Ali Blake
LightNews LightNews
banner
alirblake.bsky.social
Ali Blake
@alirblake.bsky.social
620 followers 340 following 85 posts
playing in possibilities oriented toward more just ways of living together // graduate study-ing
Posts Replies Media Videos
alirblake.bsky.social
The editors, educators, & artists of "The Adventures of Trans Educators: A Comic Book Issue" would love to celebrate the comics with you! Join us virtually on Wed Dec 4th 7-8:30p ET. Per Sia & I are looking forward to sharing a bit of our collaborative process 💖✨ Register: mailchi.mp/bankstreet.e...
Cover of "Socrates and Me", a comic written by Per Sia and illustrated by Ali R. Blake. The colorful cover includes a pair of shiny black heel-less heels, a swirling wig, a marigold crown and falling marigold leaves, title script written in eyeliner, a bright friendship necklace, a green plastic bag dancing in the air, and a postcard from a parent to Per Sia thanking her for her work with Drag Story Hour. The image is of a panel from the comic "Socrates and Me". The panel includes Per Sia posing with children and families after a Drag Story Hour event outside an Oakland, CA public library. The joyous and sparkling images are accompanied by text that reads "It feels so special to know that the books I read celebrate all kinds of people, but especially queer folks, especially during very challenging times for our community."
November 21, 2024 at 7:36 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
Collaborating with Per Sia to create this comic (my first comic!) over the last year has been such a delight. With lots of trans and queer love, I'm so glad to finally be able to share it! I hope it offers a balm, along with the rest of the gorgeous issue 💖 www.bankstreet.edu/research-pub...
November 12, 2024 at 8:26 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
Gushing that this The Dyke Project manifesto print arrived. (more here: www.instagram.com/p/C4x8fPCICB...) "It's time to get together. See you on the dancefloor. See you on the streets. xoxo"
Image of The Dyke Project manifesto print. The Manifesto reads: Dykes! Get Angry! Get Organized! It's time to make the queer revolution irresistible. They say "Lesbians are at the back of the queue!" We say Dykes are leading the protest. We brought the banners; we set the route. They say "L without the T!" We say We'll inject your T and slap on your E. They say "Lesbians are under threat!" We say We are the threat. Dykes threaten every system of oppression, whose side are you on? Our community looks like: trans dykes, cis dykes, boydykes, girldykes, non-binary dykes, dykefags, bi dykes, ace dykes, baby dykes, leather dykes, butch dykes, femme dykes, Black dykes, brown dykes, white dykes, Indigenous dykes, Global Majority dykes, dykes in prison, dykes in immigration detention, fat dykes, mad dykes, sad dykes, disabled dykes, neurodivergent dykes, dykes with a faith and dykes without, dykes with addiction, dykes in recovery, young dykes, old dykes, dykes in debt, (more in next image) This image is of part of the manifesto to share the rest of the ALT text. The manifesto continues: "dykes with bad landlords, dykes who are homeless, dykes on NHS waiting lists, dykes with no recourse to public funds, dykes who are sex workers, dykes who are migrants, dykes who are parents, dykes on picket lines, dykes on universal credit, dykes who are survivors, dykes who are taking over! Our tactics are: dyke joy dyke rage dyke camp When every dyke is free, every single person will be free. We want it all! A world without prisons, psych wards, borders or police. A world without gender clinic waiting lists and gatekeepers. A world without colonialism and climate catastrophe. A world without capitalism and the afterlives of slavery. A world where Palestine is free. A world where everyone has everything they need. A world where we can fuck, dance, transition, move, rest however we want to. A world where we always feel safe on the streets. We want it all and we won't wait.(more on next) Another excerpt from the manifesto to finish the ALT text. Manifesto continues: We won't fall for diversity campaigns, policing by consent, corporate queers or pinkwashing. You can buy us a drink but you can't buy our silence. We know who's with us and who's against us. Dykes Move Fast! We take direct action and we don't ask for permission. Dykes Talk It Out! We speak up and we don't fear conflict. Dykes Keep Us Safe! We care for each other, and we don't leave anyone behind. Bring your queer comrades, you DIY dykes, your DJs, your football team, your service tops and power bottoms, your enemies and your favorite exes - it's time to get together. See on the dancefloor. See you on the streets. xoxo The Dyke Project
May 29, 2024 at 10:44 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
indeed, a lovely start to a gorgeous day
Image of a book open on my lap with legs crossed on a bench with an iced coffee, speckled with the swaying shadows of a tree above. The book is open to a spread of pages in the chapter “The work of gender legibility” in the book “Fierce, Fabulous, and Fluid: How Trans High School Students Work at Gender Nonconformity” by LJ Slovin.
