Akira Drake Rodriguez
@akirarodriguez.bsky.social
Interested in race, cities, politics. Diverging Space for Deviants (UGA Press 2021): http://tinyurl.com/Divergingspace Working on a new book project.
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
“It joins four others — the Inwood and Sunset Park libraries, which are done, and the New Utrecht library in Bensonhurst and the Bloomingdale Library in the Upper West Side that are just beginning the redevelopment process.”
November 21, 2025 at 8:36 PM
“It joins four others — the Inwood and Sunset Park libraries, which are done, and the New Utrecht library in Bensonhurst and the Bloomingdale Library in the Upper West Side that are just beginning the redevelopment process.”
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Here are our Food staff’s tried-and-true Thanksgiving keepers. With these recipes, you’re in good hands. nyti.ms/3LHIpgZ
November 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Here are our Food staff’s tried-and-true Thanksgiving keepers. With these recipes, you’re in good hands. nyti.ms/3LHIpgZ
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
When a city (Atlanta) where land values have skyrocketed since 2012engages in "faux austerity" & moves to close schools, which will harm mostly Black families.
Meanwhile, city moves to extend TIFs that will divert billions away from schools & local services & they frame it as "reducing inequality"
Meanwhile, city moves to extend TIFs that will divert billions away from schools & local services & they frame it as "reducing inequality"
Atlanta Public Schools moves forward with plan to close, repurpose 16 schools and realign neighborhoods
Atlanta Public Schools has released its final plan for a massive restructuring that could reshape neighborhoods across the city.
www.cbsnews.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
When a city (Atlanta) where land values have skyrocketed since 2012engages in "faux austerity" & moves to close schools, which will harm mostly Black families.
Meanwhile, city moves to extend TIFs that will divert billions away from schools & local services & they frame it as "reducing inequality"
Meanwhile, city moves to extend TIFs that will divert billions away from schools & local services & they frame it as "reducing inequality"
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Incredibly grateful to see THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US on the longlist for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction! Honored to be in such extraordinary company.
October 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Incredibly grateful to see THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US on the longlist for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction! Honored to be in such extraordinary company.
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
The 11/4 election is fast approaching. If you care about preserving women’s rights, protecting voting rights against right-wing GOP attacks in PA, vote YES to RETAIN PA Supreme Court Justices Christine Donohue
Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht.
In Philadelphia, re-elect progressive DA Larry Krasner.
Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht.
In Philadelphia, re-elect progressive DA Larry Krasner.
October 22, 2025 at 7:55 PM
The 11/4 election is fast approaching. If you care about preserving women’s rights, protecting voting rights against right-wing GOP attacks in PA, vote YES to RETAIN PA Supreme Court Justices Christine Donohue
Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht.
In Philadelphia, re-elect progressive DA Larry Krasner.
Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht.
In Philadelphia, re-elect progressive DA Larry Krasner.
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
"The Civil Rights Movement Changed America. We Glorify It at Our Peril," by Brandon Terry. Reviewed by Matthew Delmont. The snippet below is an essential part of the thesis of my The Second Emancipation. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/b...
October 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
"The Civil Rights Movement Changed America. We Glorify It at Our Peril," by Brandon Terry. Reviewed by Matthew Delmont. The snippet below is an essential part of the thesis of my The Second Emancipation. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/b...
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Good article on the impacts of ICE raids on rental housing, including landlords, tenants and workers. Evictions & higher rents seem likely.
(One problem with piece: using “housing provider” when “landlord” works just fine and is clearer to most. Hate to see the media adopt landlords’ new PR term.)
(One problem with piece: using “housing provider” when “landlord” works just fine and is clearer to most. Hate to see the media adopt landlords’ new PR term.)
ICE activity is stressing Chicago's building managers, who warn rents could rise
Frightened by federal agents, some tenants can't pay rent on time after missing work, while maintenance staff aren't showing up to job sites. Property owners and managers worry continued ICE activity ...
chicago.suntimes.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Good article on the impacts of ICE raids on rental housing, including landlords, tenants and workers. Evictions & higher rents seem likely.
(One problem with piece: using “housing provider” when “landlord” works just fine and is clearer to most. Hate to see the media adopt landlords’ new PR term.)
