Dan Turello: Craft your own renaissance with tips from Boccaccio’s Decameron
A few years ago, on a crisp winter afternoon, I found a beautiful bound translation of The Decameron at the Black Swan bookstore in Staunton, Virginia….I bought it immediately and took it back to a friend’s cabin where a group of us had gathered for the weekend.
Amy M. Alvarez, Jameka Harley: How Black poets and writers gave a voice to ‘Affrilachia’
A turning point took place 30 years ago, when Black Appalachian culture experienced a renaissance centered around a single word: “Affrilachia.”
Ted Kooser: Mudflaps
Out driving, I like to come up behind trucks
with mudflaps, chalky, slate-colored ones
hanging onto their hard jobs
Robert P. Alvarez: Humanizing the People Police Kill
The standard, often unreliable reporting on police killings dehumanizes victims — a fact my own family knows too well.
Paul Christensen: What the Rain Says
She would die soon but neither of us knew that. Right now, the precious hours were dissolving in the pale afternoon light, just as the rain began again.
Janette Schafer: On the day I testify for Homeland Security
Janette agreed to share these details publicly to help allay the stigma, shame, and secrecy inherent with being a sex abuse survivor.
William Wordsworth: Lines Written in Early Spring
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
Joe Loria: Factory Farming Is Killing Our Planet. Here’s How.
To protect the planet, we need to protect farmed animals.
Karen Greenberg: Will America’s Forever Offshore Prison Ever Be Closed?
Can Guantánamo ever be shut down?
Kareem Tayyar: Gas Station
The Indian woman behind the counter
is reading The Upanishads when I enter.
The radio is playing a French chanson.
The photograph on the wall to my left
features John F. Kennedy…
Thaddeus L. Johnson, Natasha N. Johnson: American cities have long struggled to reform their police – but isolated success stories suggest community and officer buy-in might be key
Getting police and community on board with reforms is crucial for success.
Nina Kossman: Upon seeing a portrait of Genrikh Yagoda* on a wall in a Moscow police station
so many feet that did not run away,
so many mouths that did not speak,
so many inheritors of what can’t be described
Abby Zimet | Killology Inc: America’s Police
The murders by cop go on – the latest, Lymond Moses, was asleep in his car – prompting furious calls for police reform from many weary of the carnage.
