Fitz-James O’Brien’s Exuberant Morbidity
Fitz-James O’Brien’s exuberantly morbid stories, set amongst mid-century New York’s boarding houses and alleyways, are works of comic skepticism and cosmic messiness.
poetry
15 Albums to Help You Fall in Love With Poetry
Whether you’ve been a poetry lover for decades or never read a stanza in your life, you’re likely to find something to make you fall in love with poetry among the batch.
Taylor Swift: The Great American Poet?
It’s not literary devices that make something poetry or the analysis we perform, but the emotion it elicits through them, which is why Taylor Swift is a poet.
Why Hollywood Filmmakers Turn to Poetry When Dialogue Fails
From comedies to horror, biographies to romance, there’s a reason why Hollywood filmmakers turn to poetry when dialogue fails.
Walden Pond Punk: Henry Thoreau and the Punk Rock Aesthetic
Henry David Thoreau was the original punk. A punk of individual liberty, authenticity, and the rejection of conformity amidst a mindless society.
It Better Rhyme: ‘The Stasi Poetry Circle’
When historian Philip Oltermann is handed the Stasi file for Uwe Berger, leader of the Stasi Poetry Circle, he gives the GDR’s dark history a poetic twist.
Big Dada Kane: An Interview with Poet-Rapper Malik Ameer Crumpler
Bestriding boundaries between hip-hop, poetry, and surrealism, poet-musician Malik Ameer Crumpler forges a strange and compelling work that is utterly and uniquely his own.
Theodore Witcher’s Paean to Hip-Hop ‘Love Jones’ Charms and Seduces
In 1997, you could call Love Jones a small, curious drama that won many critics over. Today, it stands as a cornerstone of Black narrative in cinema.
Stephanie Lamprea Filters Poetry Through Bold Vocal Interpretation on ‘Quaking Aspen’
On her debut solo album Quaking Aspen, Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea makes a bold artistic statement that’s exciting and innovative.
Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen Martin Subverts Verse to Infect the Senses
Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen Martin’s words snake their way into one’s consciousness and viciously bite at the tragic absurdity of American racism.
Marianne Faithfull Displays Her Particular Genius with ‘She Walks in Beauty’
Marianne Faithfull’s She Walks in Beauty captures the sad, reflective mood of the world. It’s an apt period to a very long and moving sentence.
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.