#MICHIGAN ROUNDTABLE

[mariacallous]

If you were waiting for the perfect time to make your first donation to my campaign for Senate, not only is today the perfect day but there's also a very good reason as well.

Betsy DeVos.

If you're already familiar with her significant support for my opponent and are ready to chip in, please use this link to give:

Otherwise, let me go a little deeper ... including a very recent revelation about her designs on a role in a second Trump administration.

As Michiganders know, for decades the DeVos family’s #1 issue has been weakening Michigan's, and the country's, public education system. Betsy DeVos used Michigan as her petri dish before becoming Trump’s Secretary of Education, and one of his longest serving cabinet secretaries.

Much like our Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, she condemned Donald Trump after January 6, 2021. In Betsy DeVos’ case, she “resigned in protest” as Education Secretary, blaming his rhetoric on the insurrection — just 13 days before the end of Trump’s term.

And like my current opponent who turned around and worked hard for Trump's endorsement, Betsy DeVos is now back — and willing to serve in a second Trump administration.

So what does that mean?

As if there weren't already a million reasons to defeat Donald Trump, there's now one more: keeping Betsy DeVos out of any role of prominence in Washington, D.C.

And there is no doing that without winning in Michigan.

The DeVos family has been some of the top supporters to opponents of mine in the past, and they've doubled down on this Senate race.

Mike Rogers' first FEC report in this race was filled with donations from a bunch of members of the DeVos family — contributions totaling $46,200 all made on one single day. And just last week, Betsy DeVos herself was campaigning with Mike Rogers at a roundtable just a day before the primary election.

They are certainly not done with their support of my opponent.

On a positive note, the response to emails about the DeVos donations has raised far more than the DeVos family has contributed. But we have to keep going, because their family's unlimited wealth can impact this race in many more ways.

So in light of this news about Betsy DeVos' potential return to Washington, D.C. and her role in campaigning for my opponent, I am asking:

Can you contribute $3 directly to my campaign for U.S. Senate in Michigan? I will put your donation made today in Betsy’s name right to work persuading the voters we need to win in Michigan this fall.

[fanhackers]

Platforms and Fan Experiences

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about platforms and the way in which they influence fan experiences. As a consistent lurker, I have been on Tumblr for more than a decade, and more recently on Twitter for the past few months, and have been reflecting on my experiences of fandom on both platforms.

In a roundtable discussion published in a tumblr book: platform and cultures, speakers Flourish Klink, Rukmini Pande, Zina Hutton, Lori Morimoto and Allison McCracken discuss the ways in which Tumblr is a very visual platform:

Klink: Tumblr fandoms tend to be much more visual than other fandoms. I often find that this  is the most difficult part of Tumblr for people who are not familiar with it. The visual languages in play on Tumblr are as meaningful and complex as any slang or textual interactions on Twitter… Klink, Flourish, Rukmini Pande, Zina Hutton, Lori Morimoto, and Allison McCracken. “A Roundtable Discussion about the Cultures of Fandom on Tumblr.” In A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures, edited by Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch, 167–80. University of Michigan Press, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.11537055.23.

I find this particularly interesting—and also ironic, in some ways—given that to me, as both a lurker, and a Fandom Old, the draw of Tumblr is that, while it may be a visual platform, it is not necessarily a visible platform, particularly in comparison to Twitter. There’s little chance of the celebrity you’re writing RPF about coming across your racy post or interacting with you directly.

In the same discussion, they go on to talk about the ways in which Tumblr’s visual culture has often led to progressive politics and practices, like race/genderbending.

Hutton: …One of my favorite things about being on Tumblr is seeing the way that members of the fandoms I’ve been in— primarily the DC and Marvel fandoms—reimagine their favorite characters as characters of color and give them queer and gender identities that match theirs. You can see photosets reimagining the Batman family group as more visibly diverse, and fancasts ( fans re-casting roles with actors of their choosing) of Marvel superheroes where they’re portrayed as women of color. And these fancasts generally push back against the idea of whiteness as a perpetual default. Klink, Flourish, Rukmini Pande, Zina Hutton, Lori Morimoto, and Allison McCracken. “A Roundtable Discussion about the Cultures of Fandom on Tumblr.” In A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures, edited by Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch, 167–80. University of Michigan Press, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.11537055.23.

