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‼️This still feels surreal but I’m writing a book. Thank you to @TheAtlantic for giving me the space & time to write in first place. 🥹
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Some personal news: Today is my first official day as general editor for culture at ESPN's The Undefeated.
Inbox open for pitches: jenisha.watts@espn.com
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Drop everything ASAP & read this piece by @JasonReynolds83
Eleven minutes: A call from #Kobe Bryant undf.td/2SmrocQ
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Nikki Giovanni felt moved to write a #poem to Vanessa Bryant after watching the memorial at Staples Center undf.td/3c7o9im
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Y’all @TheCut ! Wild. Thank you. thecut.com/2023/10/jenisha-w…
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My thoughts on Sonya Massey.
“Sonya Massey’s tax dollars had contributed to the salary of the officer who killed her. That’s the insanity of being Black in this country.”
theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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The essay that planted the seed for my memoir. And a great reason to subscribe to @TheAtlantic! Support great journalism.
When @JenishaWatts moved from Kentucky to New York to become a journalist, she hid her past. In 2023, she wrote about her harrowing childhood and the freedom that writing offered her: theatln.tc/AHJrfnn5
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“You are paid to win basketball games, yet immediately after you win or lose, you are right there in front of the world talking about systemic oppression and radical possibilities.”
@KieseLaymon on @KingJames theundefeated.com/features/l…
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It’s still wild to me that I get to work with words & stories for a living. I hope you spend some time this weekend with the recent pieces published for @TheAtlantic’s Inheritance project.
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Grateful that words LITERALLY changed my life & to be able to share my story with students from my hometown … what a moment, what a day. ❤️
Jenisha Watts, senior editor at The Atlantic and FCPS alumni, visited Crawford Middle today to speak with students about the importance of reading, critical thinking, and believing in yourself.
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“I was heartbroken to be leaving my mother and sister, relieved to be free of the Taliban, but also furious at the United States and the world for abandoning my country. What would happen to me?” @bushra_seddique theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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So I wrote this essay for #BreonnaTalyor & all the other Black women & girls cause Breonna is all of us theundefeated.com/features/i…
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I can’t stop thinking about this response from @JenSeniorNY … reflecting on her excellent cover story for @TheAtlantic
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"Chloe Kim is famous like Shaun White," one boy says. "And Korean like me."
Olympians have called her the future ever since she was 8 years old. But @chloekimsnow's time is now. es.pn/2GPZeAi
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I'm framing this quote! Yup, .@serenawilliams women really are tough ... #whoruntheworldgirls 👑💁🏾
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I can read this poem by Nikki Giovanni over and over. A 💎
“I’ll bet there are many precious
Things in the cellars
Of Appalachia
The most being the trust my grandmother
Had in me to keep the silver polished” theatlantic.com/books/archiv…
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“Much of today’s Black humor is driven by #BlackTwitter , a community that is nebulous in construction but focused in execution. Humor is one of its chief weapons, and it lives even in sad moments.” @big_data_kane theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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Honored to work at @TheUndefeated ... I’ve always been able to be my authentic self & @StephenReiss got me out here ✍🏿
"The ghosts of white supremacy haunt me as the months go by since the police killed Taylor and blew out her Black girl sparkle.
Every day that Louisville fails to arrest those officers, they devalue my life and others like me." - @JenishaWatts
theundefeated.com/features/i…
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Thank you, @columbiajourn for sharing. My heart is full.
In a remarkable example of narrative journalism, @JenishaWatts, '14 M.S., writes about her tumultuous childhood in Kentucky. Featured as @TheAtlantic's October '23 cover story, the piece is a testament to the freedom that writers can find in their work: theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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What are you going to do to celebrate the #MacArthur?
"Buy the whole @gucci store. Just kidding..." - @nhannahjones
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We need to stop leaving black women out of the discussion on police brutality espnw.ly/TwR6OLx0 via @espnW
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Some fine, fine reporting and writing by the incredibly talented @morganhikaru theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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I can’t stop thinking about this story. Just incredible & another reason why journalism is so important. Glad @jaketapper told this story. theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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The bottom of the sea, in this case, seems even more isolated and perilous; radio transmissions can travel through space for many light-years, but they cannot travel underwater. theatlantic.com/science/arch…
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Yup! That’s 👑Claudia Rankine @ESPN The Magazine & @TheUndefeated #nationalpoetrymonth We all were geeking out✨
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This broke me.
