In this edition: January begins, finding beauty, powerful blues, toxic water, and begonia batons.
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Loneliness, Power, and the Top 5 of the Week
“I want to be left alone, but I don’t want to be lonely.” Hanif Abdurraqib writes this about a tension that dominated the career of singer Phyllis Hyman—but it also feels like a familiar plea in this dim, early-January week, when many of us leave the chaos of extended family and drift back into our own homes, our own jobs, and perhaps our own small pockets of solitude.
All the Stories Nominated for the 2022 National Magazine Awards
Consider this your reading list for the next few weeks.
‘I Was Being Used in Slivers and Slices’: On Feminism at Odds With Evangelical Faith
“I wasn’t unified in my being. I wasn’t able to bring my whole self to the table,” says Cameron Dezen Hammon about her life as a worship leader for an evangelical megachurch.
Partners in Crime: The Life, Loves & Nuyorican Noir of Jerry Rodriguez
Michael Gonzales remembers a real friendship and the makings of a brutal crime novel.
Partners in Crime: The Life, Loves & Nuyorican Noir of Jerry Rodriguez
Michael Gonzales remembers a real friendship and the makings of a brutal crime novel.
It’s Like That: The Makings of a Hip-Hop Writer
Hip-hop was a different kind of music that needed a different kind of writer to cover it. This is how Michael A. Gonzales came of age in a time when Black writers began breaking the white ceiling.
Blackstars
Michael Gonzales reflects on the deaths of a dear friend, and a bookworm he idolized: David Bowie.
Blackstars
Michael Gonzales reflects on the deaths of a dear friend, and a bookworm he idolized: David Bowie.
Duet for a Small Porpoise’s Extinction
Kimi Eisele contemplates coherence, the near extinction of the vaquita, and the expensive bycatch of being human.


