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marcusjmerritt.com
Marcus
@marcusjmerritt.com
6.6K followers 2.3K following 6.5K posts
(He/him). I draw power lines and TVs and do urban landscape photography. Metro-Detroit.

Abolish police. Free Palestine. Trans rights.

Art store: marcusmerritt.bigcartel.com
Main art website: marcusjmerritt.com
Tips: https://ko-fi.com/marcusjmerritt
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marcusjmerritt.com
Marcus @marcusjmerritt.com · Jul 15
Here's an updated thread of the prints of Power Lines Drawings that are currently for sale in my store, starting with:

Power Lines Drawing #107 (Chicago, Pilsen)

marcusmerritt.bigcartel.com/product/powe...

(🧵1/22)
Black and white image of a black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines
Reposted by Marcus
blackmetronome.bsky.social
This speech is one of my earliest memories of him.

I know this is a part of life, and Rev. Jackson lived a long and incredible one, but this really does hurt.
c-span.bsky.social C-SPAN @c-span.bsky.social · 2h
Jesse Jackson has died.

Learn more about his life and career by searching his 461 C-SPAN appearances: www.c-span.org/person/jesse... including his 1988 Democratic National Convention Speech youtu.be/6RCARIpVDLU RIP.
Jesse Jackson 1988 Democratic National Convention Speech
YouTube video by C-SPAN
youtu.be
February 17, 2026 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Marcus
mlobelart.bsky.social
RIP Jesse Jackson (Jacob Lawrence's portrait of Jesse Jackson, created in 1970 for cover of Time magazine, now in collection of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery) npg.si.edu/object/npg_N...
Painted, stylized portrait of Jesse Jackson
February 17, 2026 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Marcus
benphillips76.bsky.social
I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is
February 17, 2026 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Marcus
utopia-defer.red
RIP Jesse Jackson. He demanded the right to inspect the Krome detention facility in Miami after it became apparent Krome was a glorified concentration camp created by Ronald Reagan for Afro Latinos and Black Haitian refugees who fled to the USA after the Mariel Boatlift.

Krome still operates today.
February 17, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Marcus
seanpadilla.blacksky.app
NATION TIME
February 17, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Marcus
mode7.bsky.social
Jesse Jackson's '88 DNC speech specifically called for DC statehood, equal pay for women, universal day and date voter registration. Among other things. But that's sticking to my ribs.
February 17, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Marcus
lauragmitchell.com
Ride bikes.

Stop ICE.
Laura’s teal Surly Straggler parked in front of a Stop sign with a sticker that makes it says “stop ICE”
February 17, 2026 at 4:03 AM
Reposted by Marcus
utopia-defer.red
Jesse Jackson (center) with members of the Student Government at North Carolina A&T, c. 1964
February 17, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Marcus
marcusjmerritt.com
My four most recent drawings of power lines around southeast Michigan

#141 (Ann Arbor)
#142 (Plymouth)
#143 (Warren)
#144 (Ferndale)

marcusjmerritt.com/power-lines-...
Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines
February 16, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Marcus
grenadine.bsky.social
For those wondering how the dual holiday is gonna work in Hamtramck today, generally Paczki Day is a daydrinking celebration, and Ramadan kicks off at night.

So gonna be lots of people in a celebratory mood, but the crowds peak at different times.
February 17, 2026 at 12:36 PM
marcusjmerritt.com
“By being critical of the hype surrounding AI, the left risks missing out on everything AI promises“
February 17, 2026 at 6:42 AM
Reposted by Marcus
rds773.myatproto.social
The problem with this article and others like it is that it assumes a priori that the only way to engage “seriously” with AI is to accept it as given and thereby ignore the ethical and environmental costs of its operation
danielkayhertz.bsky.social Daniel Kay Hertz @danielkayhertz.bsky.social · 13h
I think this is directionally correct and honestly I'm less concerned about what it means for the left's take on AI than I am for the left's ability to metabolize new information and changing circumstances generally www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
The left is missing out on AI
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
www.transformernews.ai
February 17, 2026 at 3:21 AM
marcusjmerritt.com
🎧
YEA YEA YEA, by Sudan Archives
from the album THE BPM
sudanarchives.bandcamp.com
February 17, 2026 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Marcus
suesswassersee.bsky.social
This breaks my heart
February 17, 2026 at 12:50 AM
marcusjmerritt.com
So, I’m reading Wuthering Heights because I never have before. And I have been surprised to discover the extent to which the book is just gawking at a pair of sociopaths as they make horrible decisions that will ruin the emotional lives of everyone involved, while their servants tell them not to
February 16, 2026 at 11:27 PM
Reposted by Marcus
chloecumming.bsky.social
#artists #art OK! I have now added four new original drawings to my website, available for sale. And here they blooming well are.

