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@iduhouse.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 11:07 PM

🎤 Artist of the Day: Little Simz

A storyteller and lyricist whose words cut through noise, Little Simz turns truth into rhythm. Her music blends vulnerability with confidence, charting a path of self-definition through sound and poetry.

#CreatorsAtWork #Skystorians #MusicSky #BlackSky #Art

Black-and-white close portrait of Little Simz from British Vogue’s December 2023 “Tradition & Revolution” issue, photographed by Tim Walker. Simz wears a pale tailored jacket, small hoop earrings, a chain necklace, dramatic eye makeup, and natural locs sculpted upward into branching, hornlike forms that cast shadows across the plain background. She looks slightly upward past the camera, serious and alert. The hair is not incidental. In the accompanying interview, Simz said she had once hated her natural hair after years of straightening, quiffs, and bad dye jobs, but had reached a point where wearing it made her feel “beautiful and divine feminine.” Vogue described the sculptural tresses as a sign of growing confidence. That shift mirrors the larger arc of her career. Born Simbiatu Ajikawo and raised in Islington by Nigerian parents, she built herself outside the machinery that was supposed to validate her: youth-club performances at St Mary’s, music uploaded to SoundCloud and Bandcamp, and releases through her own Age 101 imprint. By 2023 she had already won the Mercury Prize for Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, a Brit Award, and an Ivor Novello, while acting in Top Boy and expanding into photography and fashion. Yet the portrait resists triumphalism. The expression is watchful; the styling is both armor and self-recognition. Two years later, Lotus would emerge from betrayal, burnout, and a near-decision to quit music, with Simz choosing renewal rather than retreat. By 2025 she was curating Meltdown and being honored as a Cultural Innovator by the British Fashion Council. Seen now, the hair becomes a visual thesis: growth does not require becoming someone else. Simz’s power has increasingly come from occupying every part of herself at once: rapper, actor, photographer, Nigerian-British daughter, introvert, fashion figure, and artist unwilling to surrender control of her own story. It is self-possession rendered not as spectacle, but as a decision to remain whole.Color portrait of Little Simz seated on a wooden chair against a pale studio wall for British Vogue’s December 2023 issue, photographed by Tim Walker and styled by Kate Phelan. She rests her chin on one fist and looks directly at the camera, wearing a fitted brown-and-black Maison Margiela playsuit, bright yellow socks, chunky dark platform shoes, and a green track jacket striped with blue, black, and yellow that slips from one shoulder. Her locs are piled into a high knot, with several falling down the front of her body. The pose is quiet, conversational, but the styling mixes sportswear, tailoring, pattern, and androgyny in the same way Simz’s music refuses one lane. She grew up in north London hearing Nas, Ms Dynamite, garage, grime, neo-soul, funk, Afrobeat, and reggae, then learned early how to make work without much money or industry permission. As a teenager she paid £1 to use St Mary’s Youth Club, where she met collaborators including dancer Kloe Dean and producer Inflo. By 21 she had already released mixtapes, EPs, and a debut album through her own Age 101 label. Independence became aesthetic as well as business practice. In the Vogue interview, Simz described carving a sound rooted in hip-hop but willing to move into alternative spaces, while her stylist Luci Ellis linked her fashion evolution to letting go of boundaries. The clothes in this image make that philosophy visible: feminine and masculine codes, luxury and streetwear, softness and structure coexist without asking to be reconciled. That same refusal would later animate Lotus, where bossa nova, punk, Afrobeat, garage, soul, jazz, and rap all sit inside one emotional world. Simz has said the common denominator is simply being herself. This portrait catches that idea before it became the thesis of another album. She is seated, still, and