Courtney Thorsson
@courtneythorsson.bsky.social
2K followers 740 following 740 posts
I study, teach, and write about African American literature. **The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture** hc 2023, pb 2025 https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-sisterhood/9780231204729 https://www.courtneythorsson.com
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It’s #pubweek, grab a copy of the new expanded edition at your local bookseller !
Today on the blog, Robyn Maynard @policingblack.bsky.social discusses the new revised & expanded edition of her book "Policing Black Lives," explaining its continued relevance to students, scholars, & activists around the world.
buff.ly/Nh0mEyX
A brown skinned woman with long dreadlocs parted to one side looks at the camera without smiling. She wears a white tank top and a pendant necklace. Cover of Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard. The background features a grainy, black-and-white image of a Black individual facing a wall. The person's posture and the ruler markings adjacent to the figure suggest that the image is a mugshot. The entire cover has a gritty feel and is overlaid with a grainy, stippled texture. The title text is bold and distressed.
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My birthday is Sunday and for as long as I can remember I have used that occasion to raise needed funds for a project, organization or person. This year is no different. I have a goal of raising $5000 by 10/20 for EvLovesNYC @evlovesnyc.bsky.social - If you can & want to, please support this project
EVLovesNYC - Non Profit Helping New Yorkers in Need
EVLovesNYC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing food & resources in NYC. Over 340,000 Meals provided & working with 75+ partner organizations.
www.evloves.nyc
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Today's the 166th anniversary of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.

On this date last year I published this @truthout.org interview with the great historian @profmsinha.bsky.social on the history, lessons and legacies surrounding Brown and the mid-19th century abolitionist movement.
Legacy of John Brown’s Abolitionist Raid Lives On, 165 Years Later
Activists today can learn from John Brown’s raid on a federal arsenal and from the Black abolitionists who inspired him.
truthout.org
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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson calls Sunday's naked bike ride in protest of the Portland ICE facility and and Trump troop deployment "the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet"

www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
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If your university/organization is interested in sports from a Black feminist perspective, consider me! My book covers issues of racism/gender in sports, the politics of Black hair, athlete activism, fashion, as well as commodification. Reach out to me via my website!

www.drletishaecbrown.com
Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown
www.drletishaecbrown.com
Reposted by Courtney Thorsson
My first book, Say Her Name: Centering Black Feminism and Black Women in Sport, came out this March with Rutgers University Press. Since then I've given talks in Boston, Urbana-Champaign, Charlotte and most recently Memphis. /1
Hardback copy of my book, Say Her Name: Centering Black Feminism and Black Women in Sport. 

The cover is peach in color, with four different depictions of Black women playing various sports with different hair types.
Teaching today in HC 444:

Toni Cade Bambara, "Preface" from The Black Woman (1970)

Combahee River Collective, "A Black Feminist Statement" (1977)
Teaching today in HC 101:

Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Douglass" (1903)

Robert Hayden, "Frederick Douglass" (1947)

Langston Hughes, "Frederick Douglass: 1817-1895" (1966)

Evie Shockley, "from The Lost Letters of Frederick Douglass" (2011)
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Earlier this year, I finally got the opportunity to do a broadcast with Subrina. She had her own show, CinnCinne Goes SyFy, where she'd pick a movie talk, in depth.

We chose Wandering Earth 2 as our movie.

I had so much fun, just trying to keep up with her.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQtG...
CinneCine Goes SyFy | The Wandering Earth 2 | Ep 2.01 | Guest Prof. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
YouTube video by SyFy Sistas Inc.
www.youtube.com
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Today I want to write some appreciation of the one and only Subrina Wood, our Afronaut who is now far beyond the stars.

I met Subrina because she is 1/4 of @syfysistas.bsky.social, which is a barrier-breaking podcast/production company featuring Black women and friends celebrating sci fi.
I’ve spent a lot of this evening in tears because my friend Subrina has joined the ancestors.

May she rest in power. I’ll be writing more later. But for now, my thoughts are with her family, her SyFy Sistas, and all my fellow #Trekkies who were impacted by her brilliant presence.
Two smiling women standing next to a poster in a convention settings
I’m so sorry for your loss. Sending hugs.
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ASKS in LA

1) Join our campaign and write a letter to the Presidents of the UL System and SLU in support of Dr. Emami.

2) Donate to Professor Ken Levy's GoFundMe.

3) Let us know if you hear of any incidents where academic freedom is under attack in Louisiana.
www.la-cac.org/threats-to-a...
THREATS TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM | Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship
Louisiana has recently seen an alarming increase in both direct and indirect censorship of university professors and students. Protecting academic freedom is central to protecting democracy. Find out ...
www.la-cac.org
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PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/
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portland continues to serve up a protest that confuses the feds and totally disrupts the false narrative they're pushing via propaganda channels...
Pretty effective for pant hems.

I’m not too proud to admit that I know from experience that a hair flat iron works well too.
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This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.
A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.
Reposted by Courtney Thorsson
Reposted by Courtney Thorsson
I’m not trying to give @pbs.org ideas for raising money—but I am. I would buy women’s fit T-shirts of all my favorite childhood shows. Reading rainbow, 321 contact, square one, zoobiliee zoo. I feel like two generations will run to donate even more money for shirts with Levar Burton on them…
Reposted by Courtney Thorsson
There are few more chilling phrases than “Children’s Detention Center.”
ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas
Reposted by Courtney Thorsson
For more information about the Friday night massacre at CDC, I wrote up an analysis of who got terminated and what that means for public health.

Grateful to @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for supporting and amplifying. We are in really terrible trouble.

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-death-...