Crockett Johnson would turn 119 today, and Harold (of purple crayon fame) turns 70 this fall. What does it mean to celebrate Johnson or Harold today? As I argue in “Turn off AI. Pick up a crayon,” it means to celebrate human creativity. In this piece, I suggest that Harold and the Purple Crayon is
Back in April, US Defense Secretary Pete “Signal” Hegseth ordered 381 books removed from the US Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library. These included works read by young people—Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give—and scholarship on books for young people, such as Robin Bernstein’s Racial Innocence and
AI is everywhere. This is a guide for students — my students, your students — and anyone who would like to resist the lure of AI. The more you know about large-language model (LLM) AI, the more reasons you discover to avoid using it — or, at least, to limit your use. So. Here are 9 ways
How are the good people of Manhattan, Kansas fighting the regime? Well, in many ways, but one is via Indivisible MHK — the local chapter of Indivisible, the national pro-democracy organization founded by Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. To find out what, precisely, we are up to, follow us on social media (BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, Substack,
A version of this appeared on Substack – both mine and Indivisible MHK’s — this past Wednesday. I am tired. Very tired. The regime is setting fires faster than we can put them out. This, as we know, is by design. They seek to overwhelm. They want surrender. But why should we give them what they
On Saturday, Kansans held a virtual Town Hall with one of our missing Senators — Jerry Moran. Since he refused to meet us, we had an empty chair with his photograph taped to it. Over the course of 2.5 hours, 32 people from many walks of life expressed our concerns — about the ongoing coup, the
I’ve made another anti-fascist educational video. Below, full text and a list of main sources for the video — which I talk more about at the end of the video. So, language matters. You hear of people being fired because of DEI, of programs being shut because of DEI, of grants revoked because of DEI.
An unboxing video that answers two questions: A dozen years ago, I began dreaming up a small book about Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon. It would be a biography of a book, a succinct introduction to how picture books work, and show people what we gain when we look closely — especially at something
“I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen? That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at
Take a break from calling your reps. For just a few minutes, stop doomscrolling and gloomposting. As you watch me open a box of books, you are also witnessing the successful completion of a 15-year-project… the publication in full and for the first time of Crockett Johnson’s classic comic strip Barnaby! That’s right, Barnaby Volume