unshowy, but the image contains a career-long insistence: creative freedom is not about choosing among identities. It is about refusing the demand to choose at all.British Vogue’s December 2023 cover starring Little Simz, photographed by Tim Walker for the magazine’s “Great Britain: Tradition & Revolution” issue. Simz faces the camera in an all-white ensemble: tailored layers by Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, a Polo Ralph Lauren hoodie, an Emma Willis shirt, a hat by Nerida Fraiman, and white boxing gloves raised beneath her chin. The red VOGUE masthead stretches across the top; black cover text reads “Great BRITAIN — TRADITION & REVOLUTION.” Simz smiles slightly from inside the fighter’s stance. The metaphor is unusually literal for an artist whose career was built through persistence. Raised on a north London council estate, she rejected early record deals and released music independently through Age 101, even when critical acclaim outpaced resources. In 2022 she won the Mercury Prize for Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and the Brit Award for Best New Artist, bringing her mother onstage for the latter. A year later British Vogue placed her among six cover stars representing contemporary Britain, alongside Stormzy, Tilda Swinton, Jodie Comer, Olivia Colman, and Kate and Lila Moss. In the accompanying interview, Simz reflected on setbacks, rejection, financial strain, and remaining independent, then ended with the same logic the boxing gloves make visible: what she wants will not come easily, but she is prepared to fight for it. The cover also belongs to Edward Enninful’s final December issue as editor-in-chief, revisiting the “Great Britain” theme of his first issue six years earlier. Simz appears not simply as a rapper invited into fashion, but as part of a changing national portrait: Nigerian-British, self-directed, multidisciplinary, and difficult to categorize. In 2025 the British Fashion Council named her Cultural Innovator, recognizing how far that influence had spread beyond records. The gloves are costume, wit, and biography at once. Simz is dressed in white, but nothing about the image suggests surrender.Cover art for Little Simz’s 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, often shortened to SIMBI, a title that echoes her first name, Simbiatu. Against a mustard-yellow background, Simz crouches low in an orange-and-dark-blue checkerboard suit, glasses on her nose, looking sideways toward the camera. Her locs form a looping structure that rises above her head like sculpture. Along the left edge, a black Japanese-style obi strip carries the album title and artist name in yellow and white lettering. The campaign was directed and designed by Jeremy Ngatho Cole, with photography by Nwaka Okparaeke, styling by Luci Ellis, hair by Chantelle Fuller, and makeup by Nibras. After the tightly focused GREY Area, Simz used lockdown solitude to turn inward and make a record about introversion, family, womanhood, race, fame, ambition, and the cost of success. She told Apple Music that solitude could be a place of contentment; elsewhere she described finding power in introversion rather than treating quietness as weakness. The album sounds anything but small: orchestral fanfares, soul, funk, jazz, Afrobeat, rap, and cinematic interludes expand around her voice, while actor Emma Corrin appears as the narrator. Simz and childhood collaborator Inflo built a work grand enough to hold private thought at public scale. The album won the 2022 Mercury Prize, confirming what its cover already suggests: introspection can be regal, theatrical, and commanding. The image also marks a chapter in Simz’s visual authorship. She remained independent through Age 101, worked with a close creative team, and made a campaign whose styling became inseparable from the record’s identity. Four years later, Lotus deliberately became her first album not to put her face on the cover, replacing portraiture with a flower associated with renewal. That contrast makes SIMBI even more revealing: here Simz places herself at the center of the frame while learning that looking inward can be a source of outward power.
@footnotesinhistory.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 11:05 PM

