When an American writer visits Tokyo to see a Mississippi Blues musician perform, she tries to figure out why Japan has a particular fondness for American Blues, the ways cultures metabolize each other, the place of Black America in Japan, and the complex forces that draw foreign people, and their music, together.
2017
Posted inEditor's Pick
Syria and the Left
Jacobin‘s Yusef Khalil conducted an wide-ranging interview with Yasser Munif, a Syrian scholar of grassroots movements, to break down the key moral and political issues feeding the Syrian war.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
The Lives of Nuns, Part 2: A Reading List
In the two years since I compiled the first installation of “The Lives of Nuns,” Autostraddle wrote about queer nuns in history, Racked shadowed (fake) nuns growing marijuana, and The Huffington Post reported on a nun’s murder and the students who want the truth. Those stories and more are included below. Seclude yourself and read.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Near-Death Experience as Training to Care for the Dying
In The New York Times Magazine, Jon Mooallem has a moving profile of doctor B.J. Miller, a triple amputee since an accident in his sophomore year of college, who’s now developing something he’s calling The Center for Dying and Living.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Over 40 Years in “Closed Cell Restricted”: How Albert Woodfox Survived Solitary
At The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv profiles Albert Woodfox, a man originally sentenced to 50 years in prison for robbery. A member of the Black Panthers and the Angola 3, Woodfox spent over four decades in solitary confinement, despite a stunning lack of evidence against him in a prison murder.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Albert Woodfox Survived Solitary
A profile of Albert Woodfox, a man originally sentenced to 50 years in prison for robbery. A member of the Black Panthers and the Angola 3, Woodfox spent over four decades in solitary confinement, despite a stunning lack of evidence against him in a prison murder.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
God Save the Queen: Seven Stories about Elizabeth II
From her education to the careful plans for her funeral, seven stories on the long-reigning monarch.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Changing Face of Reindeer Herding
The Economist goes into the frigid north to examine how climate change and economics have endangered the centuries-old relationship between Finn and reindeer.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Concussion Chronology: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE
At GQ, Reid Forgrave profiles Zac Easter, a former “smashmouth” high school football player who took his own life in the aftermath of suffering five diagnosed concussions during his football career.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE
Zac Easter, a former “smashmouth” high school football player, took his own life in the aftermath of suffering five diagnosed concussions during his football career.