Robert Cording | Notes: August, 2020, Whidbey Island
Some days all of America—the whole messy idea of it—
seems to be right here, the military meeting
the idyllic so casually.
Anita Hofschneider: Deb Haaland, America’s first Native Cabinet secretary, considers her legacy
Four years later, as Haaland’s tenure ends, her presence in the Interior Department has led to greater collaboration with tribal nations and broader awareness of America’s crimes against its Indigenous peoples.
Video: Local One
Local One takes us into the first days of the strike at two Amazon warehouses in New York City, this time in solidarity with hundreds more workers across the country.
Ann Fisher-Wirth: Two Inaugural Poems
Before I lived in the South I had never
smelled road kill, that sweet sick
that climbs inside your nostrils
and colonizes your brain, so had never
thought about vultures.
Desne A. Crossley: Rolling in the Aisle
In Nashville in 1950, my mother boarded a city bus. She didn’t go to the back. She didn’t act like her place was the outermost fringe of a world ruled by whites.
Kathryn Levy: Tomorrow & The Subject of Flowers
And the children who run
from hiding place to
hiding place? Let them
cover their eyes and
count out their seconds,
as the wagon man watches
Martin Luther King: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Video: One for All
Tony Drees actually considers himself to have “good fortune,” despite being born into an abusive household, surviving the deadliest bombing in the Gulf War, beating cancer, and having his leg amputated up to his hip.
Stephen Haven: Roadside Portals
I see roadside altars that open portals.
I see drivers slipping by those mounds
of cardboard signs and paper flowers
Video: Sandstorm
In Seemab Gul’s short film “Sandstorm,” a schoolgirl in Karachi sends a dance video to her virtual boyfriend, but her innocent flirtation turns dark when he attempts to blackmail her. … Continue reading
Adam Patric Miller: Last Lesson
teaching will gut you—
but in a nourishing way
like scraping out a cantaloupe
with a big silver spoon
Alice Rothchild: Zionist Fragility
The time is long overdue for liberal Zionists to find the courage to take a long hard look at their uncritical support for the actions of the Israeli state as it becomes increasingly indefensible.
Baron Wormser: The Missing Poet
Reasons abound for Republicans to not think twice or to dismiss poetry as elitist or more identity politics or whatever pejorative comes to mind. Much more important work is waiting– or so we are told.
Sara Hegy: Even the Longest Winters End
Winter in a Refugee Camp, Gaza
