Fancy Shit!

#Blackout for Minneapolis. For Louisville. For Toronto. For Brooklyn. #Blackout for Us All.

To the #Blackout Community and Tumblr at large, 

We know you must have a lot of questions or are feeling distressed about the news. The world has been dealing with a lot this year, and it is an especially harrowing time for Black Americans and Black folks abroad. We know your biggest question right now could be summed up by a quote from Toni Morrison:

“What can I do where I am?”

Here at #TheBlackout, we have decided to help you start finding an answer to that question - we feel that we need each other. We need unity, organization, a clear sense of direction, but more importantly, a space where you can be yourself without judgement or fear.

So, in addition to boosting your art and businesses, our highest priority right now is to provide you all with resources to help you start from where you are.

This is a masterpost of places you can donate, find mental health + spaces for radical self-care, and just do something fun. We will be adding on as things change. 

Donate/Boost/Sign:

Minneapolis Freedom Bail Fund  & Louisville Community Bail Fund 

Reclaim the Block

Black Visions Collective

The Official GoFundMe of George Floyd’s Family

Official Petition for Breonna Taylor 

Justice for Regis Official Fund

Tony McDade’s Memorial Fund

Black Lives Matter Network

Mental Health Resources:

Ethel’s Club - Black-owned and operated social club offering access to Black therapists and a multitude of creative events for People of Color. 

Crisis Text Line - A different approach to crisis intervention, Crisis Text Line offers you help when you text 741-741. You’ll be able to chat with someone who is willing to listen and provide you with additional resources.

Shine Text. – Black-owned! Sign up to receive cheerful texts and tips every day. 

Therapy For Black Girls - A Black-owned a directory to help you find Black therapists in your area. 

Tips for Organizing/Protesting:

Knowing your rights - ACLU

How To Prepare for a Protest. (Remember to wear a mask in or to protect yourself!)

A Twitter thread of suggested readings

Fun Online Communities and Things to Do:

Some of our favorite online communities. 

Nerd Culture: @blacknerdproblems, @superheroesincolor

Poetry and Literary Spaces: Cave Canem Literary Balms program for Black poets,  Nuyorician Online Open Mic Events, Well-Read Black Girl

Podcasts: Therapy For Black Girls, Strong Black Legends by Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, The Read with Crissle and Kid Fury.

Hobbies: #BlackBirdersWeek by BlackAFinSTEM (5/31 - 6/8), Wellness Week by Black Girl Gamers. 

Join us for the 5/31 Emergency #Blackout/#BlackoutDay here on Tumblr and Twitter. 

"Parking Lot Pimpin| On the Wrongful Conviction of Julius Jones This Friday we get into the wrongful conviction of Julius Jones, a Black man who has been on death row in Oklahoma for 19 years for a 1999 murder that he’s always denied taking part in. Julius will be wrongfully be put to death in SIX DAYS if we don’t take action now. 🚨 Reach out to the Governor’s office at 405-521-2342 and urge Governor Stitt to stand by the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board and grant Julius Jones clemency. Time is of the essence. What you can say or speak from the heart: I would like to urge Governor Stitt to stand by his own word to follow the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board and grant Julis Jones clemency. Please save Julius from wrongful execution. RT @so.informed - Let’s also discuss how the judge is literally messing over the Kyle Ritttendon trial. His overly chatty disposition can lead directly to an appeal if Kyle is in fact found Guilty." - @lyneezy

TAKE ACTION NOW:

➡️ Call the Oklahoma City Governor’s office at 405-521-2342 and urge Governor Stitt to stand by the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board and grant Julius Jones clemency

➡️ Sign this petition Justice for Julius petition

➡️ Complete this form to send an e-letter to the Pardon & Parole Board.

Truth or Dare? We asked AleXa to perform some fun dares and answer questions ahead of the release of her first-ever ballad digital single, Never Let You Go! 

Check out our full, exclusive Truth or Dare video above 🦾

Reblogs, likes, replies, @mentions—these interactions already show up on your desktop activity screen. You knew that. What you might not already know is that you can now filter different activity types on mobile.

Want to see @ mentions, replies, or reblogs separately on the go? Simply tap “All Activity” in the app, and pick from the drop-down menu that appears. Want to see how folks are interacting with your post about frogs in the kitchen? It’s all here—choose the “Custom” option and tailor your activity screen to suit your lifestyle. That’s really all there is to it. ✨

Artist of the Month: BENEE

Tumblr's Artist of the Month for March is indie-pop sensation BENEE. Her new EP Lychee is out now so check it out here!

Stay tuned for content all month long on @music and be sure to follow @benee-music. ✌️

Tumblr In The Wild

Have you ever seen a meme floating around somewhere in the great beyond—your family group chat, your friend’s Instagram story—and you’ve thought quietly to yourself, I saw that on Tumblr first, ha! Or maybe you even said it out loud. And then everyone looked at you funny. 

Well, this is a post about those special moments: seeing Tumblr in the wild, when a meme or trend or really good post breaches containment like a particularly powerful cryptid. 

First and foremost, in 2021, there was gaslight gatekeep girlboss, a meme that sprouted in Tumblr’s native soil early in the year. Following its spread to Twitter, it took the whole internet by storm until it became part of everyone’s standard vocabulary. 

Then there was the whole #2014tumblr phenomenon on TikTok, which continues to be a Whole Thing. Basically, people are obsessing over the historical aesthetic of this very website. From a mere seven years ago. Which has been WILD to see for all the people on Tumblr who were around to invent it.

In 2020, iconic Tumblr account @thatsbelievable, a compendium of Victorian-aesthetic jokes with a modern twist, had a successful post in the form of The Best Gorilla Joke of 1897. But when it went viral on Twitter in 2021, people uninitiated in Tumblr vibes believed it really was from 1897, and others had to jump in to clarify. 

We all had a good laugh at the Tumblr post about “vertically oriented igneous intrusion,” but many of you took a non-zero amount of offense at an aggregator website kicking off their reporting on the meme with the sentence, “Tumblr’s no longer popular, but that won’t stop content from spreading on other platforms.” Because come on! 

On Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, there are a bunch of accounts devoted to reposting Tumblr screenshots, the most impressive being @exaltiora’s Twitter thread which runs to over 11,000 continuous screenshots of Tumblr posts! But as a Tumblr user so winningly put it, this is akin to selling bootleg tickets to the clown carnival. 

Finally, to cap off the year, we had the feminine urge meme. Like gaslight gatekeep girlboss, this one began on Tumblr and then flooded the channels on many other platforms. But WE know that a meme this good could only have come from one place: right here. In other words: do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. I was on Tumblr when it was posted.

Explore the bold Women’s SS21 Collection.

Leaving this right here. The creativity of humans never cease to amaze me.

Art gives pleasure and naively tries to outwit death. Illustration Artist Karen Katar.

Agave Parryi, Sedona, Arizona, USA [2268x4032] [OC] - Author: wallerhilliard on reddit

If the @theshitpostcalligrapher says it’s the meme of the year, it must be true. Tumblr doing Tumblr

req’d by @lucellion

meme of the year i’d say