resources, I will try to add…

In 3 weeks, I’ll be a social worker who is not allowed to “practice social work” in the state of Louisiana. For those not familiar with “professional” licensing process, particularly for social work, let me shed some light. What all them letters mean TL;DR for this section – I’ve had a Certified Social Worker status for 3 years, it’s a temporary 3-year certificate after a master’s degree, it…

Article by Collin Smith for Bandcamp. Read it here. I’m not about to pretend that I was so clever and directly sought an article about Congolese music. The truth is less strategic and more magical. I decided to look at what music is new on Bandcamp. Either I had never been to the parts of the site that show articles, or I had completely blocked them out. I was just trying to see what music was…

A book by Kellie Carter Jackson Sometime in 2024 (I think), Trey Washington whose handle is @whatsonemorepothos on Instagram, discussed this book in his Instagram stories. His enthusiastic endorsement, the title, and the cover were enough to interest me. I ordered We Refuse along with several other books earlier this year, and started this one in June. As of this writing, I’m still in the…

A graphic novel by Lin Shi Khan and Tony Perez, edited by Andrew Lee with foreword by Robin D.G. Kelley I read this one the same week I read V for Vendetta. The bulk of the book – the linoleum cuts by Lin Shi Khan and Tony Perez – was published in 1935 to illustrate and and agitate for nine Black youths who were falsely accused of raping two white women. Before we get to the artwork, we get…

Comics by Alan Moore & David Lloyd Every now and then, a book of comics helps get my brain in the right mode. (I know Alan Moore and others aren’t fond of the term “graphic novel.”) I prefer several issues of a comics story gathered and bound into a book rather than single issue pamphlets or magazines. I saw the film adaptation of V for Vendetta years and years ago, and I have it on DVD. I…

As I have been learning and figuring out, here are some of the impacts of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey: Jewish people will be will be denied freedom of religious practice Muslim people will be will be denied freedom of religious practice Christian people whose beliefs include reproductive justice will be denied…

Maybe y’all heard we had a little election in Louisiana for four constitutional amendments on March 29. Louisiana’s own Power Coalition for Equity & Justice and other groups and individuals spent many weeks making sure we we knew what those amendments were and what they would do. I first shared one of the Power Coalition graphics about it to my Instagram stories on February 12. They made the…

Article by Yousra Elbagir for The Times of London. Read it here. Yousra and her team were in Goma, the biggest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, as M23 (March 23) Rebels seized the city last week. She captures the fear of them running for their lives – including when she, a Sudanese Brit was mistaken for a Rwandan Tutsi – and waiting in their hotel to see if they can get out of…

Three days ago on Threads: Threads post: joiultra 3d ago – “I was starting to get overwhelmed. Then I saw posts about Sudanese Emergency Response Rooms and Gazans cleaning up and rebuilding and thought about my neighbors and history. That zoom out and perspective can be restorative.” (I know the screenshot says 2 days ago. The app says 3 days, the website says 2 days. As the one who posted it,…

As encouragement, for the “planting” work discussed below, I remind you that ART and CULTURAL WORK exists. Music, paintings, drawings, animation, writing, film, clothing design, all of that. And there are artists who are out there talking about the work of unearthing the beautiful other world that is possible, creating art to help us imagine it, and all while not shying away from the reality of…

Article by Asawin Suebsaeng for Rolling Stone, January 20, 2025. Read it here. Asawin is correct. It’s refreshing to hear (read) someone with the large platform that Rolling Stone provides say the truth that so many in politics, corporations, media, and prominent positions in culture have been dancing around or completely ignoring while trying to sell us things or pretend that “civility” and…

From COML 509: Social Dynamics of Communication Technology @ Gonzaga University, Spring 2009. Thoughts on chapter 4, Writing Restructures Consciousness, from Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy: “Technologies are not mere exterior aids but also interior transformations of consciousness, and never more than when they affect the word.” (Ong, 1982, p 82) I was with him on the first part, but at the…

Article written by Hakim Bishara for Hyperallergic. Read it here. That title did it’s job. I first became aware of the name Ai Weiwei several years ago (I don’t know how many) and heard he was an artist and a dissident. [Dissident (noun) – a person who actively disagrees with a political system, government, religion/belief system, or organization and publicly challenges/criticizes it.] We need…