Culture

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Unfinished WWI History Speaks Volumes About America

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Unfinished WWI History Speaks Volumes About America

W. E. B. Du Bois hoped that WWI would help Black Americans make gains at home after serving their country abroad. His work for racial progress, like America itself, remains unfinished.

Everything You Know Means Nothing: Problematic Art and Crystal Castles’ Legacy

Everything You Know Means Nothing: Problematic Art and Crystal Castles’ Legacy

An abusive past with Crystal Castles haunts former singer Alice Glass. Glass haunts her past back with her multi-artist, confrontational goth synthpunk.

Hopelessly Devoted to Whom? Olivia Newton-John, Juliana Hatfield, and Me

Hopelessly Devoted to Whom? Olivia Newton-John, Juliana Hatfield, and Me

In her tribute album, Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, Hatfield gives us a direct line to the heady days of the ’80s and makes us wonder if shiny, electric blue lycra was really so bad. 

Bob Dylan’s Art Is Best Served Naked

Bob Dylan’s Art Is Best Served Naked

As Bob Dylan learned, only through baring of one’s soul does one show the way forward, providing both a glimpse into the other and perhaps the shape of things to come.

How Keith Richards’ Drug Bust Opened the Mainstream for Disability Activists

How Keith Richards’ Drug Bust Opened the Mainstream for Disability Activists

Keith Richard’s 1977 drug bust in Toronto led to the controversial “Blind Date” benefit concert in nearby Oshawa. Many benefited, but not in the way you think.

W.E.B. Du Bois’ Prescient Masterpiece ‘The Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation’

W.E.B. Du Bois’ Prescient Masterpiece ‘The Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation’

Rutgers University Press’ engaging, accomplished interpretation of ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ confirms it as W.E.B. DuBois’ most prescient and indelible work.

Talking About a Fashion Revolution: LGBTQ+ DapperQ

Talking About a Fashion Revolution: LGBTQ+ DapperQ

Anita Dolce Vita talks about the LGBTQ+ fashion DapperQ and its ungendered revolution against the status quo.

‘Sink: A Memoir’ Shuns Respectability Politics

‘Sink: A Memoir’ Shuns Respectability Politics

Sink is more than an ethnographic memoir. It’s a harrowing glimpse into an omnipresent but often unseen Americana.

In the Aeroplane Over the Meme with Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Meme with Neutral Milk Hotel

Neutral Milk Hotel’s ambiguous 1988 album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, suffered a memeified atrocity. But the tides of public opinion rise and fall, and memes come and go.

Harry Belafonte and the Art of Activism

Harry Belafonte and the Art of Activism

Harry Belafonte’s life and work loom large over this moment when artists of color are exercising their activist voices.

Vince McMahon and the Damaging Impact of Failing Upward

Vince McMahon and the Damaging Impact of Failing Upward

WWE’s Vincent McMahon has brazenly failed upward over and over again, profoundly impacting (and damaging) American culture along the way, argues Abraham Riesman in the biography Ringmaster.

Comedy Series ‘Detectorists’ Digs into the Pastoral with Humor

Comedy Series ‘Detectorists’ Digs into the Pastoral with Humor

The comedy series Detectorists turns a humble hobby into a humorous meditation on Englishness that even Thomas Hardy would enjoy.

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