While Hutton also points out the ways in which a lot of it can turn into clickbait activism, later on in the discussion, without truly engaging with what it means to racebend a character beyond simply making a visual edit, it’s Pande’s comment about interacting with white fans that echoes my own experience:

Pande: When I first came on Tumblr for instance, I mainly followed people I knew from LiveJournal and “Big Name Fans” whose writing I had followed in previous fandoms. This resulted in my Dashboard being filled with almost exclusively white-dude content. In retrospect this is not surprising, but the visual-ness of Tumblr made it particularly apparent, especially post-Racefail at a moment in fandom in 2009–10, when POC fans had started becoming more vocal about this whiteness. Klink, Flourish, Rukmini Pande, Zina Hutton, Lori Morimoto, and Allison McCracken. “A Roundtable Discussion about the Cultures of Fandom on Tumblr.” In A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures, edited by Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch, 167–80. University of Michigan Press, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.11537055.23.

As a PoC fan myself from the Global South, particularly one that does more lurking than posting, I often find that Tumblr does not always have the kind of linguistic inclusivity or even fandom inclusivity I am looking for. Perhaps it’s that I am a lurker, or perhaps I am not looking in the right spaces. Whatever the reason, I find Twitter has more of that inclusivity; whether I am looking for a fellow Hindi-soap opera fan, or a Supernatural fan, I can find both. And depending on which platform I choose, the content I make/consume differs—not just in form, but also in language and meaning.

What do you think? How has your platform shaped your fandom experience?

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Thomas Fountain Blue

Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to head a public library in the United States, was also a civic, educational, and religious leader. Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia, on March 6, 1866, to Noah Blue, a carpenter, and Henry Ann Crawley Blue. They were parents of two other children, Alice Blue and Charles Blue.

Blue enrolled in Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1885 and graduated in 1888. In 1894, he enrolled in Richmond Theological Seminary (now Virginia Union University) in Richmond, Virginia, finishing in 1898 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. One week later, when the United States declared war on Spain after the sinking of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba, touching off the Spanish-American War, Blue joined the Sixth Virginia Volunteers battalion comprising African American soldiers and was stationed first in Camp Poland in Tennessee and later at Camp Haskell in Georgia.

In 1905, Blue was selected to lead the Western Branch Library of the Louisville Free Public Library on South 10th and Chestnut Street, the first Carnegie Library in the nation to serve African American patrons with an exclusively African American staff. The facility cost $31,024.31 to build and when completed had over 4,000 books and 53 periodicals.

In 1914, Blue opened Louisville’s second Carnegie Library for African Americans, the Eastern Branch Library. During World War I, Blue was drafted, left the branch, and was appointed the Education Secretary at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, one of sixteen national Army training camps created across the nation. Blue worked with Black troops who mostly had supporting and laboring roles in the United States.

After the war ended in 1918, Blue returned to Louisville, and a year later, in 1919, he was named head of the “Colored Department” for the city’s public library system and supervised eight African American assistants. The Colored Department was the first in the United States to have a staff which served multiple Black library branches.

In 1922, Blue was a presenter at the American Library Association Conference in Detroit, Michigan, where he gave a paper titled, “Training Class at the Western Colored Branch,” and led the subsequent discussion with the Negro Roundtable composed of other African American Library staffers from across the nation.

On June 18, 1925, Blue married Cornelia Phillips Johnson from Columbia, Tennessee, and they parented two children, Thomas Fountain Blue, Jr., and Charles Blue (named after his younger brother). Two years later, in 1927, Blue founded the Negro Library Conference and conducted its first meeting at Hampton Institute.

Later becoming a minister, Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue—who held membership in the American Library Association, the Special Committee of Colored Ministers of Louisville on Matters Interracial, and was a charter member of the Louisville Chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—died on November 10, 1935, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 69.

