Greg Thielen: The Work of True Freedom
I recently moved back to Arizona, the state where I was raised, from California, to help my mother take care of my father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. My … Continue reading
Michael Simms: Hammer
On East Carson Street, skinny white boys
Slump in front of tattoo parlors
Scratching their arms.
Video: Lawrence Ferlinghetti reads “Pity the Nation” (text included)
. Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (born 1919) is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. Author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, … Continue reading
Stephen Dobyns: Stars
The man took the wrong fork in the road. It was out in the country. They saw no signs. It was getting dark. They began to blame each other. Should … Continue reading
Joshua Wilkey: Blessed are the White Trash
I grew up poor. Often, when one reads memoirs or oral histories from folks who grew up where I did — that is, in Appalachia, or in the South, or somewhere … Continue reading
W. H. Auden: Refugee Blues
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
Video: Operatico Politico vs Trump (Rossini Edition)
. Opera singers Rebecca Nelsen and Eric Stoklossa of Operatico Politico brilliantly summarize the Trump administration with a little help from Rossini. .
James A. Lucas: US Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II
After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time … Continue reading
Lena Khalal Tuffaha: Circling the Dome of the Sky
What she called home was a jar of olives shaken from the tree by hand sorted and stabbed then pressed one against the other doused in lemon and salt. What … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Another Birthday and the Heart Sutra
Now well past the age T’Ang poets sent old men
to the mountains to wander and live close to the bone.
Video: Tyehimba Jess reads “Negro Migration”
Tyehimba Jess, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for his collection Olio, was born in Detroit and earned his BA from the University of Chicago and his MFA from New York University. Jess is the rare poet who bridges slam and academic poetry, weaving elements of jazz, blues, history, and biography into his intensely lyrical verse.
Taison Bell, M.D.: Stop Playing Politics With People’s Lives
When people ask me what kind of physician I am, I simply say, “I’m the kind you hope to never have to meet.” I’m an intensivist, which means I deliver … Continue reading
Emily Dickinson: A Light Exists in Spring
A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period – When March is scarcely here . A Color stands abroad On Solitary Fields That Science … Continue reading
Video: Karim Sulayman — I trust you
. Karim Sulayman is an Arab-American tenor from Chicago. Ten days after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Sulayman teamed up with filmmaker Meredith Kaufman Younger to perform a trust experiment. … Continue reading