“A terrorist throws a grenade into their hiding place, and the father is killed. The boys are covered in blood, and one appears to have lost an eye. They go to their kitchen and cry for their mother.” @gcaw theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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“Baldwin was always encouraging his comrades to create, to continue bringing new work into the world.” theatlantic.com/books/archiv…
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I interviewed Poet @NTrethewey for this incredible book on #SouthernWomen for @gardenandgun !!
The book is out tomorrow.
Thank you @AllisonGlock for reaching back & @AmandaBHeckert for your perfect editing & @alisonoverholt for letting me contribute ✨
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If you don’t read anything today … read …THIS theatlantic.com/politics/arc…
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Prioritizing your career—not all the time, but some of the time—models valuable lessons for children, including independence and resilience. theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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“All of it felt a little like an exercise in entertainment-industry gaslighting. Did we really see what we thought we saw? Did it matter?” @sophieGG theatlantic.com/culture/arch…
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When @JasonReynolds83 emailed this essay ... I called @StephenReiss on a Sat & we both agreed the piece was nearly perfect. Steve said this is an example of someone with perfect control of their instrument 🎺
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What vocabulary can describe the heartbeat of a parent pacing for hours outside a school, waiting to hear if their child survived? @ClintSmithIII theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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“He dismissed the therapist as a “schmuck” who was “definitely on her side.” He admitted that he’d “fucked up” but did not believe the situation required any deeper exploration.” WHAT!? theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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One thing I love, love about @TheAtlantic is our #poetry section. Today's poem "Eustasy" is POWERFUL.
"When the voting signs pop up
in the yards she begins the laying-
out of clothes." --Nikky Finney
theatlantic.com/books/archiv…
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I interviewed poet .@morganapple about using boxing techniques in her work.
es.pn/2lMmbZR
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He felt alienated by the complacency of his boyhood friends: They aspired to a government job with a pension, maybe; church on Sunday; the usual. “I say to myself, Are we really just clowns? And just do the same fucking things as the guy before? …
.@Schwarzenegger wants to live forever. “If you have the kind of life that I’ve had—that I have—it is so spectacular,” he told @MarkLeibovich. What will the Terminator do now at 75? theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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Imani Boyette goes on Twitter campaign to get 50 Cent to WNBA game @ImaniBoyette espn.go.com/espnw/culture/th…
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This is incredible. Thank you!
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So hyped about this one! @JerusalemDemsas stay breaking economic things down for me. She’s really one of the best out here! Listen. Subscribe. ‼️
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Each day and every hour, we are balls bouncing along a roulette wheel. Remember back when we used to think we could offer protective advice to keep our children safe? Show your hands, no sudden movements, no running. We were so naive then, and hopeful. theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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“We wanted to wear hose dyed for our brown legs, to see dolls with sienna skin and woolly hair, to be self-reflective and not subject to images as imposed. We could and did make purchases that included and reflected our history…” theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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“The Black and Latino share of the entering class steadily rises in the institutions that are less selective.” theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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Thank you. You are the best!
If you read the incredible personal essay by @JenishaWatts on the cover of this month's @TheAtlantic, you were surely moved, you probably cried, and you definitely wanted to know more.
@jessesposato sat down with Jenisha to chat about her story.
narratively.com/p/what-it-to…
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The 25 Photoshop Tricks You Should Know | Complex complex.com/tech/2011/08/the… via @ComplexMag [Super helpful]
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This article is important af. You need to read it. I’m in my emotions, but will share my thoughts. Thank you, @Tapperific & @MorganJerkins & @Vanessa_KDeLuca y’all doing the work work. (And @zoramag)
There's a workplace phenomenon called “pet to threat.”
First, your boss loves you. Then, they dislike you after you start excelling in your role, which may be threatening to employers.
Has this ever happened to you? read.medium.com/cwCqH8c
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“There’s no excuse for any journalistic entity, let alone a Black-owned one, to allow three hours of unfettered anti-Blackness to air on its platform.”
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I interviewed .@MariaSharapova about her new memoir & Serena
es.pn/2eTkLvb
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I did not want this profile to end.