www.chloecumming.com

Take That Leathery Nebulous, Amboolans of Love, Fox in Blue Pastels, and Jesus and the Cones. Indeed
A colourful pastel pencil drawing of Take That on grey pastel mat, from the Do What You Like video shoot. Very wriggly , yassified Gary by accident Inky red yellow exuberant hearty ambulance with also brown and ink and old fashioned and wibbles Blue fox, on yellow. Simple but effective. Pastel. Sitting. Jesus and traffic cones, delicate graphite pencil drawing with some pink and red and more delicacy, more delicacy than you can shake a stick at
February 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM
marcusjmerritt.com
My four most recent drawings of power lines around southeast Michigan

#141 (Ann Arbor)
#142 (Plymouth)
#143 (Warren)
#144 (Ferndale)

marcusjmerritt.com/power-lines-...
Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines Black ink drawing, silhouette of a utility pole and power lines
February 16, 2026 at 5:44 PM
marcusjmerritt.com
It feels conspiratorial to me I guess but I really am having a harder and harder time not suspecting it to be by design that these chatbots apparently keep their roleplay-into-psychosis modules so ready at hand
sesmith.lol s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 22h
It's telling that she was prompting chatGPT for her master's thesis research and it went right on ahead into creep mode; she did not set out looking for affirmatio and conspiracy theories.
ChatGPT promised to help her find her soulmate. Then it betrayed her
ChatGPT sent screenwriter Micky Small down a fantastical rabbit hole. Now, she's finding her way out.
www.npr.org
February 16, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Marcus
blaservations.bsky.social
I've been researching The Johns-Manville Building, a pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The structure isn't extant and the fair wasn't well attended, as its run was interrupted by the start of WWII in Europe. It's fair to say that this is a niche research topic, right?

🧵...
February 16, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Marcus
blaservations.bsky.social
All of these images of the interior of the Johns-Manville Building, a pavilion at the 1939 NY World's Fair are made by Generative AI, and they've been shared across the internet. It didn't take long to make that determination that they are fake--but that's not the point.
A black and white Generative AI image of people dressed in circa 1940s attire examining a series of exhibitions affixed to a curved wall. A black and white Generative AI image of people dressed in circa 1940s attire viewing a series of exhibitions. A black and white Generative AI image of an exhibition on asbestos products. A black and white Generative AI image of a statue wearing a fireproof suit atop a platform.
February 16, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Marcus
ladytophamcatt.bsky.social
It's so gross, & I'm seeing folks that should really know better using it to upscale pics or create entirely imagined scenarios. Then they're like "but we labeled it as AI" when one of the things AI does best is to divorce things from context, rendering that little AI asterisk bullshit immediately
blaservations.bsky.social Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 22h
The point is--Generative AI is being used to create fake additional content for even niche historical topics, like the exhibits within a World's Fair pavilion. These images are going to continue to get more realistic. It's dissipointing to have to add this new layer of vigilance to research.
February 16, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Marcus
propcazhpm.bsky.social
The Titus Kaphar artwork below features shreads of the advertisement that the first President of the United States, George Washington, placed for the return of a Black woman he received as part of Martha's dowry and kept enslaved, who ran away.

He never caught Ona Judge.

#BlackSky #PresidentsDay
February 16, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Marcus
erindwyer.bsky.social
I was thinking about this a lot last week when teaching about how David Walker had a bounty put on his head by enslavers for writing an anti-slavery pamphlet in 1830 that he sewed into the linings of jackets that sailors took to southern port cities. That’s how scared they were of powerful words.
upfromsumdirt.bsky.social panic mixie glean whorl @upfromsumdirt.bsky.social · 1d
can you imagine being in peril for simply having pen & paper found in your possession?

to have THE LAW deny you the liberty of placing a single letter onto even the smallest scrap of paper...

& we imagined this country as genteel & civilized.

jesus.
February 16, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Marcus
octoberk.bsky.social
Happy for this one to be out today! this piece is particularly important to the folks profiled here, an amazing prison LGBTQ+ affirming organization called Be the Change, and I'd love to be able to share any reactions with those folks <3
truthout.org/articles/thi...
This Tennessee Prison Is Leaving LGBTQ People Unhoused Behind Bars
The South Central Correctional Center leaves LGBTQ people defenseless, so they’re organizing to fight for their safety.
truthout.org
February 16, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Marcus
davidbrace2.bsky.social
In progress: "patched (the beat goes on)", oil, thread, maps, 10 1/4 x 14 5/8" #art #wip

The paint on the heart is dry enough to begin sewing.
A map page from an atlas of the western Great Lakes (Lake Superior & Lake Michigan, bordered by Ontario to the north, Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan.) On another torn piece of map is a realistic painting of a human heart. I've moved the heart off center, a little lower & left from where it was before. It is being roughly sewn on to the bottom map now with red thread.
February 16, 2026 at 2:13 PM