Type Away Cait

photo credit: Cait Malilay ***TRIGGER WARNING:** This book contains descriptions of physical and emotional abuse, and pedophilia.  Consent is a powerful and raw 2020 memoir written by Vanessa Springora. Written 3 years after the launch of the #MeToo Movement, the 285-page novel recounts her experience as a 14-year-old in a relationship with an older man, a well-respected writer, who Springora only refers to as "G." Springora first encountered Gabriel Matzneff, 50, at a dinner party that was full of literary intellectuals.  She writes that her mother, who works in publishing, mistakenly thinks that he is interested in her, but no. Her mother is far from his type. He prefers teenagers and even younger, some as young as eleven. Didn't she know that? After all, that's what his works are all about. He admits his sexual experiences in the writings that are published by the company her mother works for.  "A father, conspicuous only by his absence, who left an unfathomab...

pc: Cait Malilay "A Second Reckoning: Race, Injustice and the Last Hanging in Annapolis" by Scott D. Seligman delves into the historical case of John Snowden, a Black man charged under circumstantial evidence for murdering a White woman named Lottie Mae Brandon in 1917.  Seligman , an award-winning writer and a historian, walks readers through the case and the historical time period of Maryland's capitol, focusing specifically on race relations, while occasionally touching on gender norms and laws that restricted women from participating in government. Seligman presents the book in such a way where he's not setting out to prove whether Snowden was guilty or innocent, but rather simply stating the facts. There are many characters that help push forward the investigation, which made national headlines, one of them being Mary Grace Winterton Quackenbos Humiston. Humiston was a detective from New York who was hired by The Washington Times to solve the case.  She came fro...

The Republican-majority House of Representatives removed Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a vote of 218-211 on Thursday. The GOP repeatedly called out Omar for her past anti-Semitic rhetoric and statements about Israel. Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio addressed on the House floor how she was barred from traveling to Israel in 2019. "How can someone not welcomed by one of our most important allies serve as an emissary of American foreign policy on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and given her biased comments against Israel and against the Jewish people, how can she serve as an objective decision maker on the committee?" Miller said. She has since apologized for her remarks after being urged by her colleagues on both sides in the then Democratic-majority House led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.  @IlhanMN / Twitter Omar gave a touching speech while displaying a photo of her 9-year-old self as she shared her background, an...

pc: IG / @cait_malilay_reads "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University, Ph.D., is basically your introduction to fascism college course, or, in other words, Fascism 101.  At 193 pages long, if you don't include acknowledgments, one can definitely complete this in one sitting. Just because I personally describe it as fascism 101, one must certainly not underestimate the quality of the content as it is well worth the read indeed.  The Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy defines what fascism is in, if not all, most of its forms. Broken into 10 chapters, each goes into depth of a key idea of fascism and provides examples. He points out how one may think that fascism was a threat only long ago back in World War II, the days of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, but as he concludes, "It is tempting to think of normal as benign...there is no need for alarm. However both history and psychology show tha...

Local 2110 of United Auto Workers held a rally at 195 Broadway at 12:30 p.m. on Friday as part of their strike for higher wages, a more diverse workplace and better union security for HarperCollins Publishers employees.  The union represents over 250 employees in the editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal and marketing departments. The rally was co-hosted by R.F. Kuang , Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of “Babel: An Arcane History,” and Molly McGhee, the author of the upcoming novel, “Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind.” “We are asking for other ways to make compensation better for people of color, and make it a more secure place for people of color to work,” said Carly Katz, an audio coordinator at HarperCollins Publishers, in an interview with “Conversations With Cait.” Lee and Low Books found in a 2019 baseline survey that the publishing industry overall is 76% white and 74% are cis women. Katz, who has been with the company for five years, makes about $5...

HarperCollins Publishers employees are striking for wage increases, a better commitment to diversifying the staff and union security. In this episode, we have Carly Katz, an audio coordinator at HarperCollins Publishers, to tell us more. In October, over 95% of unionized employees voted to strike, according to a press release.  The union, Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers, represents over 250 employees in the editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal and marketing departments.  HarperCollins is the only unionized Big Five publishing house. The majority of workers are women and the average salary is $55,000 with a starting salary of $45,000.  You don't need to do the math to understand that that's clearly not enough to survive in New York City!  Negotiations began in December of last year, yet unionized employees have been working without a contract since April.  A rally is going to be held this Friday, Dec. 16 at 12:30 p.m. led by R.F. Kuang , Sunday Times ...

