Blaxploitation Movies and Music Are the Story of the 1970s
Blaxploitation signaled the moment ghetto culture and the Black vernacular hit the American mainstream, paving the way for rap, hip-hop, disco, and modern sports.
books feature
Alice Munro’s Men
The late author Alice Munro’s work is criticized for its portrayal of men. But radically, not all her rejected male characters are mediocrities.
‘Beware the Cat’: The First English Horror Novel
In the first English horror novel, Beware the Cat, William Baldwin satirizes and mocks the Catholic Church’s naïve superstitions and alleged pagan practices.
Waxing Moustaches: A Hair-Brained Interview with Humourist Aug Stone
What do sports, music, comedy, and neuroplasticity have to do with waxing moustaches? This hair-brained interview with humourist Aug Stone explains.
Dave Grohl Wants to Tell You How Lucky He Is
In his book The Storyteller, both successful Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl the Punk, and lucky Dave Grohl the Everyman, come out smiling.
The Best Books of 2021
As is PopMatters‘ ethos throughout our 22 years of publishing, there’s a strong current of feminism electrifying our picks for the Best Books of 2021.
‘Sideways’ and ‘The Archivist’ Author Rex Pickett on the Lure of Dark Archives
Irreverent and with skin as thick as a pachyderm, mystery author Rex Pickett talks with PopMatters about the forces that compelled him to write The Archivist.
How George Orwell Inspired Hunter S. Thompson’s Gonzo Journalism
Hunter S. Thompson’s primary muse was not F. Scott Fitzgerald, but rather George Orwell and his fact-bending 1933 memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London.
Judy Chicago’s Feminist Art Is Still Flowering
In her autobiography Still Flowering, Judy Chicago also offers a plainspoken, powerful discussion about the growth of feminist art.
Oscar Wilde Envisions Our Post-Pandemic Socialist Future
Millennials and GenZ had time to contemplate the real harms wrought by capitalism during the pandemic shutdown. Perhaps they might read Oscar Wilde, now.
When the Satire Works and When it Doesn’t in Geto Boys Bio ‘Why Bushwick Bill Matters’
For a Geto Boys biography so concerned with Bushwick Bill’s status as a short person, Hughes’ book sure skirts the issue of embodiment.
Whatever USA–or–Is It Time for a New Federal Writers’ Project?
State by State (2008) is rife with jaunty attacks, superficial panegyrics, random reportage, and puberty memoirs. Isn’t it time for a comparable update?