(One problem with piece: using “housing provider” when “landlord” works just fine and is clearer to most. Hate to see the media adopt landlords’ new PR term.)
Next Wednesday, October 22 Stand Up for Philly Schools is holding a rally at the Council of the Great City Schools conference to demand SDP not close our great Philly schools! Please come out and hear from a variety of speakers about why schools should remain open and safe!
October 16, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Next Wednesday, October 22 Stand Up for Philly Schools is holding a rally at the Council of the Great City Schools conference to demand SDP not close our great Philly schools! Please come out and hear from a variety of speakers about why schools should remain open and safe!
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Announcing the QUEEN MOTHER book tour, celebrating the life and legacy of Audley Moore—trailblazer, activist, and mother of modern Black Nationalism.
RSVP and more information: ashleydfarmer.com/events
Pre-order today: lnkd.in/g9_gC2UA
@pantheonbooks.bsky.social
RSVP and more information: ashleydfarmer.com/events
Pre-order today: lnkd.in/g9_gC2UA
@pantheonbooks.bsky.social
October 2, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Announcing the QUEEN MOTHER book tour, celebrating the life and legacy of Audley Moore—trailblazer, activist, and mother of modern Black Nationalism.
RSVP and more information: ashleydfarmer.com/events
Pre-order today: lnkd.in/g9_gC2UA
@pantheonbooks.bsky.social
RSVP and more information: ashleydfarmer.com/events
Pre-order today: lnkd.in/g9_gC2UA
@pantheonbooks.bsky.social
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Anyway, I wrote. Please read. newsone.com/6417747/heal...
Healing Is A Fluid Journey: How Hurricane Katrina Changed Me
Writer Melanie Dione reflects on leaving New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and returning years later to do climate justice work.
newsone.com
August 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Anyway, I wrote. Please read. newsone.com/6417747/heal...
Full article: Hope and struggle in the policed city: Black criminalization and resistance in Philadelphia, by Menika B. Dirkson www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/full/10....
Shibboleth Authentication Request
www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu
August 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Full article: Hope and struggle in the policed city: Black criminalization and resistance in Philadelphia, by Menika B. Dirkson www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
The great Kelli Anderson will be joining us for this event to showcase her 🌟 pop-up books (incldg her new, virtuosic Alphabet in Motion), index-card riso animations, and manually-operated mechanical signs! kellianderson.com/index.html
Please RSVP and join us on Sept 10!
Please RSVP and join us on Sept 10!
August 27, 2025 at 6:40 PM
The great Kelli Anderson will be joining us for this event to showcase her 🌟 pop-up books (incldg her new, virtuosic Alphabet in Motion), index-card riso animations, and manually-operated mechanical signs! kellianderson.com/index.html
Please RSVP and join us on Sept 10!
Please RSVP and join us on Sept 10!
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Philly-specific zine on responding to ICE raids
August 15, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Philly-specific zine on responding to ICE raids
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
I just got an email informing me that my Annual Review on structural racism with @tyson-brown.bsky.social and @pahoman.bsky.social is open access. So, download away.
Advancing the Scientific Study of Structural Racism: Concepts, Measures, and Methods | Annual Reviews
This review provides 10 actionable recommendations for advancing the scientific study of structural racism through theoretically grounded and empirically robust measures and methods. By offering conce...
www.annualreviews.org
July 31, 2025 at 1:44 AM
I just got an email informing me that my Annual Review on structural racism with @tyson-brown.bsky.social and @pahoman.bsky.social is open access. So, download away.
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
The woke college students were right but we can't acknowledge this because then we'll have to consider whether they're right about other things too. That I'm a big stupid moron for instance
It is pretty noticeable that even as mainstream opinion on Israel and Gaza finally shifts, you don’t hear the Responsible Adults apologizing for punishing all the college kids protesting the atrocities. Quite the opposite in fact!
July 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The woke college students were right but we can't acknowledge this because then we'll have to consider whether they're right about other things too. That I'm a big stupid moron for instance
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
What a mess www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...
