Diana Cao's Avatar

Diana Cao

@dianacao

poet/lawyer. she/they.

223
Followers
285
Following
9
Posts
23.09.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Diana Cao @dianacao

It has been hard to breathe under the weight of despair about the genocide in Gaza and my complicity as a citizen and taxpayer in the USA. I gave, and hope others will, also.

26.07.2025 12:23 πŸ‘ 168 πŸ” 41 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4
Preview
Joyelle McSweeney on Alice Notley (The Descent of Alette) Close Readings Β· Episode

You can also find my conversation with Joyelle and Notley’s Descent of Alette on Spotifyβ€”do listen, and share! open.spotify.com/episode/01Dj...

11.06.2025 15:30 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
International student at Tufts University reportedly taken into federal custody – Boston 25 News Tufts said they were told the student’s visa had been terminated.

columbia, brown, georgetown, cornell and now tufts β€” they’re taking our students, our colleagues, our kin
https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/international-student-tufts-university-reportedly-taken-into-federal-custody/2VK55QMAOZFIDBR2A6XNKC5XOU/?outputType=amp

26.03.2025 12:15 πŸ‘ 240 πŸ” 125 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 5
Post image

It is a sad day for the legal industry. Paul Weiss, didn't just bend a knee, it set a new standard for shameful capitulation. This is a stain on the firm, every one of its partners, and the entire legal profession.

20.03.2025 23:25 πŸ‘ 34477 πŸ” 10407 πŸ’¬ 2728 πŸ“Œ 1026
Preview
Denmark and Finland urge caution for US-bound transgender people Travel advice updated amid reports of ordeals at US border after Trump said country would only recognise two genders

Finland and Denmark have issued official warnings to their trans citizens from traveling to the US. This follows Germany issuing a similar warning.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

21.03.2025 20:39 πŸ‘ 1414 πŸ” 389 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 23
Preview
Trump β€˜Won’t Forget’ the Roberts Court Helped Him Winβ€”Neither Should We | Common Dreams As people harmed by this flood of illegal actions turn to the courts for relief, we must be clear that the Supreme Court helped bring about this crisis by helping Donald Trump win the 2024 election.

β€œAs we look to the courts to protect us from the Trump administration’s abuses, many have overlooked or forgotten how SCOTUS got us here in the first place.”

@mollycoleman.bsky.social on how we got to this moment
@commondreams.org.web.brid.gy

19.03.2025 15:15 πŸ‘ 34 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
Press release dated March 17, 2025, from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The release states that Acting Chair Andrea Lucas sent letters to 20 law firms requesting information on their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employment practices. The letters express concerns that some DEI-related employment policies may involve unlawful disparate treatment or discrimination based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics, potentially violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lucas emphasizes the EEOC’s commitment to addressing discrimination, including in elite law firms."

Press release dated March 17, 2025, from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The release states that Acting Chair Andrea Lucas sent letters to 20 law firms requesting information on their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employment practices. The letters express concerns that some DEI-related employment policies may involve unlawful disparate treatment or discrimination based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics, potentially violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lucas emphasizes the EEOC’s commitment to addressing discrimination, including in elite law firms."

A list of 20 law firms that received letters from Acting Chair Lucas. The firms listed include A & O Shearman, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Cooley LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP, Hogan Lovells LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, McDermott Will & Emery, Milbank LLP, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Perkins Coie, Reed Smith, Ropes & Gray LLP, Sidley Austin LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, White & Case LLP, and WilmerHale."

A list of 20 law firms that received letters from Acting Chair Lucas. The firms listed include A & O Shearman, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Cooley LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP, Hogan Lovells LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, McDermott Will & Emery, Milbank LLP, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Perkins Coie, Reed Smith, Ropes & Gray LLP, Sidley Austin LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, White & Case LLP, and WilmerHale."

The EEOC has launched investigations into 20 Big Law firms for the bs reason of supposedly having DEI. This is clear retaliation for these firms bringing lawsuits against the Trump administration's unconstitutional actions.

content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USE...

