Stuart Kestenbaum: Pretend for Real
It may seem wrong or at least incongruous to write about play when the world is falling apart wherever we turn.
Video: A poet-botanist’s lifelong pursuit of discovery
Libby Houston is an accomplished poet and botanist, having published a number of collections of poetry and discovered several species of whitebeam trees.
Michael Simms: Breath
People say the world is an ugly place and maybe it is
but sometimes people are so damned kind
I can barely breathe
Adrienne Rich: Power
She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power.
Video: Retirement Plan
In John Kelly’s animated short film, nothing’s off limits when it comes to thinking about the future—particularly when there’s so much left to do.
Video: The Truck
Against the simmering anxieties of post-Roe America, Jo, 16, and Arash, her boyfriend, attempt to buy the morning-after pill in a small town where reproductive rights are contested and quietly policed.
Victoria Valenzuela: How organizers are addressing sexual violence in movement spaces
The revelations about Cesar Chavez underscore the need to reckon with sexual abuse by changing organizing cultures and following workers’ lead.
Adrian Rice: This Letting Go
Stock-still in sunshine in the graveyard,
close to a perfectly plump bush,
listening to a northern mockingbird
running the river of its songs
Philip Landrigan & Ella Whitman: Pittsburgh’s air pollution estimated to claim 3,000+ lives per year − and EPA rollbacks aren’t helping
Pittsburgh’s air pollution not only led to increased deaths, but it also had other negative effects, from lowered IQ in children to adverse birth outcomes.
Ellery Akers: Wildfires
I try to write with my sane arm and my sane pen
Farrah Hassen: American Muslims don’t need to defend our existence
It’s bigoted politicians, not Muslims like me, who threaten our way of life in this country.
David Lauterstein: Puzzle Box
Then a side piece slides and reveals a drawer that has
tiny pieces of black licorice
as if death could be sweet
but now you are crying
George Yancy: Trump Relies on Centuries-Old Notions of Whiteness to Activate His MAGA Base
Whiteness is baked into the US’s DNA. Can it be structurally dismantled?
Rita Dove: Parsley
It is fall, when thoughts turn
to love and death; the general thinks
of his mother, how she died in the fall
and he planted her walking cane at the grave
and it flowered