At the 2003 joint conference of the American Library Association with the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Blue was posthumously honored when the organization passed a resolution recognizing his leadership in promoting professionalism among the staff of African American libraries across the United States. In 2022, a headstone honoring Blue and his wife, Cornelia Phillips Johnson, was placed at Eastern Cemetery in Louisville by the Frazier History Museum.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/thomas-fountain-blue-1866-1935/

[bighermie]

WATCH LIVE: President Trump Speaks at Community Roundtable in Detroit, Michigan | The Gateway Pundit | by Jordan Conradson

[skarabrae-stone]

US Voting Rights, Advocacy, & Assistance Part 3

I post a lot about how important it is to vote, but I know it’s not that simple/easy for people living in places with voter suppression. So I thought I’d make a post of organizations that help people exercise their right to vote, both on the national and the state/regional level. The links below included resources for voting, education on voting in your state/region, and opportunities to volunteer and get more politically engaged.

This will be a series of posts, going in alphabetical order. National organizations and organizations for states K-M (Kansas through Montana) below the cut: Part 1 (A-C), Part 2 (D-I)

Links marked with an * include information for disabled voters. Links marked with a # include information on voting rights for people who have been incarcerated.

National:

Vote.Org Vote 411 American Civil Liberties Union #* Movement Voter Project Fair Elections Center Autistic Self-Advocacy Network Voting Toolkit * League of Conservation Voters Common Cause Ballotpedia Environmental Voter Project Black Male Voter Project Black Voters Matter US Vote Foundation #* Accessible Voting *

Kansas:

Know Your Voting Rights (ACLU) # Loud Light (focuses on youth/student voters) The Voter Network League of Women Voters Kansas Disability Rights Center of Kansas *

Kentucky:

PFLAG Votes Respect My Vote! Rock the Vote League of Women Voters Kentucky Kentuckians for the Commonwealth Our People Our Vote # * Kentucky Democracy # US Vote Foundation *

Louisiana

Power Coalition for Equity and Justice Southern Poverty Law Center # Louisiana Voter Guide (SPLC) Legal Defense Fund Disability Rights Louisiana * League of Women Voters Louisiana

Maine

Democracy Maine Maine Students Vote League of Women Voters Maine AARP * Disability Rights Maine * Maine Citizens for Clean Elections US Vote Foundation #

Maryland

Out for Justice # PFLAG Votes Progressive Maryland Center for Common Ground League of Women Voters Maryland Disability Rights Maryland * Accessible Voting Maryland *

Massachusetts

American Federation of Teachers AARP *# Rock the Vote *# Mass Vote League of Women Voters Disability Law Center * The Arc Votes * Voter Choice Massachusetts Mass Alliance

Michigan

All Voting is Local Michigan Voting.org #* League of Women Voters Michigan Fair Elections Center The Disability Network * Michigan Justice Advocacy # Promote the Vote

Minnesota:

Clean Elections Minnesota Fair Vote Minnesota The Arc Voter Empowerment Toolkit * Restore the Vote MN # League of Women Voters Minnesota Minnesota Voice The Sentencing Project #

Mississippi

Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable Mississippi Votes Poor People's Campaign The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation League of Women Voters Mississippi Disability Rights Mississippi * Southern Poverty Law Center #* Mississippi Center for Justice PFLAG Votes US Vote Foundation #

Missouri

AARP * Missouri Voter Protection Coalition #* League of Women Voters Missouri Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services US Vote Foundation #

Montana

Montana Natives Vote (Native American Rights Fund) # Western Native Voice Vote in Montana # Montana State University Voting Guide PFLAG Votes Disability Rights Montana *

[hondacivictrucknuts]

What is Kamala Harris doing to elect a Congress that might pass a federal right to abortion?

Abortion has always been Harris's big issue. As she now campaigns on cutting taxes and building a border wall, it's the main thing that differentiates her from Trump. In her acceptance speech, she declared, "And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law."

What is she doing to elect people to Congress who might actually pass such a bill?

