Valerie Duff: Russian Chapter
Deserters call and wave their sacks
at the carriage bound for Petersburg.
Doug Anderson: Poetry, Gossip, and War (from a notebook)
James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces continues to sell and make money for his agent and publisher, who’ve disowned him. Initially he tried to sell the book as fiction but … Continue reading
Video: Everlast — Letters Home from the Garden of Stone
A moving song from Everest’s album “Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford.”
Paul Christensen: Subjectivity and the West
Subjectivity is the measure by which we accord dignity and gravitas to someone else. Without it, a person is just a thing, an object, and one may abuse it, ignore … Continue reading
Video: “1st September 1939” by W.H. Auden
The date marked the moment when Germany invaded Poland, initiating the start of World War II. “September 1, 1939″ was originally published in The New Republic on October 18, 1939. … Continue reading
Video: The Fallen of World War II
“More people died in World War II than any other war in history,” explains Neil Halloran in The Fallen of World War II. In his 15-minute film, Halloran uses innovative … Continue reading
Toni Morrison: Nobel Prize 1993 Acceptance Speech (Text and Video)
“Once upon a time there was an old woman. Blind but wise.” Or was it an old man? A guru, perhaps. Or a griot soothing restless children. I have heard … Continue reading
Video: Sebastião Salgado — The silent drama of photography
Economics PhD Sebastião Salgado took up photography in his 30s, and the discipline became an obsession. His years-long projects beautifully capture the human side of a global story that all … Continue reading
Video: Interview with Pema Chodron
Bill Moyers interviews the legendary Buddhist teacher and author Pema Chodron. Ani Pema Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936, in New York City. She attended Miss Porter’s School in … Continue reading
Jen Marlowe: Expelled for Life
A Palestinian Family’s Struggle to Stay on Their Land Nasser Nawaj’ah held Laith’s hand as, beside me, they walked down the dirt and pebble path of Old Susya. Nasser is … Continue reading
George Yancy and Peter Singer: On Racism, Animal Rights, and Human Rights
George Yancy: You have popularized the concept of speciesism, which, I believe was first used by the animal activist Richard Ryder. Briefly, define that term and how do you see … Continue reading
Jose Padua: On the Half-life of Memory and All the Lives Lost in the Process
After you’ve invaded someone’s country enslaved its people tortured its citizens insulted and belittled its culture and beliefs it’s a little late in the proceedings and in the course of … Continue reading
Video: Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi
When not hard at work on a page of comic art, Marjane Satrapi lights up a cigarette and remembers how, due to the last forty years of constant war and … Continue reading
Chana Bloch: Fortress
. Silence is a strenuous language but we have chosen it. A shut door, a shrug, stone upon stone. . The stones have a history. They were pulled from the … Continue reading
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