photo credit: Ray Ewing / The Vineyard Gazette Republicans are using the immigration border crisis to their advantage for the upcoming election. In recent months, Republican governors Doug Ducey of Arizona, Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Greg Abbott of Texas sent migrants, who are predominately from Central and South America, to key cities including Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced in a statement that the city received over 11,000 asylum seekers since May. Most recently, DeSantis sent 48 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard , who were later sent to a military base in Cape Cod. Robert Y. Shapiro, a professor and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, ph.D, said that the governors' actions can be explained because much of the debates have been centered on matters such as abortion, same-sex marriage and social security and Medicare, issues that they don’t want voters to focus on in ...

photo credit: Facebook/WBNY 91.3 “Living 4 The People,” a radio program that offers a progressive analysis of political issues, airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on 91.3 WBNY-FM . Hosted by former executive director of the Community Action Organization of Western New York and former executive of Urban Think Tank, L. Nathan Hare, the show’s goal is to spark conversation and engage younger audiences. “For the college, you want our students to be exposed to as many new ideas and different ways of understanding ideas as possible, and that may not be as easily done in a classroom as we can do on our radio program,” he said. Hare finds that there are very few radio programs that offer a progressive analysis. “Most of the time radio programs are either sports or there are programs that are talking from a very right-winged or conservative point of view and very little that talks about things from a progressive point of view,” he said. “I’m always trying to figure ...

Airing today at 5 p.m. on 91.3 WBNY-FM and with all the discussion with Roe v. Wade , you won’t want to miss this episode about  “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,”  a 2014 documentary film  produced and directed by Mary Dore, which showcases the leaders behind the women’s liberation movement from 1966 to 1971. This episode features Jennifer Ryan-Bryant, an English professor at the State University of New York College at Buffalo and former director of the women gender and sexuality studies interdisciplinary unit, who discusses further about the ways the women’s movement used language to promote equality for women in the workplace and their personal lives. This ranges from slogans they developed, speeches they delivered and an outpouring of creative works including poetry, comics and pamphlets. Ryan-Bryant, who is also the graduate coordinator for the Master of Arts program, teaches courses in American Poetry, the American novel, women and gender studies, Gender and ...

Visiting scholar Peng Zhuang presenting Buffalo State College Center for China Studies 22nd anniversary exhibit photo credit: Cait Malilay The State University of New York College at Buffalo's Center for China Studies celebrated its 22nd anniversary last week with exhibits in the Student Union and Butler Library. Because of the pandemic, as with many other school events, the center didn’t get an opportunity to celebrate their 20th anniversary. “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we did some other kinds of activities like Chinese landscape painting and performances,” said Peng Zhuang, a visiting scholar from Xinxiang University. The mission of the center is “to promote and coordinate research, scholarly exchanges, academic programs and economic development with China,” as well as offer an international perspective to students, faculty, staff and the general community in Western New York. photo credit: Cait Malilay Zhuang has been in Buffalo for about a year and is originally from Henan,...

“‘Conversations With Cait’ ep. 5: The Salem Witch Trials” is set to air on 91.3 WBNY-FM on Monday and April 4 at 5 p.m. This episode is on the depiction of women witches beginning with the historical 1692 Salem Witch Trials to Hollywood. A discussion with Rachel Christ, the Salem Witch Museum director of education, also touches on how capitalism takes advantage of the trend of modern-day witchcraft from crystal-healing to natural herbs. “Conversations With Cait” is a new podcast centered on the arts, culture and race and gender politics. Stay tuned for the episode recap! To stay up to date on articles and future episodes, follow @cait_malilay_writes on Instagram.

Ukraine is not the only country that Russia is impacting.  Russia and China, two official members of the U.N. Security Council, and Serbia are supporting the violence against Myanmar’s pro-democracy civilians by supplying the military junta with weaponry, according to a report by Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar. Steven Sanyu, the president of Burmese Community Services , said that countries’, especially Asian countries', conflicts get overlooked in contrast to European countries when there is no financial direct interest at large. “The Chinese government is the number one enemy for the Burmese people, and also Russia, the same thing,” he said. graphic courtesy: World Atlas However, there is division even within the Asian continent because neighbors of Myanmar like Thailand focus on their own interest. They are afraid to get involved and support pro-democracy ideals because of its relationship with China in terms of trade, which is...