17.03.2025 22:30 πŸ‘ 554 πŸ” 171 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 11
Preview
Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions over Dakota pipeline protests, says jury Non-profit said in statement lawsuits like this aimed at β€˜destroying the right to peaceful protest’

Fossil fuel companies should be forced to pay the public trillions in damages for the costs of their planetary arson. Instead they are trying to shut down one of the most important and storied environmental groups in the world. It's shameless - and it's not over. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

19.03.2025 21:10 πŸ‘ 2125 πŸ” 915 πŸ’¬ 34 πŸ“Œ 54
Post image

I love this quiet little poem so much:

16.03.2025 17:17 πŸ‘ 101 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 0
The cover of donika kelly's poetry collection The Natural Order of Things. Open and translucent cicada wings on the left side of a white background with the title and author name toward the right.

The cover of donika kelly's poetry collection The Natural Order of Things. Open and translucent cicada wings on the left side of a white background with the title and author name toward the right.

My new book THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS comes out October 7 and is available for pre-order! If you order from @prairielights.com I'll sign your copy! www.prairielightsbooks.com/book/9781644...
@graywolfpress.bsky.social

14.03.2025 15:44 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
The Reason
 

Branches partition the sky
each night I set shadows skittering 
their small bodies in the under
brush and above me one brilliant eye
regards me no no many eyes regard me else
why skitter I’m the reason 
for their flight from the groomed hedge             
               I never get a moment alone
 
Headlights tremble because they
are hiding the humans hurtling
by in their machines there is sometimes
a baby in the machine capable of
nothing except its next meal biting
the cheek of the preferred mother but
any wire monkey could do
           	Let's be "ourselves" right up to the end
 
I was circling the block pretending
we were a tragedy and then we were
so something out there must be listening
it's embarrassing to be caught pretending
but from where I stand Star Market is brighter
than both the moon and the sun rising now
ushering another sane day well time’s healing 
              	Is that yesterday's rain

The Reason Branches partition the sky each night I set shadows skittering their small bodies in the under brush and above me one brilliant eye regards me no no many eyes regard me else why skitter I’m the reason for their flight from the groomed hedge I never get a moment alone Headlights tremble because they are hiding the humans hurtling by in their machines there is sometimes a baby in the machine capable of nothing except its next meal biting the cheek of the preferred mother but any wire monkey could do Let's be "ourselves" right up to the end I was circling the block pretending we were a tragedy and then we were so something out there must be listening it's embarrassing to be caught pretending but from where I stand Star Market is brighter than both the moon and the sun rising now ushering another sane day well time’s healing Is that yesterday's rain

new poems in @diodeeditions.bsky.social today, including a new sonnet crown written during residency @justbuffalolit.bsky.social πŸ€πŸŒ•

diodepoetry.com/cao_diana-2/

14.03.2025 16:25 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Keith S. Wilson has a bunch!

www.thegeorgiareview.com/posts/spell-...

www.barahmpress.com/folio/wilson

04.03.2025 21:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Season 2 of β€˜This Land’ Uncovers Rightwing Efforts to Dismantle the Indian Child Welfare Act LOS ANGELES β€” The second season of the award-winning β€œThis Land” podcast, hosted by Native American journalist Rebecca Nagle , returns today.

yes! I ran the reporting & production team for this project: nativenewsonline.net/currents/sea...

Always seemed to me to go hand in hand with their work against Indigenous protest too in a very sick and twisted way. Limited characters to describe their limitless evil πŸ™ƒ

04.02.2025 16:32 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

!!! yes! we were assigned that season of this land in law schoolβ€”so good and so infuriating

04.02.2025 16:38 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

"every day i prove my humanity to robots"

Refractory Period & the algorithm moves toward an average by Diana Cao.

dialogist.org/poetry/2025-...

