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Willie Edward Taylor Carver

@williecarverjr

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Activist, queer, writer, KY TOY, cat-owning Appalachian.
Author of GAY POEMS FOR RED STATES, TORE ALL TO PIECES.
http://williecarver.bsky.social 💙

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by @williecarverjr

When a whole class fails, a good teacher looks at themselves first.

As a teacher, I can say that if my students move from a low F to a solid D, I'm always ecstatic. Moving 19 points in the correct direction is evidence of so much more work than maintaining a grade.

I've seen many students show tremendous growth in the right direction. I know one thing: this happens ONLY when they feel seen. Heard. Cared about.

I'm encouraged by the Democratic teachers: those running for office. Those organizations working tirelessly. Those speakers and doorknockers.

This year, I've seen a marked difference in how we engage with rural constituents. More listening. More care. More concern. Fewer hasty judgments or stereotypes.

Good teachers, charged with explaining the platform of the left—its hope, its freedom, its ambitions for justice and equity—must first become listeners. Become experts in the people they teach, in the people who teach them. In the constituents the platform means to benefit.

We've all got a way to go.

But the numbers don't lie. Our work matters, and we're doing it better. by @williecarverjr

So many places where goodness is winning. Hallelujah 💙 by @williecarverjr

More of this milk and cornbread goodness! by @williecarverjr

Cats sleeping. Mount Sterling, KY. 2026. by @williecarverjr

by @williecarverjr

Big big thanks to Mickie (@mickiepoet) and Josh at Queer Poem-A-Day (@qpoemaday_com) for featuring "Go On: The Cicada Poem" as their Poem of the Day. It means so much to see this little poem, much like those cicadas, fly as hard as it can.

Link in the comments, where you can also hear audio 💙 by @williecarverjr

“…tell them / to fly harder, / to climb, / to fuck in broad daylight, / to sing until the stars hear them.”

From “Go On: The Cicada Poem” by Willie Carver Jr., today’s featured poem on Queer Poem-A-Day. by @williecarverjr

For those who celebrate.
💓👻👽🤖👾🎃 by @williecarverjr

by @williecarverjr

I had to delete a lot of comments on my post about Nicki Minaj and Trump left by either left-leaning people or bots pretending to be left-leaning people.

✅️ Mocking Nicki Minaj's actions
✅️ Mocking her worship of Trump
✅️ Mocking MAGA hypocrisy
✅️ Mocking her hypocrisy

❌ Mocking her body
❌ Mocking her sexuality
❌ Mocking her immigrant status
❌ Suggesting she be deported

These things are complicated because sometimes folks are laughing at the hypocrisy of one group, and sometimes that means pointing out what is highly visible and clearly against what that group claims to value (like how every twenty minutes an anti-LGBTQ evangelical preacher is outed for buying gay sex).

We can mock the preacher—

—without mocking queerness.
—without belittling sex work.

Nicki Minaj—like Trump—is a profoundly unserious person whose lack of seriousness has serious consequences. That behavior should be held to the light and taken to task.

But she is also an immigrant and a Black woman. Both of those aspects of her experience are held to intense scrutiny and subject to being written into narratives of white supremacy. It is as easy for any of us to slip into them as it is hard for her—and folks like her—to escape them.

If we believe that weaponizing immigration status or mocking and sexualizing Black women's bodies is wrong, we cannot suddenly find it acceptable when a Black immigrant woman supports Trump.

If we believe belittling the poor is wrong, we can't suddenly think it's okay if someone missing teeth because they can't afford the dentist votes for him.

And anyway, no one needs any of these narratives. These two just doing what they're doing is fodder enough. We've got the all-you-can-eat buffet of scrutinizable behavior. by @williecarverjr

When I hear of a child facing bullying or harassment in schools, it literally hurts inside my soul.

Is this how Republicans feel when they see a poor child eating? by @williecarverjr