Asadullah Haroon: 13 Years Without Trial at Guantanamo, My Hunger Strike Is All I Have Left
“Give me freedom or give me death.”
Terry Blackhawk: Chambered Nautilus, with Tinnitus and Linden
Call it a squint of sound,
tone on the edge of not existing at all
Tamika C.B. Zapolski, Ukamaka M. Oruche: Racism in Healthcare System Is Costing Black Lives
As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the U.S, African Americans are contracting the illness—and dying from it—at rates twice as high as the general population.
Rebecca Elson: Antidotes to Fear of Death
Sometimes as an antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.
Danny Sjursen: Undercover Patriots
Trump, Tulsa, and the Rise of Military Dissent
Elizabeth Svoboda: Extolling the Virtues of the Hunter-Gatherer Lifestyle
In “Civilized to Death,” Christopher Ryan argues that our nomadic ancestors were better off than we are today.
Audio: Australian Aboriginal Didgeridoo Music
Australian indigenous music has existed for 40,000 years and is still widely performed.
Abby Zimet: John Prine as Tender Poet
“If his songs were allowed to exist in the world—so simply written, so profoundly beautiful —surely there was room for other good, decent things, too.”
Michael Simms: Bus
One afternoon at a bus stop in Ruston, Louisiana we picked up a single passenger, a huge man in a dirty plaid shirt, grease-stained khakis, and unlaced boots covered in mud.
Ari Honarvar: When Savoring a Pleasant Moment is a Radical Act
And then someone from another rooftop shouted a verse of Rumi’s poetry into the clear night air.
James Wright: Trying to Pray
This time, I have left my body behind me, crying
In its dark thorns.
Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, Wynton Marsalis, et al: A Letter on Justice and Open Debate
As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.
Ed Bieber: All At Once
After weeks of waiting patiently
for the first dandelion to appear,
we opened our door on a shocking
sea of vibrant, yellow, near-stemless
lion’s teeth.
