Sonya Soni

@Kwelijournal Fellow | @TheMoCADA @aaartsalliance Bandung Resident | Freedom Dreamer, Community Organizer, Writer | Enamored by poetry & decolonized dreams 🇵🇸

[Sonya Soni @sonyasoni]

My great-grandmother was a freedom fighter in India, jailed by British officers for confronting their empire. Thank you @harikunzru for voicing so much of what we the descendants of colonialism feel: "I reject its mythology of benevolence & enlightenment"
https://t.co/55rGLX5m9b

[Josie Stratman @JosieStratman]

Mayor Mamdani tells graduates at Rikers Island “there will always be a place for you in NYC.”

“If today is proof of anything, it is that you have the power to move your life forward, even when everything feels like it is pulling you backwards.”

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

On fashion’s big night out, we turned the lens onto the garment, retail, warehouse, and delivery workers who make the fashion industry possible.

Read the full piece: https://t.co/XewKoacIIi

[Josie Stratman @JosieStratman]

Mayor Mamdani, pressed on what he would say to King Charles if they talk later:

“If I was to speak to the king… I would probably encourage him to return the Kohinoor diamond,” Mamdani says, referring to the gem in the British Crown Jewels, which taken from India.

[Peter Sterne @petersterne]

Read @OsseChi's op-ed on the need to stop deed theft and enact a temporary eviction moratorium to prevent Black families from having their homes stolen: https://t.co/1WNMielt9u

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Vaisakhi ate Khalsa Sajna Divas diyaan lakh lakh vadhiyaan to the Sikh New Yorkers who call this city home!

Marching in the Sikh Day Parade alongside you was one of the great highlights of my time in the Assembly, and returning as Mayor for its 38th year felt especially meaningful.

As we usher in the new year, let us carry forward the call of Guru Gobind Singh Ji to stand up to injustice as we build a city that works for every New Yorker.

Happy Vaisakhi, and may your days be filled with hope and the renewal of spring!

[Chi Ossé @OsseChi]

Council Member Chi Ossé was just arrested while defending his constituent, Carmella Charrington, from eviction. This is the result of deed theft and the ongoing displacement of Black homeowners in Bed-Stuy. Our office is closely monitoring this situation and will provide updates as this develops.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way. The NYPD is conducting a full investigation into this incident.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Zohran Mamdani: “I wish the words of Tupac from the 90’s weren’t still prescient, but they continue to be true for too many which is that we always have money for war and not to feed the poor”

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich.

[Chief Nerd @TheChiefNerd]

🚨 MAMDANI: “The wealth of a median white household in the city is more than $200,000, while that of a black household is less than $20,000 … We are reckoning with the long history of racism here and starting to act upon a framework that puts equity right at the center of it.”

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Today is Trans Day of Visibility.

Trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people have always been here — from the hijra of India to the Diné nádleehi to the leaders who built the modern LGBTQIA+ movement here in New York.

Your existence is not up for debate. Your lives are not a political issue.

We’re fighting for a city where every trans New Yorker can live openly, safely, and with joy.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Bernie Sanders: “To give another 20K bombs to a country which committed genocide in Gaza happens to be among many other things, forget the moral issue, happens to be in violation of American law. You don’t sell arms to countries that violate international law and human rights. Clearly Israel has done that. Why anybody in their right minds would want to continue funding Israel is beyond me”

[Manolo De Los Santos @manolo_realengo]

I landed in Havana today. Trump’s fuel blockade is choking the life out of this city. Havana is near silent, empty streets, empty markets. Not because there’s no food, but because farmers can’t get fuel to deliver it. Trump is trying to starve 11 million people into submission. This is a crime against humanity, unfolding in plain sight. Night falls and the city struggles to keep lights on, in total defiance after 66 years of economic war. The world must stop looking away. Let Cuba live!

[Manolo De Los Santos @manolo_realengo]

Walking Havana’s streets, I have yet to meet a single Cuban who backs Trump’s fuel blockade or believes American bombs will bring freedom. Trump’s extremism, the US blockade tightened into a chokehold has left Cuba gasping. Life is visibly harder: public transport is skeletal, commutes stretch on foot, and the daily hunt for food consumes what little energy remains.

There have been a few protests. A small group of university students demonstrated today, not against the government, but over failures in an online education platform. That is the scale. The rector met them, heard them, resolved it. No police. No crackdown. These moments have become familiar over the past five years.

Make no mistake: this is a war. Trump wages a brutal campaign of asphyxiation and psychological warfare, dressed up as benevolence, a “friendly takeover” that promises a bright future after surrender. But the mood here is defiance. People are tired, yes. Despair, no. Resistance hangs in the air. They will outlast this. They will prevail.

[Linda Mamoun @mamoun_linda]

Over half a million people. Barely a headline.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Lebanese die, Israelis are killed

[Hoops Crave @HoopsCrave]

Bad Bunny on the English language:

“I understand everything you’re saying, I just choose to ignore it in Spanish.”

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Just got off the phone with President Trump.

In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning.

He has just informed me that she will be released imminently.

[AJ+ @ajplus]

As many as 80,000 Israelis travel to vacation in India every year and many of them are ex-soldiers. @tabish_talib explains why that’s problematic:

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Activists in India are protesting PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Israel, saying it goes against the values of a nation that once endured British colonial occupation.