The High Price of Gay Life in Washington, D.C.
James Kirchick’s riveting history of gay life in Washington, D.C. is a Cold War epic of hypocrisy, surveillance, and survival.
american history
Kishi Bashi and Justin Taylor Smith Discuss Their Uplifting ‘Song Film’ Documentary ‘Omoiyari’
“Omoiyari” was the guiding light for Kishi Bashi and Justin Taylor Smith in creating their documentary about Executive Order 9066 and Asian American identity.
Sundance 2022: ‘Descendant’ and the Americans Who Refuse to Be Forgotten
Descendant films the stories from the progeny of the slaves of the Clotilda. The result is a testament to the spirit of a community that refuses to disappear.
Questlove Drums Circles Around Music History
Circles are central to Questlove. He loves a circular connection and a sidelong glance. Circles overlap and connect in his artful book, Music Is History.
1980s Pop Music and the Atomic Pleasure Dome
Saturated in apocalyptic fears of the atomic bomb, 1980s music was also danceable and transporting. How can something that was so horrible also be so much fun?
AIDS Activism and Sarah Schulman’s Joyous Anger
Schulman’s Let the Record Show argues that AIDS continues to kill queer, drug-addicted, brown, black, undocumented, and uninsured people.
‘Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts’ Filmmakers on Art in Troubled America
Filmmakers Jeffrey Wolf and Sam Pollard talk about artist Bill Traylor, born into slavery, whose works define this singular creative voice in American art.
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer Kai Bird Shows Former US President Jimmy Carter as a Man Ahead of His Times
Kai Bird’s biography argues that former US President Jimmy Carter was a prophet of uncomfortable truths who urged America to reevaluate its myths and thorniest problems.
When Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and a Presidential Election Converged on Notre Dame
In One Week in America, Patrick Parr guides readers through several earth-shattering events and their impact on the 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival.
‘Soul City’ and the Southern Utopia that Never Was
Thomas Healy’s ‘Soul City’ shines a light on the obstacles Black activist Floyd McKissick faced to create an inclusive community in America.
‘Black Against Empire’ Assumes a Central and Critical Spot within the Black Panther Canon
Black Against Empire attempts something beyond the scope of power-to-the-people flashbacks of Afros, dashikis, and raised fists: it takes the Black Panther Party seriously as a political entity taking dead aim on American laws and values.
Amanda Gorman’s History Lesson: An Inaugural Poem in the Shadow of White Supremacy
From the onset, Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb", dissolves the ideology that a presidential inauguration announces the new and deracinates the present from the past.
