Caleb Ward

@calebw

The Unflinching Philosophy of Audre Lorde, coming soon! Postdoc at Uni Hamburg Photo from 1999 Life is impermanent and so are reposts.

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Caleb Ward@calebw· 4d

Visiting family and have to say I’m fascinated with my dad‘s whole scene.

Man in his 70‘s at work in a photo office with matted prints strewn about and way too many guitars

Caleb Ward@calebw· 6d

An artifact from 8th grade found in my parents’ attic

Decorated composition book cover with pictures of middle school Caleb and one of Britney Spears

Caleb Ward@calebw· 15d

I helped write some names on the sidewalk the other day. Too many names

List of names of the 68 people directly killed in encounters with ICE since January 2025, written in chalk on a sidewalk in Northampton, MA

Caleb Ward@calebw· 15d

Betye Saar was a visionary artist and human being. This 1966 piece is called The Phrenologer's Window, and I can't stop thinking about it. She will be missed

Betye Saar in her Laural Canyon studio, 1975. Photo by Richard W. Saar.

Betye Saar - The Phrenologer's Window II (1966)

Caleb Ward@calebw· 21d

I yearn for a world where US protests were covered by news media the way the Italian press is covering this 🥹 No “protests turned violent”. No “clashes between protesters and police”. Just telling it like it is: people protesting within their rights, and police attacking them for doing so.

From Deutsche Welle:

Protests in central Bologna

On Monday, a demonstration was held in Bologna's famous Piazza del Nettuno. Italian news agency ANSA reported that some protestors chanted anti-police slogans and one threw a firecracker, but that demonstrators were largely peaceful.

ANSA added police responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Caleb Ward@calebw· 22d

I just read this nonideal agency conference CFP and my eyes narrowed like, “wait, who’s organizing this mysterious event directly in my area?” Then I saw the list of speakers and I’m one of them 🤦🏻‍♂️ Anyway, it’s very exciting so submit and come hang with me and @quillkukla.bsky.social at Graz!

CfP: Rethinking Agency under Non-Ideal
Conditions
The notion of agency plays a central role across many areas of philosophy, including philosophy of action, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, feminist philosophy, and phenomenology. While traditionally conceptualized in terms of intentional action, rational control, and autonomy, our understanding of agency has recently come under intense scrutiny and is now being increasingly transformed. Feminist and phenomenological approaches, in particular, have emphasized the need for a richer and more fine-grained conception of agency-one that takes seriously the social, historical, and relational contexts in which agents are situated.
From this perspective, agency cannot be adequately understood without acknowledging that agents are not only rational decision-makers, but also emotional, embodied, desiring, creative, and affective beings.

Confirmed speakers: Maria Alvarez, Havi Carel, Hanne Jacobs, Quill Kukla, Kristina Musholt and Caleb Ward.
The conference will take place at the University of Graz, March 3-5 2027.
We invite you to submit an anonymized abstract of up to 500 words by October 31, 2026 to laurentia.adam@uni-graz.at
Please include a separate file with your name, email address, the title of your talk, and your affiliation (if any) and put 'Rethinking Agency Graz 2027' in the subject line.
Organizing Team: Emanuela Carta, Denis Dzanic and Daniel Neumann.

Caleb Ward@calebw· 23d

This sicko just went to the neighbor’s garden and picked another 5 or 6 lbs

A couple metal bowls full of high bush blueberries

Caleb Ward@calebw· 23d

Went out and picked 25 lbs of blueberries yesterday 💅

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jul 2

I wish she went more into detail about her problems with that book, but pretty sure she’s thinking of it when she writes this in “Age, Race, Class and Sex” a few years later

From Sister Outsider:

Thus, in a patriarchal power system where whiteskin privilege is a major prop, the entrapments used to neutralize Black women and white women are not the same. For example, it is easy for Black women to be used by the power structure against Black men, not because they are men, but because they are Black. Therefore, for Black women, it is necessary at all times to separate the needs of the oppressor from our own legitimate conflicts within our communities. This same problem does not exist for white women. Black women and men have shared racist oppression and still share it, although in different ways.

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 30

Citation: unused interview for Peter Adair’s 1977 film Word Is Out, which exists as video recording and transcript in the San Francisco Public Library. All love to archivists and librarians there and everywhere🦉

AUDRE DORDDE
P3#
mean coming out as a black woman who is determined to make her own way? Do you mean coming out assa poet who knows that she must write or die? Do
coming out as a woman who
loves woren and feels she has a right to. Coming out as a woman who loves women and who also wants to have children?
Coming out, I don't know. I have been at war as long as I can remember. It has made me tough, but it has also made me weary
Do
I, am I speaking to what you're akking?

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 30

Lorde refuses the goal of public acceptance or entry into a straight American mainstream. She's a Black lesbian, a woman, a mother—her goal is to win what she calls a “war of survival” for all aspects of herself & for future generations: "seeking a now that can breed futures"🌱 Anyways, happy Pride

Audre Lorde at the podium raising her fist at the closing remarks of the I Am Your Sister conference in her honor, 1990. Photograph by Jennifer Abod.

