Video: The Chaotic Brilliance of Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
Like Beat writers who composed their work by shredding and reassembling scraps of writing, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat used similar techniques to remix his materials. Pulling in splintered anatomy, reimagined historical scenes and skulls, he repurposed present day experiences and art history into an inventive visual language.
Video: Grandpa’s Groove
The old man Santiago didn’t catch a fish for days
He returned unhappy and was pretty damn ashamed
Vox Populi: An Interview With Our Editor
On Friday, we caught up with poet, blogger, editor and activist Michael Simms at his kitchen table where he was preparing his Saturday morning post for Vox Populi.
Lornet Turnbull: What Happens When a Person Is Deported?
A new guide provides resources to help those being returned to their countries of origin.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Frost at Midnight
Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch…
Connie Post: How to Sort the Living from the Dead
Forget all the nonsense
about eyes opened or closed
or breathing
or brain waves
Three stories: People fight the system and win
A farmer prevails against Monsanto in court. Refugees find ingenious ways to scale Trump’s wall. And 100 cities around the world provide free public transportation everyday for everyone.
Jose Padua: Self-Portrait as Human and as House
I can’t imagine how boring I’d be now
if I’d always been the best person
I could be instead of operating
at fifty percent of my capacity
or sometimes even less.
Video: James Baldwin debates William F. Buckley (1965)
Here is the full 1965 debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University on the question: “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?”
Sandra McPherson: Numbers 31
(in which Moses orders the rape
of 32,000 Midianite virgins)
George Monbiot: The Roots of Fascism
Some countries, separately and together, are beginning to head towards the darkest of all political places.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Stillbirth
I sometimes go months without remembering you.
Some griefs bless us that way, not asking much space.
Donna M. Cox: The power of a song in a strange land
“they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.” — Frederick Douglass
