Michael Simms: Counting the Fallen
A boy playing with a BB gun is killed by the police who say he matched the description of a robbery suspect. A man with his hands up is shot … Continue reading
Margaret Walker: Dark Blood
There were bizarre beginnings in old lands for the making of me. There were sugar sands and islands of fern and pearl, palm jungles and stretches of a never-ending sea. … Continue reading
Mike James: Memoir
he wanted to be alone after a while was still, even without people there was light at the window it hung from a tree on one leaf … Continue reading
Video: What “The Truman Show” Teaches Us About Politics
. In this short video essay, the Nerdwriter explores the political implications of “The Truman Show,” a 1998 American satirical film directed by Peter Weir, in which a young man slowly … Continue reading
Deirdre Fulton: Global Investors to Big Food — Cut Meat to Avoid ‘Protein Bubble’
Citing the environmental and public health risks of factory farming, a $1.25 trillion coalition of multinational investors has called on 16 global food corporations—including Kraft, Heinz, Nestle, Unilever, Tesco, and … Continue reading
Philip Levine: Animals Are Passing From Our Lives
It’s wonderful how I jog on four honed-down ivory toes my massive buttocks slipping like oiled parts with each light step. I’m to market. I can smell the sour, grooved … Continue reading
Marc Jampole: The Bully
Trump replaces “scratch & sniff” with “lie & sniff” in losing both debate and truth contest. I began noticing Donald Trump sniffing about a third of the way through the … Continue reading
Walter Bargen: Interruption to the End
I haven’t seen the end or if I did see the end I didn’t know. A litany of denials the most blindingly likely, and now I spend too much … Continue reading
Audio: Etta James — “The Sky is Crying”
[Email subscribers can click the title of this post to listen to the song for free.] . “The Sky is Crying” is included in the 2004 CD Blues to the Bone. … Continue reading
Marc Jampole: Where do the two candidates stand on the issues?
Here is an issue-by-issue comparison of the two leading presidential candidates’ positions. One represents the most progressive national program in the history of this country, the other a hodgepodge of … Continue reading
William Blake: The Tyger
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of … Continue reading
Audio: Virginia Woolf — “Words Fail Me” (rare recording)
. In this excerpt from a 1937 BBC radio broadcast, the only surviving recording of Virginia Woolf’s voice, the great author tells us that words “hate being useful; they hate making … Continue reading
Video: “Symphony in Black” by Duke Ellington (featuring Billie Holiday’s first filmed performance)
. In September of 1935, Paramount Pictures released a nine-minute film — Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life, an early cinematic depiction of African-American culture. It features Duke … Continue reading
Video: Lou Reed’s screen test filmed by Andy Warhol
Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol shot close to 500 short movies of friends, celebrities, and models at his studio known as The Factory. The indie-rock duet Dean and Britta … Continue reading
