The Amorphous and Complex Global ‘Pink Line’
Mark Gevisser's excellent study of the global weaponization of homo- and transphobia, The Pink Line, provides a superb survey of the promise – and peril – of queer identity.
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Why Work Doesn’t Work
The idea that we work because we want to, not because we need to, is a pernicious one that labor journalist Sarah Jaffe dissects in Work Won't Love You Back.
Greek Women Are Mighty Lively in Haynes’ Pandora’s Jar
Reading comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes' book about women in Greek mythology, Pandora's Jar, is like listening to a good storyteller relating the latest gossip to you over drinks at a club, with all the colloquial jokes and asides.
The Guilty Pleasure of Summers’ Monstrous ‘A Certain Hunger’
Easy to summarize but difficult to, um, flesh out, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger is, without a doubt, the Great American Female Serial Killer Novel, The Great Gatsby of women cannibal foodie satirical black comic memoirs.
King Hu’s ‘Raining in the Mountain’ Is Rich with Gorgeous Atmosphere
The quiet, extended scenes in King Hu's Raining in the Mountain are full of beauty as well as tension and anticipation.
‘City So Real’ and the Politics of a Modern Metropolis
One of the crowning achievements of City So Real is that it shows that the fight for racial justice in Chicago became adopted by people of all identities thanks to the tireless work of organizers.
Farnoosh Samadi’s Impressive Debut, ‘180 Degree Rule’, Leaves a Lasting Mark
Farnoosh Samadi's 180 Degree Rule brutally explores our tendency to condemn instead of to embrace one another with compassion and understanding.
Silent Classic ‘The City Without Jews’ Wavers Between Satire and Grim Prophecy
It's the privilege of satire to apply one's opponents' "logic" towards a reductio ad absurdum, as we see in The City without Jews.
Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera Sings ‘Every Day We Get More Illegal’
Every Day We Get More Illegal, seems to foretell a diatribe vibe, but threaded throughout Herrera's verse is the musicality--the calming, invigorating melodies that remind us, ever so sweetly, if insistently: Latino lives are beloved.
Art Historian Dora Apel Queries What We Choose to Remember
In Calling Memory into Place, art historian and cultural critic Dora Apel explores the relationship between collective and personal memory and place in a series of reflective essays that are by turns erudite and personal.
‘Step It Up and Go’ Gives North Carolina Music Its Dues
David Menconi's Step It Up is an absorbing love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds of North Carolina's contributions to American popular music.