02.02.2025 05:23 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Diana Cao: "Sometimes you have to be still and suffer," A poem by Diana Cao: "my teacher says about writing, but I"

(for a recording! yalereview.org/article/dian...)

02.02.2025 20:59 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Sometimes you have to be still and suffer,
my teacher says about writing, but I 
have an active suffering that calls me
to run after it. Keep up, says the feed 
of bad news. It's dangerous to see others


as an abstraction. I don't need to hate anyone
as an abstraction because I have my motherβ€”I hate
my mother. She who keeps stealing the car keys 
is very real. I see her; I know Terror. What does it mean


that I know just where to find a sugar baby but not
a nice companion for my Terror? What does it say 
about me that I'd rather be a sugar baby than a nice 
companion for my mother? I don't actually 

know if that's true. But when I'm in a car chasing 
my mother down I-95, wind slicing through the papers
in the backseat, I'm not thinking about writing,
or about suffering, even if that's what this is.

Sometimes you have to be still and suffer, my teacher says about writing, but I have an active suffering that calls me to run after it. Keep up, says the feed of bad news. It's dangerous to see others as an abstraction. I don't need to hate anyone as an abstraction because I have my motherβ€”I hate my mother. She who keeps stealing the car keys is very real. I see her; I know Terror. What does it mean that I know just where to find a sugar baby but not a nice companion for my Terror? What does it say about me that I'd rather be a sugar baby than a nice companion for my mother? I don't actually know if that's true. But when I'm in a car chasing my mother down I-95, wind slicing through the papers in the backseat, I'm not thinking about writing, or about suffering, even if that's what this is.

new poemβ€”thank you @yalereview.bsky.social

02.02.2025 20:58 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Know your rights - MIRA Coalition Whether you’re a U.S. citizen, a green card holder, a student on a visa, or undocumented, you have legal rights. … More

Hey! If you have access to a printer, a thing you could do is print up some of these Know Your Rights flyers and cards (in languages spoken in your area) and post them around your neighborhood. miracoalition.org/news/know-yo...

02.02.2025 18:26 πŸ‘ 219 πŸ” 94 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 3
Closed Gentian Distances


A nothing day full of
wild beauty and the
timer pings.  Roll up
the silver off the bay
take down the clouds
sort the spruce and
send to laundry marked
more starch.  Goodbye
golden- and silver-
rod, asters, bayberry
crisp in elegance.
Little fish stream
by, a river in water.

1969

Closed Gentian Distances A nothing day full of wild beauty and the timer pings. Roll up the silver off the bay take down the clouds sort the spruce and send to laundry marked more starch. Goodbye golden- and silver- rod, asters, bayberry crisp in elegance. Little fish stream by, a river in water. 1969

happy #smallpoemsunday! πŸ’œ

feel free to participate by posting small poems you wrote, +/or small poems you love by somebody else :)

a special one today, one of my favorite small poems of all time by James Schuyler:

26.01.2025 15:22 πŸ‘ 115 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 0

i loved working with this team before law schoolβ€”learned so much from them and from the work

28.01.2025 14:29 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
SCOTUS Declines To Review Mississippi’s Jim Crow-Era Felony Disenfranchisement Law Read more here.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case challenging Mississippi’s lifetime ban on voting for individuals with certain felony convictions, which the state enshrined in its 1890 constitution with the express purpose of denying Black men the right to vote.

27.01.2025 17:46 πŸ‘ 8727 πŸ” 3274 πŸ’¬ 572 πŸ“Œ 243

As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/

27.01.2025 14:12 πŸ‘ 6164 πŸ” 2360 πŸ’¬ 211 πŸ“Œ 722
Post image

Let me get this straight. Petro calls for dignified transit. Trump threatens tariffs. Petro smacks Trump in a post threatening his own higher tariffs. And Trump agrees to what Petro asked for. And yet NYT is calling this *Petro* backing down?

