Michelle
Writer, Minnesotan, Army Veteran, Bird Nerd, Parent, Spouse, Atheist, GenX. I've named the squirrels in my yard & I swear a lot.
Writing at thegreenstudy.com. She/her.
2025-26 Loft Literary Mentor Fellow in Fiction.
Ruining workplaces since 1985.
- "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" - the Ella Fitzgerald version is my favorite. youtu.be/iq5JOqtGrrY?...
- Reposted by MichelleKelly Vargas writes about what happened to her, her husband, and their 6yo daughter in the family camp in Texas. Filth, illness, medical abuse—her child has lasting complications from being injured by a staff member. We don't know the half of what's happening in the camps, but we know enough.
- Reposted by MichelleRemember her name: Aliya Rahman Her testimony is everything and it deserves to be heard, by everyone. Decide for yourself. It’s powerful. It’s gut-wrenching. And no one should have to survive what she did. ICE MUST GO‼️
- Reading up on DHS history - appreciating @lollardfish.bsky.social's Strib op-ed. Coming in hot to my caucus. Abolish ICE is not enough. I want more. A caucus is where it's okay to want more before the pragmatists fuck everything up with moderation. Go BIG! www.startribune.com/minnesota-im...
- Caucusing begrudgingly. Only pol I'm happily pitching for is @ilhanmn.bsky.social. I'd be so excited to see more progressives. Moderate libs are like overcooked pasta - okay in a pinch, but you promise yourself the next meal will be spicy & delicious & not with Amy Klobuchar.
- Every time I dig into family genealogy, I find out yet another unsavory or tragic fact. My family history is riddled with it. I feel like I broke some curses.
- Reposted by MichelleYou can see more of these folks' (Singing Resistance Twin Cities) work on Instagram: www.instagram.com/singingresis...
- In the #TwinCities #Minneapolis and #StPaul, protesters sing outside hotels that house ICE & Border Patrol: "It's okay to change your mind. Show us your courage. Leave this behind. It's okay to change your mind. And you can join us, you can join us anytime."
- Reposted by Michelletomorrow is caucus night and @dexanderson.com does a quick explainer so you can feel comf(ier) getting involved. (send this to your cousin who went to their first rally this past month!)
- Reposted by MichelleThis morning, federal agents staged at the Powderhorn Park Recreation Center lot and began to throw chemical irritants at observers. They also kidnapped an observer. Our parks are meant for our children, youth, and neighbors. They should never be militarized zones meant to separate families. 1/
- Unsettling to read dystopian fiction now. Started this morning reading Ursula Le Guin's short story, "The Diary of the Rose". In an age when RW agitprop describes liberalism as a mental illness, one can see a throughline to authoritarian tech "solutions". journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
- Reposted by MichelleMad means something.
- "It seems weird to say so, but we need more poems now.... Start writing. Rise up, rise up, you poets, and tell us how it is." - Novelist and retired Prof Charles Baxter writing in @literaryhub.bsky.social Letters from Minneapolis series
- I've been in multiple writing groups over the last few weeks where a writer references looking something up and using Google AI. Writers, what are we even doing here? I feel like I'm losing my mind. #writingcommunity
- One of the things I've learned is that once you stop using a service or shopping at a store & you find other places, you just never go back. Watching Target & Caribou lose their customers in real time & realizing they're never coming back - corporate choices never fail to boggle the mind.
- Weirdo obsessions lately, watching traffic cams on 511MN.org, watching the Duluth live harbor cam, and refreshing the ICE tracking app repeatedly. The human mind hungers for patterns in an uncertain world. Also, I'm a writer, so my ways to procrastinate are myriad and awesome.
- Just unfollowed someone for their mild defense of David Brooks. I have no more time or room for mediocrity on major platforms. Mediocrity is great for us plebes, but these fuckers are getting money and attention for being blech.
- Reposted by MichelleYou cannot reform these lawless, chaotic liars @klobuchar.senate.gov @smith.senate.gov
- My YouTube algos are whack. 5000 videos about weird animals and birds in Australia, interspersed with videos about how to recognize autism in adults. What's your point, YT? *goes to watch another video on Southern Cassowarys*
- Reading about so many unpunished arcs of injustice is wearing. I no longer believe in "innocent until proven guilty" for obscenely rich people. May your brains turn into syphillis-laden swiss cheese. May your children change their names, give away all your money to good causes & deny your existence.
- Reposted by Michelle[This post could not be retrieved]
- I have always had a dark sense of humor, but receiving (not opening) an email virus from a colleague who died 3 years ago felt like a bit much today. It was one of those chatty ones. "I saw this come up today. It reminded me of those fun times and I had to share." Not today, Satan.
- Doing research to add to a support list for immigrants and ran across this summary. The contributions to our state are impressive, but we don't need to place dollar amounts on human lives to know that ICE are domestic terrorists. Fuck them. map.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/locations/mi...
- Each day, I wrestle with myself, wanting to rage against the filthy dipshits of this administration OR pushing forward in a positive, intentional way to focus on aid. I know the meme. I don't have the energy for both & I don't want to become them - full of grievance & bereft of kindness & decency.
- Reposted by MichelleThe DFL has issued Somali, Spanish, and Hmong non-attendee caucus forms to make it easier for those targeted by ICE to participate. I've placed them on my website for ease of access: www.abetterdfl.org/forms
- At work yesterday in N Mpls & a patron was looking outside right and left. I pulled out my whistle & phone. It was just 2 giant escaped dogs gleefully galloping up and down the street. They were rounded up and returned home, but it really hit me how dystopian all of this is.
- Reposted by MichelleMy fave studio here in S. Minneapolis, 612 Jungle (Black owned) is doing a donation based yoga class with a virtual option. Donations are going to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. It's Sunday 3-5. After, they will be sharing resources and action items www.instagram.com/p/DT8TJLkige...
- My current reading pile. It is hard to focus right now, but reading seems inherently anti-authoritarian and knowledge can be a bulwark against an onslaught of perpetual public lying. I am so grateful for the talented voices that accompany us through these difficult days.
- Time to add "Amy Klobuchar" to all of my block lists everywhere. She'll likely be governor. Years of more centrist pablum/kowtowing headed our way. Maybe we'll get some better Senators, but I don't see any riveting progressives on our radar yet. Caucuses are going to be lit (not at all).
- I was awake at 3am thinking about how ICE/CBP has killed more people than those "violent undocumented immigrants" they purport to be saving us from. Would like to wake up thinking about pancakes again someday.
- "noted tied-for-fifth-place college swimmer Riley Gaines" I know all the jokes have already been made, but sometimes things strike me as darkly funny. The right is full of loser-grifters with persecution complexes. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
- I've been finding comfort and wisdom in Andrea Gibson's collection Take Me With You: "I cried in a cloud of tear gas at a peaceful protest. I decided I was too soft to last, and then I decided to be softer." www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558181...
- A lot of people are in the "I told you so" phase of resistance. Get it out of your system and start using your prognosticating abilities to imagine and work towards some better options for the world. You're tiresome and we don't have the energy or the wherewithal to congratulate you.