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 30

🏳️‍🌈 Pride for what? An interviewer for one of the first LGBT rights documentaries in 1976 asked Audre Lorde to tell her coming out story. She detonated the question from the inside:

So, when you speak of coming out, do you mean coming out as a Black woman who is determined to make her own way? Do you mean coming out as a poet who knows that she must write or die? Do you mean coming out as a woman who loves women and feels she has a right to? Coming out as a woman who loves women and who also wants to have children? Coming out—I don’t know. I have been at war as long as I can remember.

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 30

"If I could make one true, quiet photograph, I would much prefer it to having a lot of answers." (Consuelo Kanaga)

Consuelo Kanaga, Frances with a Flower, early 1930s.

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 29

Seems like shit is very bad out there, but I just bought 2 kilos of cherries for ten bucks so AMA

Fruit from the grocery store including ridiculous amounts of cherries and amazing tomatoes

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 24

🌻🌻🌻🌻

To: Caleb, Peter >
RE: Audre Lorde Manuscript
Submission
Hi Caleb,
Congratulations on submitting the final manuscript!
Everything appears to be in good shape. (Thanks for the well-organized submission.)

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 23

I played a gig last weekend for the first time in years and years. My kids came. It was fun. 🎈

Me in the sun in a light blue nerdy philosophy hat with a black tenor sax and a child with his arm around my shoulders. Red rooftop bar in the background

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 20

This is what drove Frederick Douglass to break with Garrisonian abolitionism, which tried to use him as evidence to convince white audiences of the horrors of slavery. Instead he insisted Black ppl must address audiences on their own terms and demand recognition of their rightful agency.

From Philip Yaure, "Two Varieties of White Ignorance":

Through much of the 1840s, Douglass worked with Garrison to give lectures across the U.S. that sought to persuade the public to endorse the anti-slavery cause. Douglass, at these events, was meant to provide a narrative of his experiences as a slave as part of the Garrisonians’ anti-slavery argument. But, Douglass recounts in Bondage, his role among the Garrisonians was severely circumscribed. Douglass was “generally introduced as a ‘chattel’— a ‘thing’— a piece of southern ‘property’— the chairman assuring the audience that it could speak” (220, emphasis his). This objectification, Douglass argues, was driven by the apparent need to persuade his audiences that before them stood an authentic escaped slave telling his story. To this end, Douglass is instructed by one of the Garrisonians to “Give us the facts… we will take care of the philosophy” (220). The Garrisonians fear that Douglass’s philosophical acumen— his ability to exercise judgment in response to injustice of slavery— would undermine the audience’s belief that he was in fact a formerly escaped slave telling his own story. The division of political labor the Garrisonians demarcated between Black and white abolitionists—between supplying the narrative and making the argument— reduced Douglass to a mere body of testimony, a perspective for white audiences to inhabit and make political judgments on the basis of.

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 19

There are infinite faces freedom wears. The Blackened Alphabet by Nikky Finney👇

The Blackened Alphabet
By Nikky Finney

While others sleep
My black skillet sizzles
Alphabets dance and I hit the return key On my tired But ever jumping eyes
I want more I hold out for some more
While others just now turn over shut down alarms
I am on l am on I am pencilfrying sweet Black alphabets
In an allnight oil

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 19

Excellent feminist philosophy gesticulating going on when these two philosophical powerhouses came together in Frankfurt this week. Lovely to get to sit in and talk anti-oppression philosophical methods with @serenekhader.bsky.social and @manongarcia.bsky.social 🖤

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 18

We are all trying to find the guy who did this jpg

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 18

These 19 poems form the poetic fingerprint of my reading of Audre Lorde. Her poems profoundly deepen understanding her essays, and some insights are only dealt with here. And yes, this means I've gotten all publisher permissions now, and the book is ready to go into production 🎈

PRINT/ELECTRONIC PERMISSIONS AGREEMENT
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (hereinafter called the "grantor") grants the undersigned (hereinafter called the "applicant") nonexclusive license to use the following material (hereinafter called "the selection"):
Title: UNDERSONG: Chosen Poems Old and New by Audre Lorde
14 lines from "Dear Toni..." -- EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
13 lines from "Prologue" -- EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
4 lines from "Hard Love Rock II" -- EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
20 lines from "Sacrifice" -- EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
13 lines from "Za Ki Tan Ke Parlay Lot" -- EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
Territory: World
CREDIT LINE: "Dear Toni...". Copyright © 1973 by Audre Lorde, "Prologue". Copyright © 1973 by Audre Lorde,
"Hard Love Rock II". Copyright © 1976 by Audre Lorde, "Sacrifice". Copyright © 1974 by Audre Lorde, "Za Ki Tan
Ke Parlay Lot". Copyright © 1982 by Audre Lorde, from UNDERSONG: Chosen Poems Old and New by Audre
Lorde. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Title: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF AUDRE LORDE by Audre Lorde
16 lines from "Between Ourselves" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
18 lines from "Conclusion" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
7 lines from "A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
15 lines from "Generation" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
4 lines from "On A Night of the Full Moon" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
5 lines from "Sequelae" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
27 lines from "A Litany for Survival" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
18 lines from "Timing" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
7 lines from "Sister Outsider" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
11 lines from "Power" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
20 lines from "Sisters in Arms" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
19 lines from "Equal Opportunity" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
There Are No Honest Poems about Dead Women (full poem) EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
15 lines from "Party Time" EDITION: Print/Ebook/Audio
Territory: World

