“Instead of homes, we live in commodities.”
2019
When Black Male Singers Were Sex Symbols
Teddy Pendergrass was the R&B singer women wanted and who men wanted to be. And the one whose life-sized cardboard cutout stood in one family’s living room.
Carvell Wallace on ‘Moonlight’ Writer Tarell Alvin McCarney’s Next Acts
Tarell Alvin McCarney’s Broadway debbut,, “Choir Boy,” is a tender coming of age story about a queer Black boy at a prestigious boarding school.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Tiffany Stanley, Raj Telhan, Alex Pareene, Nico Muhly, and Chris Heath.
Motherhood: ‘Thank God I think I love it??’
“We are experts in our own lives, but ignored by the world at large.”
True Crime and the Trash Balance
True crime has a reputation for being trashy, but a recent renaissance has it tipping into advocacy.
Alternative Reality: ‘Inferno in Paradise’
President Donald Trump has obliterated any notion of off-time for round-the-clock journalists, but it was still a relief to see that the alt-weeklies I read for this installment in my regular reading list were starting off the new year strong. The Chico News & Review, whose work I have previously highlighted here, can be forgiven, […]
Mary Oliver: Listening to the World
In the wake of her death, revisit this classic 2015 interview with poet Mary Oliver. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination.”
The Gift Economy
In the desert at Burning Man, Joanne Solomon dissects the implicit transaction that defines her cross-cultural love affair.
Diary: How I Write Music
Composer Nico Muhly writes about his primary goal: “to create a piece of art that is better than the same amount of silence.”