27.01.2025 06:29 πŸ‘ 3909 πŸ” 1146 πŸ’¬ 130 πŸ“Œ 190
the algorithm moves toward an average


every day i prove my humanity to robots
every day i check my accounts
i listen to the children outside my window
                                         and am a child again 
                                         listening to the other children
                                         outside the window
i felt from that experience then: i am one
of the species but not one with 
every one feels this       unraveling
every one of us gets closer to

the algorithm moves toward an average every day i prove my humanity to robots every day i check my accounts i listen to the children outside my window and am a child again listening to the other children outside the window i felt from that experience then: i am one of the species but not one with every one feels this unraveling every one of us gets closer to

πŸ‘Ύ

24.01.2025 21:59 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Refractory Period
 

I listen to a robot pronounce coitus
in three accents, to prepare for
a class on the history of marriage. 
Nothing kills the mood faster 

than terminology. What's on your mind?
M asks me after. Sometimes
it's tedious to be a social 
animal. A class on the laws of 

marriage is a class on the story of 
disgust, which I learn is sometimes 
justified and sometimes not. Which 
is this? I tell M I'm thinking of mnemonic 
 
arbitrage. It's not romantic but 
it's more romantic than saying 
that sex with M has reminded me 
of sex: clicking teeth, smooth 
 
obstruction, fingers catchingβ€”
what. Has my body been this strange 
before? I could guess what we might do 
to one another. When I want to transform 

distance into tenderness, I imagine my subject 
listening for their name in classroom attendance.
I can hear them calling present. Which reminds me
of the nostalgia in old photographs
 
of legendary despots: still boys and already 
the world we might have known is gone.

Refractory Period I listen to a robot pronounce coitus in three accents, to prepare for a class on the history of marriage. Nothing kills the mood faster than terminology. What's on your mind? M asks me after. Sometimes it's tedious to be a social animal. A class on the laws of marriage is a class on the story of disgust, which I learn is sometimes justified and sometimes not. Which is this? I tell M I'm thinking of mnemonic arbitrage. It's not romantic but it's more romantic than saying that sex with M has reminded me of sex: clicking teeth, smooth obstruction, fingers catchingβ€” what. Has my body been this strange before? I could guess what we might do to one another. When I want to transform distance into tenderness, I imagine my subject listening for their name in classroom attendance. I can hear them calling present. Which reminds me of the nostalgia in old photographs of legendary despots: still boys and already the world we might have known is gone.

thanks to @dialogist.bsky.social for my first two poems of the yearβ€”both, sort of, about robots

(dialogist.org β€” also worth reading all their previous weeks' poems)

24.01.2025 21:57 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Mr. Trump’s executive order indicates that in 30 days, all federal agencies will be required to confirm the immigration status of the parents before issuing documents like a passport.

Mr. Trump’s executive order indicates that in 30 days, all federal agencies will be required to confirm the immigration status of the parents before issuing documents like a passport.

If you are a visa holder/temp resident in the U.S., and your child was born here and doesn't have a passport, GET A PASSPORT FOR THEM IMMEDIATELY. Like, make the appointment this week.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/u...

22.01.2025 17:49 πŸ‘ 2601 πŸ” 1518 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 65

As we see these images of people crying at the border after the asylum system shut down, it is again worth considering how indescribably desperate a person must feel to travel with their children through the desert, across the water, or through the Darien Gap simply for the *possibility* of safety.

21.01.2025 22:06 πŸ‘ 829 πŸ” 189 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 5
One Day After Trump Takes Office, Harvard Settles Two Antisemitism Lawsuits | News | The Harvard Crimson Harvard reached a settlement in two ongoing Title VI lawsuits accusing the university of mishandling antisemitism on campus for an undisclosed amount on Tuesday.

Harvard will now characterize criticism of Israel as antisemitism in its anti-discrimination policy. Entire disciplines could be censored for discussing or teaching about the genocide in Gaza.

A dark day for academic freedom.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

21.01.2025 21:54 πŸ‘ 1243 πŸ” 391 πŸ’¬ 17 πŸ“Œ 30