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 17

The Audre Lorde-ification of Habermas memorialization? 🤔🤔 (Translation: “nobody is really free until everyone is”) The quote is actually originally from Fannie Lou Hamer, but apparently Habermas said this too at one of his final lectures in Frankfurt.

“Dass niemand wirklich frei ist, bevor es nicht alle sind."
NORMATIVE ORDERS
rorschungso rat der bocche-Utiven at trandurt an Kain
GOETHE EI
Suhrkamp
UNIVERSITA
International
Symposium in Memory of Jürgen Haberma:
KEYNOTE BY
Axel Honneth
WITH
Seyla Benhabib | Hauke Bri Simone Chambers | Peter C Vera King | Michael Zürn
ORGANIZED BY
Rainer Forst | Klaus Günthe
Peter Niesen
19.06.2025 15:00 - 20:15 Uhr
Goethe-Universität | Camp
Hörsaalzentrum - HZ 2 und Livestream auf YouTub
Weitere Informationen:
normativeorders.net

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 14

Tracking the fount of all good bagels

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 9

moon, bird, telecommunications

Rooftop and balcony in Bologna with a bird crossing the sky. Crescent moon visible behind chimney and antennae

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 8

I have a somewhat related example in my “Hot for Revolution” paper 🤦🏻‍♂️

justifications such as ideals of freedom or so-called sexual liberation. Judy Greenway describes an experience familiar to generations of leftist women when she recalls, "One night in the 1960s at a party, I was trapped against a wall by a drunken member of my local anarchist group. As I pushed him off me, he said bitterly, 'Call yourself an anarchist?'' (1997, 170). In Lorde's words,
"The old patterns, no matter how cleverly rearranged to imitate progress, still condemn us to cosmetically altered repetitions of the same old exchanges" (1984, 123).

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 4

For people interested in the neoliberal dysfunctionality of the "excellence" model for funding higher ed in Europe, read this from the academic staff council at my university. My university is "excellent" but broke (with downstream effect that ppl like me have no jobs)

Excellent But Broke? – The Hamburg Excellence Paradox
Without the commitment of staff across the breadth of research, teaching and administration, the University of Hamburg’s remarkable successes in the Excellence Initiative would have been inconceivable. Yet in the current financial crisis, the running costs of these university structures are proving to be its undoing.
Can the excellence funds now be used to maintain university structures? No, because they are strictly tied to the agreed research purposes and may not be used for anything else, certainly not to plug budget gaps.
The funding of university structures must be covered solely from the so-called global budget: the University receives a fixed annual sum from the State of Hamburg and must use this to cover all costs for funded posts, building rents, energy, licences, IT infrastructure, etc. In the event of unexpected cost increases, the university had previously been permitted to build up reserves. However, a few years ago, the Hamburg state government asked the university to use up all its reserves and not to build up any new ones. What a pity! For it was precisely during this period that those toxic political developments occurred which contributed significantly to the well-known enormous cost increases and tore a hole in the university’s budget, the deepest chasms of which are estimated at 30%, whilst it is hoped that on average it will not exceed 10–20%. But even so: a University of Hamburg reduced by 10–20% with immediate effect – how is that supposed to work?

Caleb Ward@calebw· Jun 3

Audre Lorde has some powerful poems grappling with failures of her white husband to really *get it* about what survival meant for her & for their Black children—to be part of their solution, not their problem. audrelordetraducida.blogspot.com/2019/01/conc...

I believe in love as I believe in our children
but I was born Black and without illusion
and my vision
which differs from yours
is clear
although sometimes restricted.

I have watched you at midnight
moving through casual sleep
wishing I could afford the nondesperate dreams
that stir you to wither and fade
into partial solutions.

Caleb Ward@calebw· May 27

Monday in B-Flat
I can pray
all day
& God
wont come.

But if I call
911
The Devil
Be here

in a minute!

(Amiri Baraka)

Caleb Ward@calebw· May 27

Cactus says it's doing its work, are you doing yours? 27 days👇

May 25 cactus paddle been eating its Wheaties

Caleb Ward@calebw· May 24

Most hilarious version of the fake invitation phishing scam yet