Emily's List is supporting 45 pro-choice Democratic women for the House this year. I googled "[candidate name] kamala harris" for each of them, and looked for joint appearances or other endorsements on the first page of results. Here's what I found:

Brittany Pettersen, Colorado: Harris did a joint appearance about climate in 2023.

Dina Titus, Nevada: appeared at Harris/Walz campaign rally August 11.

Hillary Scholten, Michigan: appeared w/ Harris at a reproductive rights roundtable in February 2023. Joint campaign appearance August 27.

Jahana Hayes, Connecticut: Harris visited and discussed abortion rights in 2022.

Lateefah Simon, California: Spoke at DNC (Wednesday night).

Lauren Underwood, Illinois: Joint appearance in 2022 on maternal health. Took a selfie with Harris when she arrived in Illinois for DNC.

Rebecca Cooke, Wisconsin: hosted event for Harris/Walz at her parents' farm on August 7.

Susie Lee, Nevada: appeared at Harris/Walz campaign rally August 11.

Yadira Caraveo, Colorado: Harris retweeted her post about Mental Health on August 26.

In general, the top post was usually the candidate endorsing Harris, then maybe a few news stories about this if there had been a delay, and often the candidate at some sort of watch party for Harris. Overall, these candidates are doing vastly more work to elect Kamala Harris than she is doing to elect them.

I did find an October 2018 facebook post where Harris endorsed 5 Black women running for office, including three of this year's Emily's List endorsements. I then looked at every post on that account from when Biden dropped out on July 21 to the end of August, and the only candidates I saw mentioned were herself, Trump, and Tim Walz.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Michigan Democrats are considering speeding up the passage of new gun legislation in the state following a shooting at Michigan State University on Monday evening that left three people dead.

The drive for new legislation will be one of the first significant tests of Democratic Party governance in the state since the midterm elections. Last year, Democrats unexpectedly captured “trifecta” control of Michigan, with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cruising to reelection and her party narrowly flipping both state legislative chambers, too.

It is the first time in decades that the party had complete control in Michigan. Republicans have in the past been resistant to gun control measures, and Democrats in the state said there will be new urgency behind their drive, after the latest mass shooting in the country. Michigan Democrats are focusing on three gun policy proposals: universal background checks, safe storage laws and extreme risk protection orders, sometimes known as “red flag” laws.

“We’re going to try to move faster,” Democratic state Sen. Rosemary Bayer said in an interview Tuesday morning. “After years of not getting an inch, now we’re making real plans.”

“Some of the legislation we have goes back 10 years,” added Bayer, who represented the town of Oxford in 2021, when four students died in a mass shooting at a high school there. “We just haven’t been able to get any traction to do anything.”

Bayer said that lawmakers updated legislative proposals following the 2022 midterms, knowing they might be able to move forward on it. Even before this week’s tragedy, state Democrats had said gun laws would be among their legislative priorities now that they have complete control of the government. In a roundtable with reporters in December, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks identified gun violence legislation as a priority for the chambers’ new majorities.

But this week’s shooting has increased the urgency.

“One of the models we’ve seen in these horrible tragedies is that we need to act quickly. Even in Florida, they were able to get it done in a red legislature,” said state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, who represents the area south of Detroit. “I think we can do that with a Democratic trifecta. There are conversations we’re having as soon as today to figure out timelines to expedite this process.”

Whitmer specifically called out all three of Democrats’ gun control priorities in her State of the State speech last month.

“Despite pleas from Oxford families, these issues never even got a hearing in the legislature,” Whitmer said at the time. “This year, let’s change that and work together to stop the violence and save lives.”

The MSU shooting occurred on campus in East Lansing on Monday evening, which killed three students and injured five more. The suspected gunman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound off campus. The Detroit News reported that he pled guilty to a gun charge in 2019.

It is the 67th mass shooting in America this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a D.C.-based nonprofit.

Bayer, who Whitmer called out as a leader on gun control legislation in her address, said that there is a plan to introduce legislation “soon.”

“We had a schedule that we’re trying to move up even more,” she said. “We were targeting right after the first week of April, that’s what we were planning for, but we want to respond quicker.”

