Baron Wormser: Remembering the Alchemists & Other Essays
One sentence speaks for all his direct, well-wrought sentences: “We are inside the largest militarist society the world has ever known, and we are at war always.”
Vox Populi: The 15 most popular posts of 2022
During 2022, Vox Populi published 737 posts including poetry, essays and short films. Here are the fifteen most visited.
Adrienne Maree Brown: Accountable to Our Ancestors
Lately it feels like ancestors are talking to me all the time.
Video: state of America (a visual expression)
This visceral piece dedicated to John Singleton unfolds the journey of a black youth moving through the chaotic American landscape into his manhood.
James Baldwin: A Talk to Teachers
The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.
Jeffrey Sterling: What Happened on January 6th was America the Usual
As the drama has unfolded, the powerful words from James Baldwin linger in my mind when he said “How much time do you want for your progress?”
Michael Simms: Praise the Poet
Empires fall and buildings crumble, but songs and stories survive.
Amiri Baraka: Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
And now, each night I count the stars,
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.
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?”
Video: Terrance Hayes, “American Sonnets For My Past and Future Assassin”
Terrance Hayes discusses his poetry collection, American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin at Politics and Prose in Washington DC on 7/16/18. Written during the first two hundred days … Continue reading
Angele Ellis — Next Stop: Xenogenesis
In memory of Octavia E. Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) In the bus bay, stark half-darkness of a ship corridor, propellant smell of diesel. Clayark obliterates Greyhound—blur of fur on … Continue reading
George Yancy: Should I Give Up on White People?
You deserve to be punished with several fists to your face! You’re nothing but a troublemaker! I’ve had enough of your Racist talk! You’d better watch what you say and … Continue reading
Mike Schneider: Faith, Poetry, and James Baldwin
Prague Writer’s Festival, 2017 1. America on the Hot Seat A large pleasure it was this November (10th through 16th) to visit Prague (with my friend Jan) as tourists, Americans … Continue reading
Kareem Tayyar: James Baldwin
I try to imagine you on a night when the moon is full. When the woman you are with did not have to leave the house before you. When the … Continue reading
Vox Populi 