#OTD in 1944, the Seattle Times reports on a debate in King County towns surrounding the eventual return of Japanese Americans. The Remember Pearl Harbor League seeks to bar them from buying farmland while a local reverand, Sheriff, and Seattle attorney all criticized the plan.
🗃 #skystorians

"Sanity Asked In Return of Japs" Formation of a group, with the announced purpose of preventing the return of Japanese to the White River and Puyallup Valleys, encountered stiff opposition today as pleas were made for "unity and senity" in dealing with the controversial situation. Benjamin Smith of Kent, announced last night that the "Remember Pearl Harbor League," of which he is president is mapping an "orderly program" to bar Japanese from the farming areas. Smith declared matter-of-factly that feeling against the return of the Japanese to the farms they operated prior to removal by the Army has remained strong in the area, and represents an attitude which cannot be ignored. The Seattle Times, October 5, 1944"Plans to Be Announced" "A great many people believe the Japs should not be permitted to return, feeling very definitely that the best interests of the communities invelved will be served by such a solution," Smith said. "We have made plans to achieve this result in an orderly way, and the plans will be announced soon." "They can form whatever groups they please," declared Sheriff Harlan S. Callahan, "but the law still stands. If these returning Japanese have been okayed by the federal government, and checked out as loyaI citizens, they are entitled to the same protection as anyone else, and they are going to get it." "Jensen Urges Rights" The Rev. Dr. Harold V. Jensen, pastor of the First Baptist Church, urged that democracy and the rights of American citizens not be jeopardized by unconsidered actions. "Every person, regardless of race or national background, who is known to be disloyal or who is personally under suspicion of disloyalty, should of course be properly restricted," Jensen said. However, permanently to restrict American citizens whose loyalty has been carefully determined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Army and Navy Intelligence officers, would be to undermine the very democracy for which our men, including many Americans of Japanese ancestry, are fighting and dying." "Sanity Is Asked" "It would be a stab in the back of our fighting men overseas. Obviously, it would be a complete denial of Christian principles. This is a situation which calls ior unity and sanity." Arthur G. Barnett, Seattle attorney, described the move as a "violation of the rules of fair play.'' "The Army has classified these people as acceptable and loyal" Barnett said. "It would seem that this newly formed league is opposing the Army as well as the Japanese, in giving vent to their prejudices. Many of our Japanese-Americans are fighting with the armed forces. They gave as much right as any other soldiers to ask 'Is this what we are fighting for?' Certainly if there are any specific charges against these people, there is only one place to take them—to responsible government authorities." "Officers of League" Smith disclosed that elected representatives from Renton, Kent, Auburn, Sumner, Puyallup,' Orting and Fife attended two meetings in Auburn to lay the organization's plans. Other officers elected were R. H. Nimitz, Sumner, vice president; George Westbeau, Auburn. secretary; W.C. Hall, Auburn, treasurer. Directors are Dr. Thomas Sutherland, Auburn: C. (Nifty) Garrett, Sumner; Grant Dunbar, Kent; H. A. Stovik. Renton; L. W. Lingley, Orting; William Suss, Fife, and George Walker and Paul Sulkosky, Jr., Puyallup." The Seattle Times, October 5, 1944
@shonaparkerhistory.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 6:48 PM

There is a new post over on the blog of Pen and Sword Books: The Top Ten Infectious Diseases of the Victorian Era.

A little something I rustled up after writing A Guide to Victorian Love 😊

buff.ly/n1oynL2

#Victorian #victorianera #skystorians #britishhistory #Histodons #19thC #nineteenthcentury 🗃️

@askhistorians.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 3:26 PM

Don't miss this fantastic #AMA! #Skystorians can ask all kinds of questions to learn more!

DDan Howlett@dhowlett1692.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 2:14 PM

Thomas Andrews joins @askhistorians.bsky.social today to discuss his book The Great Horse Flu: A Forgotten Contagion and the Fate of Reconstruction America, new from @uncpress.bsky.social. Come check it out! www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

reddit.comFrom the AskHistorians community on Reddit: What was the Great Horse Flu, and what can it tell us about people, animals, and disease in the Reconstruction Era--and today, with Thomas Andrews?Explore this post and more from the AskHistorians community
@toffolosandra.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 3:02 PM

📢Fully funded PhD position in #earlymodern history! At University of Roma Tre, in collaboration with the Italian-German Historical Institute in Trento, in the framework of my project "Travellers' interactions in early modern Italy." isig.fbk.eu/en/news/deta...
Deadline 16 October 2026!
#skystorians

@historicbostons.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 2:29 PM

FREE: Wed Oct 7, 7-8:30pm, Cheryll Toney Holley, Hassanamisco Nipmuc; Paula Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag; and Lorén Spears, Narragansett discuss Stolen Relations, an inter-tribal project tracing lives of enslaved indigenous people. Lin Fisher moderates #skystorians

www.eventbrite.com/e/stolen-rel...

@ideasroadshow.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 2:10 PM

Read about the wonderful 'Museo Benozzo Gozzoli' in Castelfiorentino which houses a detailed reconstruction of 2 tabernacle oratories with stunning frescoes by Gozzoli.
*Read here: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/three-hidd...

🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky #skystorians #art #italy

Promo image for an essay about a wonderful museum in Castelfiorentino (there is an image of the building).
@catherinefletcher.infoOct 5, 2026, 11:06 AM

#skystorians, beyond the Historical Reflections volume, what is your favourite critique of Steven Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature?

@royalhistsoc.orgOct 5, 2026, 10:33 AM

Booking for Meleisa's lecture (in person) remains available and we look forward to welcoming you at 6pm on Weds 7 October: bit.ly/3TFLZMH.

Our thanks to Meleisa and all at the Department of Humanities, @unistrathclyde.bsky.social, who have made this day visit possible #Skystorians

@royalhistsoc.orgOct 5, 2026, 10:27 AM

This Wednesday we visit historians and students @unistrathclyde.bsky.social, and the wider region, to discuss topics of priority in history teaching / research.

