ActiveCultures
Imposing his taste on friends & strangers since 19xx. Agitador Cultural. Globalizer. Arts Monger from Long Island & Brooklyn now in Abu Dhabi UAE
IG @activecultures
Also me (w/ others):
@NYUADArtsCenter @globalFEST_NYC
Representing no one but me
- That weird thing where the underground and the institutions converge.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesSir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesthere's no such thing as "a softer touch" when you're trying to institute the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThis is a clear-cut scenario where the press can definitively say either the president or his chief intel advisor is lying. This isn’t a debate over internal states. There’s no room for self delusion here.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThis is extraordinary. I will miss Colbert so much, but he is going out blazing.
- Wow. Jmail turns up some winners.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesmy anger is still directed where it belongs, but I’m getting at least increasingly irritated that outlets like Status reporting extensively on the layoffs aren’t even bothering to note that the Post apparently fired every single one of of its remaining arts critics
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesIf you’re canceling your Washington Post subscriptions today, 1) I don’t blame you, it’s a sad day for the Post, and 2) I must shamelessly recommend another (non-billionaire-owned) news source for you to subscribe to: zeteo.com/subscribe
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesMore ads like this, please
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesProfessors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...
- Have you started boycotting Amazon yet? If now, why not?
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesWhatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙
- I just watched a video from Jada Yuan was among the 300 journalists laid off by @washingtonpost.com I wish I could cancel my subscription a third time.
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThis is sad, but good: Artists are refusing to normalize this idiocy, and instead of just commanding performances - which they can't do - the Trump people are closing it down and slinking away.
- Cramming to guest lead a class tomorrow by reading a dense article on the philosophy of technology while drinking dark rum, and understanding academia just a little better
- This is great news for Manuel, who has become a good friend and colleague over the past 10 years as we worked to develop the cultural ecosystem in parallel. It's going to be a huge personal loss and loss for the UAE.
- Time insights for today on my Google calendar: 7 hr in meetings (avg: 3.9 hr) Hello, Monday!
- In honor of Ish (Ismael Ahmed), Detroit’s finest. tidal.com/album/454841...
- The reframe I’m seeing from “covering up the Epstein files” to “covering up child sex trafficking” to “covering up child rape” is an important and needed shift in framing
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesI'm Kat Abughazaleh and I approve this message.
- No idea how many people are here from Detroit / Dearborn, but Ismael Ahmed aka Ish, just passed. He founded ACCESS and helped create the Arab American Museum of Art, the Concert of Colors and so much more. Community arts and activism. May his memory be for a blessing www.facebook.com/share/17qoMo...
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesDOJ has since killed this link. This is what was there:
- New Epstein docs www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
- I made a playlist for pre-show and between sets for the Tamaas Festival with Yasmine Hamdan, Al-Qasar, and Maruja Limón at The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi last night. I’ve added the artists into the list and now it’s here for your listening (I hope) pleasure. tidal.com/playlist/1cc... #musicsky
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesSchumer calls for Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to be removed from their jobs.
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Power to Rep. Ilhan Omar for holding strong. Watching her go at the guy rather than running and hiding is something else.
- This is the second physical attack on a Democratic Member of Congress this week. The other was Maxwell Frost. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
- Reposted by ActiveCultures“Imagine how they lie when there’s no evidence to contradict them.” Watch this powerful message from Jon Stewart.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesAfter being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesNo Kings is hosting what is shaping up to be the largest ICE Watch training in history tonight. Join here: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesRIP Sly Dunbar (1952-2026)
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesIt’s cold comfort right now but, if past is prologue, spectacles of violence committed by the state against sympathetic civilians—especially when captured on camera—were the beginning of the end for Bull Connor and Jim Crow, too.
- I let my friends’ 6-year old son DJ for a road trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. He may have led me to my new mini obsession: Luna Luxe. youtu.be/Fgo0O3M5wy8?...
- Sanctuary fades Congregation splits Nightly military raids The congregation splits It's a song of assassins Ringin' in your ears We got terrorist thinking Playing on fears Well they blew the horns And the walls came down (For Minneapolis. youtu.be/8EyqFM02mtc?...)
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesWalz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThis administration is cooked. Literally no one is scared of them.
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- That night you find out your friend was the principal dancer in a Bjork video. youtu.be/KJRiBDMfrTU?...
- Snap it pal. youtu.be/hEjLBtOs9Bw?...
- Uncle Floyd. Hey hey hey. Snap it pal. au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/floyd-vivino...
- Reposted by ActiveCulturescannot adequately describe how great this is to see there are more of us than there are of them and they will not break us
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThey are never, ever going to win in Minnesota.
- Uncle Floyd. Hey hey hey. Snap it pal. au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/floyd-vivino...
- This is where I came in. Golden Years on WPIX-FM was my gateway drug.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesFormer special counsel Jack Smith offered a robust defense of his derailed efforts to prosecute Donald Trump, telling lawmakers in his first public testimony that the president “willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold.” wapo.st/4qFjsSX
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesYou have to know that there is no suitable reality in which we just Go Back To Living Among These People. There is no going back. It can’t just be All Good. Whatever implications you glean from this statement; yes.
- My wife is a mega show ticket fiend. Who is more popular: BTS or Bruno Mars? (This summer, we’re going to both)
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesI met an absolutely lovely academic who asked whether my department back home is affected by ICE -- a question dramatizing how little info is getting out. For the record, the small example I chose: My dept has a carpool to pick up grad students of color who can't safely commute to campus alone.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesCA's AG, also openly supporting the protest movements: “Crowds are super important. That is the rawest, most powerful expression of our democracy. When people show up, whether it’s Hands Off or No Kings, we are speaking about what we will never accept and what we demand.”
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThis morning I reached the 350k follower mark here on Bluesky, which is mindblowing. Thank you so much for letting me be part of your Bluesky experience. I'm glad to be here. To celebrate I've donated to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and to the MN chapter of the ACLU. Onward! www.ilcm.org
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesI have been actively involved in protest movements for 24 years. I have never seen anything approaching this scale. Minneapolis is not accepting what's happening here. ICE fucking murdered a woman for participating in this, and all that did is bring out more people, from more walks of life.
- Reposted by ActiveCulturesThis video filmed by Ben Luhmann shows the moment a federal agent sprayed chemical irritants directly into a man's face in south Minneapolis. Three agents already had the man pinned to the ground when a fourth agent walked up and sprayed the irritants.
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by ActiveCultures[Not loaded yet]
- I’m late to Nick Cave. He’s an artist I know I’m supposed to like cause so many people have whose taste I respect worship him. So I bought tix for a show this summer and now I’m giving myself a deeper primer. Do people talk about how Jesus Alone sort of sounds like Jim Morrison/The Doors The End?
- While I have you: Kuwaiti maritime and desert traditions meet the improvisational energy of jazz @boomdiwan.bsky.social just recorded their 2nd record with South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini followed by a show at The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. Full concert www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8H_...