The screening of "The Neutral Ground: A Story About Sore Losers," which took place last Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Burchfield Penney Art Center as part of the  Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse Screening and Discussion Series , was followed by a discussion panel with Chief of Staff to President Katherine Conway-Turner and State University of New York College at Buffalo Chief Diversity Officer Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney; John Torrey, a professor who holds a doctorate in philosophy and Mikaila Morgan, an Africana studies major. Directed by CJ Hunt, a field producer for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, this first movie to launch the spring semester chronicles New Orleans’ fight over Confederate monuments and “America’s troubled romance with the Lost Cause.” “When we talk about racism and all these deeply embedded prejudices, they’re institutionalized, and when we talk about the way they’re in our institutions, it’s not just the statues,” said Ruth Goldman, an associate professo...

One of the GOP’s main focuses lately has been on education. They’re on the hunt to ban books in an attempt to put a stop to critical race theory despite the fact there is little to no evidence that it’s taught in K-12 schools. In Tennessee, a school board banned “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin photo credit: AP Photo/Steve Helber Most recently, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin had an email hotline set up specifically for parents to address their concerns of what he called, “divisive concepts ,” including critical race theory. Democrats argue that this is an attack on education and that they are attempting to erase history. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis showed his support for the Parents Rights In Education , also known as the Don’t Say Gay Bill, which essentially prohibits “a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels.” Florida Go...

photo credit: Atlantis Build / Twitter  Tune in tomorrow at 5 p.m. on 91.3 WBNY-FM for “Conversations With Cait,” for a discussion with Saladin Allah, the third-great grandson of underground railroad Freedom Seeker Josiah Henson whom Harriet Beecher Stowe used as the primary narrative for her famous 19th century novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” In this episode, he shares the story of his third-great grandfather and as an educator, discusses the importance of acknowledging our histories, the future of the youth and education getting mixed up in the game of politics. Stay tuned for the recap article! For updates, follow @cait_malilay_writes on Instagram.

Islamophobia is nothing new and it is especially apparent today in Congress. In November, a video surfaced of Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado making anti-Muslim remarks about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minn. at a Conservative party in September.  She referred to Omar as a member of the “Jihad Squad,” and said that she felt safe since Omar didn’t have a backpack with her, referring to her as a suicide bomber. In mid-December, The House approved the Combating International Islamophobia Act , which addresses the rise in incidents of Islamophobia.  This bill “requires the U.S. State Department to create a Special Envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia and include state-sponsored Islamophobic violence and impunity in the Department's annual human rights reports,” according to a press release. It will also “help policymakers better understand the interconnected, global problem of anti-Muslim bigotry” and initiate "a comprehensive strategy for establishing U....

“‘Conversations With Cait’ ep. 2: Texas book bans” is set to air on 91.3 WBNY-FM  tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.   This episode’s discussion will be about Gov. Greg Abbott and Matt Krause’s call to hunt down books that center on people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and sexual health, which Abbott described as “pornographic or obscene material.” Guest speakers include Emma Kaplan, a leading representative of New York City Revolution Club , and Jacob Quinn, a Snowbelt region representative of Turning Point USA . "Conversations With Cait" is a new podcast centered on the arts, culture and race and gender politics. Check out the article and full interview here! To stay up to date on articles and future episodes, follow @cait_malilay_writes  on Instagram.

photo credit: Yu and Me Books / Instagram The owner of Yu and Me Books, the first New York City-based bookstore owned by a female Asian-American , said that the censorship of books  in Texas school libraries by Republican lawmakers is “ridiculous and terrible.” Lucy Yu, who just opened up her bookstore a month ago, sells many books that highlight stories of immigration. “This has always been a dream of mine, and I wanted to see stories on the wall reflect immigrant experiences similar to mine,” she said in an email. “A large reason why I wanted to create my space is to make sure these voices are heard.” Yu is just one of many who are concerned how this censorship will impact the younger generation. A group of librarians who call themselves the #FReadom fighters launched the grassroots initative,  #FReadom , to raise awareness of the state's actions and bring school librarians together. “Not having easy access to marginalized voices can really skew a younger person's perspectiv...

Texas Republican lawmakers are on the hunt to take down books in school libraries that center on race, the LGBTQ+ community and sexual health. In a letter to the executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards, Gov. Greg Abbott urged them to be on the lookout for any books that he described as containing "pornographic or obscene material,” arguing that parents have a right to be concerned. photo credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Matt Krause, chair of the Texas House's General Investigating Committee, created a list and in a letter to the Texas Education Agency's deputy commissioner of school programs and school superintendents, encouraged them to keep an eye out for any books that might generate “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of [a student’s] race or sex.” New Kid  by Jerry Craft is one of the 850 books on Matt Krause's list In response , a group of librarians started the grassroots initiative, #F...