Why Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration fired its top DEI and LGBTQ+ affairs officials due to a ‘semi-nude’ photo neither sent
Tyrell Brown, the director of LGBTQ+ affairs, and Brandee Anderson, the city's chief of diversity, equity and inclusion, were terminated this week, they said. Anderson said she was fired "unjustly."
www.inquirer.com
July 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
What a mess www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Great, new work across my radar today: Kim, Palm, Hand @njklein.bsky.social "strong evidence for intersectionality between traditional indicators of sociodemographic vulnerability (i.e., gender, immigration status, disability, ethnic minority status) and greater time stress" doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...
July 25, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Great, new work across my radar today: Kim, Palm, Hand @njklein.bsky.social "strong evidence for intersectionality between traditional indicators of sociodemographic vulnerability (i.e., gender, immigration status, disability, ethnic minority status) and greater time stress" doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
For decades, the Amistad Research Center in NOLA has served as 1 of America’s largest repositories of artifacts on Black history, featuring a collection of 15 million rare documents dating back to the 1780s, as well as a fine art collection. Its future is uncertain. www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...
60-year-old Black history archive faces uncertain future after federal cuts
For decades, the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans has served as one of America’s largest repositories of artifacts on Black history, from 15 million rare documents dating back to the 1780s to a ...
www.spokesman.com
July 25, 2025 at 11:09 AM
For decades, the Amistad Research Center in NOLA has served as 1 of America’s largest repositories of artifacts on Black history, featuring a collection of 15 million rare documents dating back to the 1780s, as well as a fine art collection. Its future is uncertain. www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
We’ve lost ten times that many students since 2014/2015. Those savings are gone. The problem wasn’t and isn’t capacity utilization. It was, is, and will be, what stabilizes and grows enrollment. If the intervention provided doesn’t promote enrollment growth, it doesn’t matter what the utilization is
July 25, 2025 at 9:05 PM
We’ve lost ten times that many students since 2014/2015. Those savings are gone. The problem wasn’t and isn’t capacity utilization. It was, is, and will be, what stabilizes and grows enrollment. If the intervention provided doesn’t promote enrollment growth, it doesn’t matter what the utilization is
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
It is regularly shared that the School District of Philadelphia saved 20M a year by closing 23 schools in 2012/2013. If the figure of 13,000 dollars of enrollment driven funding per student is right, then losing 1,500 would negate those savings
July 25, 2025 at 9:05 PM
It is regularly shared that the School District of Philadelphia saved 20M a year by closing 23 schools in 2012/2013. If the figure of 13,000 dollars of enrollment driven funding per student is right, then losing 1,500 would negate those savings
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Harvard has been undermining and repressing not only student movements on campus but also Palestinian Studies as a site of academic inquiry (the repression of both is the same project)
While Harvard’s PR people have been trying to position it as on the forefront of defending academic freedom, the institution has canceled an entire issue of Harvard Ed Review focused on Palestine. They are literally censoring an entire field of study.
apple.news/AaYbZDNRFQhO...
apple.news/AaYbZDNRFQhO...
Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication — Guardian US
As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom
apple.news
July 22, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Harvard has been undermining and repressing not only student movements on campus but also Palestinian Studies as a site of academic inquiry (the repression of both is the same project)
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Thousands of Philadelphia renters could be displaced without a deal to preserve affordable units.
Here's what to know ↓
Here's what to know ↓
Thousands of Philly renters could be displaced without deal to preserve affordable units
A private developer wants to sell his vast portfolio. City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier is pushing for the city to buy it.
whyy.org
July 22, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Thousands of Philadelphia renters could be displaced without a deal to preserve affordable units.
Here's what to know ↓
Here's what to know ↓
I have a chapter in the New Planning Histories edited volume. Lots of great chapters covering a range of topics and cities!
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
July 21, 2025 at 2:20 PM
I have a chapter in the New Planning Histories edited volume. Lots of great chapters covering a range of topics and cities!
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
link.springer.com/book/9789819...
Reposted by Akira Drake Rodriguez
Soft launch docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Housing in Chicago
Working* in Housing Policy in Chicago A very incomplete guide Table of Contents The purpose of this document What counts as “housing policy”? What local housing media is in Chicago? What about nation...
docs.google.com
July 20, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Soft launch docs.google.com/document/d/1...