Robert C. Koehler: The Courage to Disarm
The Ferguson tragedy, like all those that preceded it and all that will follow — involving the trivial and panicky use of lethal force, by the police or anyone else … Continue reading
Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain Things to Me
I still don’t know why Sallie and I bothered to go to that party in the forest slope above Aspen. The people were all older than us and dull in … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Aquarius, And My Name Is Ralph
I’m sitting at a table in a nightclub during the disco 70s with my friend Paul and his older friend who’s also named Paul who’s about five feet tall and … Continue reading
Clifford Thompson: Improvising America
For years, as an African-American, I sought to figure out my cultural identity. My manner and lifestyle went against what many think of as the way a “real” black person … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: Burying The Giant Alive — The Press of Denial
The American press is like a sexagenarian doctor with a factory practice who hasn’t read a medical text since his internship. His patients don’t ask, and he doesn’t tell. They … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
After writing an essay in my freshman English lit classin which I discussed James Joyce’s Ulysses as the nextlogical step for narrative after Ford Maddox Ford’sThe Good Soldier, my professor, … Continue reading
Homeless mom sentenced to 5 years in prison for “stealing” son’s education
A mother has been arrested and sentenced to jail time for sending her five year old son to a school district where she had no permanent residence. I can barely … Continue reading
Jose Padua: A Life of Uncontrollable Urges (or Tourette’s and the Writing Life)
On a recent Sunday afternoon, as I pushed a cart in the aisle between the checkout counters and the racks of men’s shirts at Walmart, the song that went though … Continue reading
Fred J. Abrahams: Portrait of the Artist as a Real Estate Developer
Fred Abrahams evokes the excitement of the New York art scene in the early 60’s. Jack Klein was an original. Dark and swarthy, he could have easily passed for a … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: The Body Language of Poetry
Don’t gesticulate with your hands or make faces when speaking, the teachers at my British boarding school told me. It’s vulgar. I’m sure that this enjoinder at such an impressionable … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Why Drunken Poets Need to Procreate
If it were somehow obligatory that I sum up my existence with a single sentence—or perhaps with just a phrase and a simple image—I’d be at a loss. I would, … Continue reading
Charles Bukowski’s letter to the man who inspired him to quit his soul-sucking day job to become a writer
In 1969, the year before his fiftieth birthday, Charles Bukowski caught the attention of Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin, who offered Buk a monthly stipend of $100 to quit … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Rood Shadow
They get Jesus in a back room at the country club, tell him, Let’s get you some new clothes and could you step over there and wash your feet? Maybe … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: Love In A Time Of Riots
Yesterday, on National Public Radio, “And now the news from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and St. Louis.” There’s a list on which I’m proud to hear my hometown, the city I … Continue reading →