But Democrats in the state are also cognizant that they have very slim majorities to manage in both the state House and the state Senate. Even a single no vote from a Democratic lawmaker could sink a bill in the state House if no Republican joins.

“All you need is one Joe Manchin,” said Bayer, referencing the West Virginia Senator’s role bedeviling Democrats on Capitol Hill on a myriad of issues. (Manchin has worked with Senators from both parties on gun legislation in the past, and he supported the bipartisan law that passed last year following the mass shootings at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.)

“With these current events, how could anyone stop it?” Bayer continued. “But I’ve thought that for years.”

Spokespeople for Whitmer and Brinks did not immediately respond to requests for comment on new legislation. But statements in the immediate aftermath of the shooting expressed despair and outrage and signaled that Democratic leadership planned to push for gun control legislation.

Brinks tweeted that her daughter, a MSU student, was “answering my texts and calls” early Tuesday morning. Tate’s spokesperson pointed to a statement he issued saying “we can continue to debate the reasons for gun violence in America, or we can act,” adding that he had “no understanding left for those in a position to effect change who are unwilling to act.”

“This is a uniquely American problem,” Whitmer, who ordered that flags around the state be lowered to half-staff on Tuesday morning, said in her own statement. “We should not, we cannot, accept living like this.”

Camilleri and Bayer expressed confidence that the party would be able to get all Democrats on board for legislation focused on red flag laws, safe storage and universal background checks. And Bayer said she thought some Republicans could join on some pieces of legislation as well. “We’ve had a couple of Republicans join our caucus on the topic,” she said. “I hope this will help more of them to come over.”

But beyond that, broader legislation may be much more difficult, the lawmakers admitted.

“When it comes to some other issues that I’m sure we’ll be discussing, those might be tougher, but the urgency to act is now,” Camilleri said.

[abcnewspr]

"This Week" Listings: Secretary of State Antony Blinken & Fmr. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Sunday on "This Week" with Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz

Media Advisory for Sunday, December 10, 2023

SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN & FMR. REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY) SUNDAY ON “THIS WEEK” WITH CO-ANCHOR MARTHA RADDATZ

Antony Blinken

Secretary of State

Fmr. Rep. Liz Cheney

(R) Wyoming

in a sit-down conversation with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl

Plus, Martha Raddatz travels to battleground Pennsylvania to speak with voters about the state of the 2024 presidential race. And Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce travels to Dearborn, Michigan to speak with Muslim and Arab American voters about President Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

 _______________

THE POWERHOUSE ROUNDTABLE

Donna Brazile

Former DNC Chair

ABC News Contributor

Sarah Isgur

Former Trump Justice Department Spokesperson

ABC News Contributor

Mary Bruce

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent

Asma Khalid

NPR White House Correspondent

ABC News Contributor

###

ABC News Media Relations

Brooks.Lancaster@abc.com

[bllsbailey]

Trump Says Teamsters President Will Speak at GOP Convention

The president of the Teamsters Union is set to speak at next month's Republican National Convention, as Donald Trump angles to chip away at President Joe Biden's support among the blue-collar workers who are expected to play a major role in the general election, particularly in crucial Midwestern swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that Sean O'Brien had “accepted my invitation to speak at the RNC Convention in Milwaukee."

A spokesperson for the Teamsters did not immediately return a message seeking comment on O'Brien's appearance at the July convention, or whether he would also plan to speak at Democrats' convention the following month.

Trump has been trying to make inroads among Biden's support among organized labor heading into the general election, as he works to win over the blue-collar workers who helped fuel his 2016 victory. Union members tend to vote Democratic, with 56% of members and households backing Biden in 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

In September, while his GOP rivals met for a debate, Trump traveled to Michigan and tried to win over autoworkers by lambasting Biden’s electric vehicles push in the midst of a strike. During his speech, Trump urged the United Auto Workers to endorse him, directly appealing to union president Shawn Fain — though he spoke from the floor of a nonunionized auto-parts plant.