The day ends with a public lecture by Dr Meleisa Ono-George (Oxford): 6pm, free and open to all, and followed by a reception #Skystorians

Image of building with logos for the Royal Historical Society and University of Strathclyde with text: 'Royal Historical Society Visit to the Department of the Humanities at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 7 October 2026.'
@domwass.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 10:24 AM

Proofs! #medievalsky #skystorians

Burg oder Luftschloss? Methodische Überlegungen zum Umgang mit Überlieferungslücken am Beispiel von Schwarzrheindorf von Dominik Waßenhoven Abstract Die Doppelkapelle in Schwarzrheindorf gilt in der Literatur als Burgkapelle, wobei die angrenzende Burg meist in die Karolingerzeit datiert wird. Diese These fußt auf einer schmalen Quellenbasis, wurde im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts aber häufig wiedergegeben und ausgebaut. Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie die einzelnen Forscher*innen die Lücken der Überlieferung gefüllt haben und ob ihre Thesen haltbar sind. Aus dem Fallbeispiel werden schließlich einige allgemeine methodische Überlegungen zum Umgang mit Interpretationen bei lückenhafter Überlieferung abgeleitet.
@mobhistory.substack.comOct 5, 2026, 10:15 AM

#OTD (Oct 05)
Events in U.S. organized crime #history.

#Chicago #NewOrleans #ApalachinNY #Ohio #Brooklyn #Bronx #NewYork #Mafia #MafiaHistory 🗃️ #Skystorians

On this date, Oct 05... • in 1902, Chicago Mafia leader Mariano Zagone marries Biagia Spatafora, widow of Gioacchino Spatafora. • in 1912, New York gang leader Jack Zelig is fatally shot while on a streetcar. • in 1921, Brooklyn parole officer Louis Miller writes to President Warren Harding to request a conditional pardon that will allow paroled counterfeiter Ignazio Lupo to travel to Sicily. • in 1925 Carmine Clemente begins 10-20-year sentence for a Bronx amusement park robbery. • in 1928, Manhattan gangster Tony 'Marlow' Melillo suffers mortal gunshot wounds outside the Harding Hotel. • in 1931, Vincent Coll is arraigned for the killing of a child in Harlem. • in 1935, local and federal authorities in New Orleans arrest suspected leaders of a narcotics smuggling ring. • in 1937, mafioso Nick Gentile is arrested on narcotics charges in New Orleans. • in 1959, Joseph Barbara Jr., son of the Apalachin NY convention host, pleads guilty to criminal contempt of court. • in 1960, the Ohio Supreme Court affirms the assault and battery conviction of Mike Farah. • in 1976, John Cutrone is shot to death during a robbery of a Brooklyn luncheonette. Image of Ignazio Lupo.
@royalhistsoc.orgOct 5, 2026, 9:20 AM

@royalhistsoc.org looks forward to taking part at this very helpful annual event for new researchers.

It's an excellent orientation to the many ways @ihr.bsky.social and other organisations can support new graduates as you begin your research #Skystorians

@sociammulb.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 8:37 AM

📆 2 NOV 2026 | "La carte postale comme outil d’étude des transformation urbaines de la Belle Époque" 📍Hôtel communal de #Schaerbeek ✍ Infos et inscriptions : bit.ly/4yD0yjG #skystorians #patrimoine #cartepostale #archives #histoireurbaine

@historicumnet.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 8:20 AM

Our "Regional History Portal" provides a guide to over 2,000 online resources on German regional history, neatly arranged by German state or by type of resource.
The portal is now availiable in English, as are most other sites on historicum_net:
www.historicum.net/en/regional-...

#skystorians

Screenshot of the Region Histoy Portal showing maps and names of six German states.
@boydellandbrewer.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 8:15 AM

New month = new books! Take a look at what's publishing in October 👉 buff.ly/pcpfzFh

#BookSky #SkyStorians

@dbellingradt.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 7:56 AM

The lost days of paper marketing and rumors about an event. #skystorians

@ijhs.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 7:56 AM

#skystorians 🗃️ #sporthistory

📍New article!

"From Autonomy to Aggrandizement: A Comparative History of Executive Power, Corruption, and Democratic Backsliding in International Sport Federations"

by Anthony Nakhle from Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth 🇱🇧

Check it out: t.co/Isb0leGnUF