“I took off after him, waving and smiling like the good-natured midwesterner I am. “Congressman, hi,” I said, suddenly wishing I’d worn shoes with arch support.” @elainejgodfrey theatlantic.com/politics/arc…
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"If ever there was a woman who had the right to wear a superwoman catsuit while she is at work, it would be Serena Williams." .@staceyannchin
Serena Williams should be able to wear whatever she wants, writes @staceyannchin. es.pn/2Mvq6w7
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🗣Like the original Juneteenth celebrants, we are still fighting for black humanity @GreenidgeKerri
Hat tip to @imaniperry for the connection ✨✊🏿 theundefeated.com/features/l…
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I had to reread this three times to make sure I’m not imagining this! Goodness. To be among you.
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@NatalieGDiaz & @ramonashelburne read the essay and listen to the Podcast. Ramona is truly one of the best in the business. Great segment today!
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I’ve missed my book deadline so many times.
Him: What can I do to help you write this book?
Me: I don’t know.
*He just sent me a bunch of calendar invites to do weekly book check-ins.😩 😂
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“I remember feeling terribly sorry for the kids whose mothers had abandoned them, and terribly afraid I’d be mistaken for one. Because my mother hadn’t ditched me; she was working to save the world from the ravages of capitalism.” theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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Steele wants Haley and Scott to try to convince an audience of Black people otherwise. “Or let’s take that conversation to Howard University. It’s easy to do when you have 1,000 white people hooting and hollering at every word you say.” theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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“Enemy of the State was able to communicate in a mainstream film what decades of black civil rights activists had struggled to do after state officials maligned their credibility: a healthy degree of mistrust toward an intelligence community that had long targeted black people.”
Before the Patriot Act, before Edward Snowden, ‘Enemy of the State,’ starring Will Smith, was asking important questions. #Houseof98
theundefeated.com/features/t…
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YOOOOOOO @karenrgood's piece in the @TheUndefeated bit.ly/2axvoRn
THIS IS JOURNALISM
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“We want whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss—we want more and more and then more of it.” theatlantic.com/books/archiv…
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“Kelela’s father wanted to ensure that his American-raised daughter would value not only her Ethiopian heritage but also a broader sense of Blackness.” theatlantic.com/culture/arch…
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“We might as well go on, saving ourselves and loving one another, because so many of the wounds in our recent yet distinct histories as members of Asian diasporas have to do with our peoples being dispossessed of the right or capacity to do either.”
I wrote about massage, family, American empire, and survival for @TheAtlantic. Huge thanks to my first readers @sevtorres and @aireadee, and to Senior Editor @JenishaWatts for her solidarity, rigor & brilliance.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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Check out Walter Mosley's latest book. I'm biased b/c it's dedicated to me + Rachel Eliza Griffiths 😊
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“I ask, how are the people in this nation so adjusted to Black folks suffering? And then I think: That, too, is naive. The Nashville school shooting just happened.”
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“What Black is King does best is fling open the doors of imagination and possibility for Black children in a way that cannot be taken for granted..”
LOOK, I didn’t want this piece to end. So freaking good. How you do it, @SorayaMcDonald
Holy moly.
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When the president of the company congratulates us on the #Mulan project
Michelle Bashaw aka @weheartpeanut was responsible for the design & art
Writers @ShaleneGupta @SashaRPimentel @speakdeadly @freedewi @kumaraishwarya @staceyannchin
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Shook, but just reread her quote from years ago...
“Have a radical aim, but proceed with caution.” #RBG
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Thank you for writing this.
@JenishaWatts was recently named a special editor @TheAtlantic. Another #BryanStationDefender standout
kentucky.com/opinion/linda-b…
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Super late tweet...still recovering from #AWP ... what a time to be creating ... love to all my women writers and poets and editors making history...
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I love April ... because we run #poems ALL month.
Today, @NatalieGDiaz blessed us
espnw.ly/NngvJmF5
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“My husband and I were both bemused to discover that names like ours could inspire so much antipathy.” -Rachel Gutman-Wei theatlantic.com/technology/a…
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What an incredible piece of writing & vulnerability & music by @loonus aka Raina Kelley theundefeated.com/features/t…
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@jesmimi Jesmyn Ward in @TheAtlantic !
“I know they are bound by the way they wear their sorrow, by the way they look over an invisible horizon into their ruin.” theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…
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“He goes on to tell me that he’s read the whole series, and that it struck him because he’s been using stories of his own to help GiGi understand basketball, and life, for years.” -@JasonReynolds83
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