May 25, 2024 at 4:04 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
Boston(ish!) folks, I'd love to see you! Join us for an open studio on Wed 4/17 5:30-8pm for some printing, patching, bandana customizing, and connection across ongoing struggles! (Let us know you're joining and/or would like to hear about future events here: forms.gle/dAv2cENBq6jg... )
Flier for an open studio event. Text reads: "QTthreads & the Earl Center welcome you for an Open Studio: Mending and Altering Garments on Wednesday, April 17th from 5:30-8pm at 55 Pilgrim Rd Boston, MA 02215. Gather with us to mend & alter garments together, no experience needed and all ages welcome! Bring a garment, choose from the QTthreads stash, and/or make a patch. Practice visible mending techniques, patch a hole, or add to your patch-adorned look! The material inquiries for this session will be organized around invitations into both physical and solidarity-making from queer and trans histories of resistance and as part of Fashion Revolution Week #WhoMadeMyClothes. Questions? Reach out to teaching artist Ali Blake at ali.blake@bc.edu. We wear masks and run air purifiers for community care and we'll have a group supply of masks." There are images of fabric &prints reading "Ask about... fugitive lives; garment workers' lives; trans youth lives; refugee lives; and queer lives".
April 5, 2024 at 8:52 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
People at work, indeed!
February 6, 2024 at 4:45 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
I’m joining >3800 queer artists to call for a PERMANENT ceasefire in Gaza & pledging not to participate in Israel’s pinkwashing to distract from the occupation & genocide. My solidarity is w/ Palestinians in struggle for self-determination & freedom.

Read the letter at queerartistsforpalestine.org
The image includes text on a green background that reads: “Queer Artists for Palestine Ceasefire Now! Read the full letter at queerartistsforpalestine.org” the O in now is a watermelon. The image reads: “We will continue to speak out for Palestine, to educate ourselves, and to uplift Palestinian voices. Our queerness and our humanity demand that we do so. Queerartistsforpalestine.org”
December 29, 2023 at 5:01 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
I'm glad to share this just-published open-access article, Playing toward multiplicity: Disorienting intra-actions with materials & learning in an escape room, www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/s/Blake-et-a... written w/ Melita Morales, @wargojon.bsky.social, Alex Corbitt, & Joe Madres (more below)
The image is a composition of multiple images over a grey background. On the top of the composition is a layout of the puzzle pathway of an escape room through icons of relevant objects; two moments with a conch shell are highlighted through a zoom into video stills. Below this graphic are three video stills from an underwater room in an escape room, with shells, kelp, multicolored blue and green watery projections and a person. Drawings surround all of the images, including draping kelp, seaweed, a taped note, swirling musical notes, and a locked box with a mermaid, a seahorse, and an octopus.
December 19, 2023 at 9:11 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
“We are not safe or secure when the government uses us as pawns to perpetuate violence against others. Our safety and security will come when we organize, love, and resist together.” Please join me in witnessing these lives; and let’s continue organizing, loving, and resisting together. (11/11)
Artworks hanging on a dusty pink wall, including a print of the quote by Chelsea Manning, another that says "Cherish Trans Lives", and more, each with freedom dreams.
November 21, 2023 at 11:27 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
Today I joined in an action where we wrote and sent Senator Elizabeth Warren the names of all those known by name, over 11,000, who have been killed by Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza since October 7th. She has yet to organize for ceasefire, let alone an end to Israeli occupation. (1/11)
10 slips of paper with names. Samed Muhammad Abdel Raouf Qashta 33 y/o. Shadi Zayed Odeh Al-Aidi 33 y/o. Adam Ismail Sidqi Al-Madhoun 33 y/o. Musab Suleiman Noman Haboush 33 y/o. Ismail Hamdan Mahmoud Totah 33 y/o. Hassan Muhammad Ali Abu Hamad 33 y/o. Mutair Abdul Salam Muhammad Dhahir 33 y/o. Ismail Abdel Qader Ibrahim Abu Joudeh 33 y/o. Hossom Salem Hamdan Al-Qara 33 y/o. Yasser Kamal Mustafa Al-Masry 33 y/o.
November 21, 2023 at 11:27 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
some Adrienne Rich for this afternoon (from the school among the ruins)
Document Window. Could I just show what's happening. Not that shooting, civil disturbance, whatever it was. I'd like you to see how differently we're all moving, how the time allowed to let things become known grows shorter and shorter, how quickly things and people get replaced. How interchangeable it all could get to seem. Could get to seem... the kind of phrase we use now, avoiding the verb to be. There's a sense in which, we say, dismissing other senses. Rimbaud called for the rational derangement of all the senses in the name of poetry. Marx: capitalism deranges all the senses save the sense of property. Keeping my back against unimportant walls I moved out of range of the confusion, away from the protection of the police. Having seen nothing I could swear to I felt at peace with my default. I would, at least, not be engaged in some mess not my own. This is what I mean though: how differently we move now, rapidly deciding what is and isn't ours. Indifferently.
November 14, 2023 at 5:53 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
I'm running an air purifier to be breathing back in less virus I'm breathing out. 🦠 (If you're sick and have access to an air purifier, keep it running!)
A set-up with water, coffee, and tea to drink and pulse oximeter and thermometer to monitor health on a table. On the floor below is an air purifier running.
October 20, 2023 at 3:36 PM
alirblake.bsky.social
The U.S. government authorized another round of free at-home rapid antigen tests at the end of September. If you're in the U.S. and haven't ordered them yet, here's the site: special.usps.com/testkits. I took this late day 1 of symptoms and swabbed my throat. (Yes, a positive can be light!)
A positive rapid antigen covid test with a light test line held in a hand
October 20, 2023 at 3:23 PM