Fain instead called Trump a “scab,” a derogatory term for workers who cross union picket lines and work during a strike, as he endorsed Biden. In January, Trump called on UAW members to oust Fain after the group endorsed Biden.

O’Brien meanwhile has met privately with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club, where the two discussed issues including right-to-work laws that allow those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying dues and fees. After a roundtable with Teamster leaders in January, Trump called the event “a very productive meeting,” acknowledging that the union typically backs Democrats, but, referencing the possibility of an endorsement, “Stranger things have happened.”

O’Brien later described the roundtable conversation with Trump as “pleasant” and “direct” but said the union was a long way from making a decision. After meeting with Biden in March, O'Brien said the president has been “great” for workers but stressed that “there’s still a lot of work to be done” to bolster unions.

Biden — who has long billed himself as the most labor-friendly president in history, going so far as to turn up on a picket line in the Detroit area during the autoworkers strike last fall — has already received significant organized labor backing with early endorsements from the AFL-CIO and others. But Trump is hoping to cut into that support as he casts himself as pro-worker and tries to exacerbate divisions between union leaders and some rank-and-file members.

The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million workers, including UPS drivers, film and television workers, freight operators, members of law enforcement and other government workers.

It backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, although O’Brien has stressed that the union is keeping an open mind on endorsements this cycle. The group generally waits until after both parties’ summer nominating conventions to make a formal endorsement, and it will “most likely” do so again this year, once it polls its members, solicits rank-and-file input and reconvenes its leadership team, O’Brien has said.

[awesomegoodmusic]

TheWhiteHouseSpin.Com / SPIN PUBLISHING Vice President Kamala Harris Presents Remarks during her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” Tour Reported by Karen Ann Carr

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN - Vice President Kamala Devi Harris continues her nationwide “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” Tour on Thursday, February 22, 2024. Vice President Harris continues her nationwide “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour by convening a roundtable conversation with medical providers, patients, reproductive rights advocates, and state and local leaders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3abctE5nDTo

[thaoworra]

What creative, political, and liberatory possibilities emerge at the intersections of Asian America, Buddhism, and literature? This roundtable brings together five prolific authors—Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng, Tsering Yangzom Lama, Shin Yu Pai, Ryan Lee Wong, and Bryan Thao Worra—to discuss the cultural and spiritual influences in their work. In a panel conversation moderated by Chenxing Han, these writers will share how a wide range of Buddhist traditions—in conjunction with their Vietnamese, Laotian, Tibetan, Taiwanese, Korean, and Chinese heritages—shape their artistic practice and political commitments.

If you’re able, please join us in person at the Michigan League to welcome our guest speakers, who are visiting from Pittsburgh, New York City, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Vancouver, Canada. After the author readings and roundtable discussion, there will be time for audience Q&A followed by an informal reception and book signings. Please stay to enjoy light refreshments and to meet the authors one-on-one!

This event is sponsored by the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and co-sponsored by the Department of American Culture, the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies program, the Nam Center for Korean Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies with local bookshop Booksweet organizing the book signings.

Panelists Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng is a writer and translator born in Việt Nam. Recent publications include Masked Force (Sàn Art), a pamphlet-catalogue on Võ An Khánh’s war photographs, and Chronicles of a Village (Penguin SEA), her translation of a novel by Nguyễn Thanh Hiện. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Jacket2, Modern Poetry in Translation and other venues. Currently studying at Stanford University, she has received support from the PEN/Heim Fund and the Institute for Comparative Modernities, among other honors.

Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies, won the GLCA New Writers Award as well as the Banff Mountain Book Award for Fiction & Poetry. Tsering holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies is published in English in Canada, the United States, and India. Translations are available or forthcoming in French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Bulgarian, Tibetan, and Arabic.

Shin Yu Pai is currently the Civic Poet of The City of Seattle. She is the author of 13 books, and has received awards for her work from the Academy of American Poets, 4Culture, The Awesome Foundation, and Artist Trust. Shin Yu is host and writer of “Ten Thousand Things”—an award-winning, chart-topping podcast on Asian American stories. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and earned an MA in Museology from The University of Washington.

Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He organized the exhibitions Serve the People at Interference Archive and Roots at Chinese American Museum, and has written on the intersections of arts, race, and social movements. Ryan holds an MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark and served on the Board of the Jerome Foundation. He lived for two years at Ancestral Heart Temple and is the Administrative Director of Brooklyn Zen Center.

Bryan Thao Worra is a Lao American poet. With 20+ awards and fellowships, he is the author of 9+ books of poetry on the Lao American diaspora. He has presented at the Library of Congress, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the Singapore Writers Festival, and the Smithsonian, and is the author of over 100 publications. He has documented Lao Theravada Buddhist temples in the US for over 15 years. His newest book American Laodyssey is forthcoming from Sahtu Press in Spring 2024.

Moderator Chenxing Han is the author of Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists; one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care; and over twenty articles and book chapters for both academic and mainstream audiences. She is a frequent speaker and workshop leader at schools, universities, and Buddhist communities across the nation, and currently serves as the Khyentse Visitor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan.

[georgemcginn]

Small Business and Industry Engagement Roundtable Announced With DOD and SBA Leaders

View Online IMMEDIATE RELEASE Small Business and Industry Engagement Roundtable Announced With DOD and SBA Leaders Feb. 12, 2024 The Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, in collaboration with the Small Business Administration, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan Small Business Development Center, and the Schoolcraft College APEX Accelerator, invites media…

[bighermie]

President Trump Speaks at Community Roundtable Discussion in Detroit, MI: "Joe Biden Has Done Nothing for You, Except talk, It's Only Talk, It's all Talk" (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by David Greyson

[mda20009blogassignment]

Week 4: Digital Community and Fandom: Reality TV Case Study

With the advent of the internet, reality television has gone digital, spawning thriving fandoms and communities online. We are redefining our relationship with reality TV on platforms like Tumblr, where viewers analyse, debate, and share their favourite episodes.

By focusing on how social media has made reality TV more participatory, Ruth A. Deller's 2019 piece in "Reality Television: The TV Phenomenon That Changed the World" analyses this phenomena. The mutually beneficial connection between these shows and their online viewers is illuminated by Deller's observations.

Research on reality TV subreddits conducted by Chen and McCabe in 2022 sheds new light on the ways in which these sites encourage political discussion, demonstrating the breadth and depth of ideas brought up by programmes like "The Bachelor"​​.

One way that real-time social media interactions can foster a feeling of national community is through Mark Stewart's investigation of live tweeting during reality shows. The ability of reality TV to bring people together, as described in his 2020 study, is seen in this occurrence.

In her essay from 2022, Helen Wood talks about how reality TV shows nowadays need to be more empathetic and on how "Big Brother" is coming back. This is a reflection of the rising expectation for sensitive and genuine reality television.

"Reality TV and Queer Identities" is Michael Lovelock's 2019 book that explores the portrayal of LGBTQ+ people on reality TV and how the genre influences how people view sexuality and authenticity.

Studying "RuPaul's Drag Race" from 2017 by Brennan and Gudelunas highlights the impact of reality TV on cultural narrative formation and how the show has contributed to the globalisation of drag culture.

L'Hoiry's 2019 study on "Love Island" provides a new angle on viewer participation by highlighting how sousveillance and social media have questioned long-held assumptions about the authenticity of reality television.

Finally, "a tumblr book: platform and cultures" has a roundtable discussion about 2020 that sheds light on the fan cultures on Tumblr and how digital platforms are now fundamental to reality TV.

Overall, these resources show how online communities and fandoms have changed the way we watch reality TV. The way these shows and their internet viewers engage with political discourse and cultural representation reflects how media consumption is changing.

References:

Brennan, N., & Gudelunas, D. (2017). Drag Culture, Global Participation and RuPaul’s Drag Race. The Author(s) 2017. file:///Users/hanhtrang/Downloads/Brennan-Gudelunas%202017%20Drag%20Culture%20Global%20Participation.pdf

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