Those Limits Were Not Hindrances: An Interview with Megan Pugh By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary How a writer worked hard to understand one of American music’s most mysterious performers while protecting his past, and art.
‘Women Created Our Worlds:’ Native Art Reclaims Its Power By Soraya Roberts Feature There’s a direct line from missing and murdered indigenous women to the repression of Native women’s contributions to art and culture, but those long-silenced voices are now making themselves heard.
All the Obstacles in a Mother’s Way By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Everyone has something to say about this mother’s body, career, and parental choices.
Don’t Come Around Here No More By Rebecca Lehmann Feature Tom Petty’s psychedelic Alice in Wonderland video reminded one woman of the way sexual harassment shaped her adolescence and made her want to disappear.
Sex Work and Workers: A Reading List to Get You Beyond Law & Order SVU and Pretty Woman By Sara Benincasa Reading List The best way to learn what being a sex worker is like is to listen to sex workers.
The View From 5-Foot-3 (and a Half) By Soraya Roberts Feature Maybe we can’t transcend height, but can we transcend the internalized misogyny that causes us to limit ourselves and judge other women?
Concealing a Catastrophe: ‘The Day the Music Burned’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “The vault fire was not, as UMG suggested, a minor mishap, a matter of a few tapes stuck in a musty warehouse. It was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business.”
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll By Longreads Feature From Bob Dylan to David Bowie to The Beatles, the legendary Beat writer’s influence reached beyond literature into music in surprising ways.
It’s Like That: The Makings of a Hip-Hop Writer By Michael Gonzales Feature 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.
Fashions Fade, But Fleabag Is Forever By Soraya Roberts Feature The jumpsuit is great, but it won’t get you a hot priest or a BAFTA — you’re not Fleabag (or Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
Remembering Roky Erickson By Tom Maxwell Feature Despite ongoing personal struggle, the psychedelic rock pioneer left a singular body of work that continues to influence musicians and challenge listeners.
The Artificial Intelligence of the Public Intellectual By Soraya Roberts Feature Today’s public intellectuals have their own version of the American Dream, where one person, on their own, can achieve anything — including being the smartest person in the room.
The Erotic Thriller’s Little Death By Soraya Roberts Feature What/If references the celebrated steamy genre of the 80s and 90s, but lacks its guts. Why can’t any of the new neo-noirs go all the way?
Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand By Longreads Feature The singular singer released her groundbreaking album in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington, and used her art and appearance as weapons in the Civil Rights struggle.
‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop By Danielle Jackson Feature Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
Falling Stars: On Taking Down Our Celebrity Icons By Soraya Roberts Feature Celebrities act as a symbol of capitalism. When we question it, we question them too.
Shelved: Tupac and MC Hammer’s Promising Collaboration By Tom Maxwell Feature Sometimes the most fertile creative relationships are the most unlikely.
Learning About Love from Strangers By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight There are the marks lovers leave on trees and rocks, and the marks lovers leave on each other.
After a Fashion By Soraya Roberts Feature Trying so hard to set trends for the future, fashion’s institutions can’t stop stumbling over the past (and the present).
The Joy of Watching (and Rewatching) Movies So Bad They’re Good By Michael Musto Feature Michael Musto sings the praises of his favorite cinematic clunkers.
Critics: Endgame By Soraya Roberts Feature If there’s no earth, there’s no art. How do you engage in cultural criticism at the end of the world?
Prince of the Midwest By Longreads Feature For one Wisconsin farm boy, Minneapolis will always be the city of Purple Rain.
The Enduring Myth of a Lost Live Iggy and the Stooges Album By Aaron Gilbreath and Tom Maxwell Feature In 1973, Columbia Records professionally recorded the infamous band for a planned concert record. Columbia never released it. Maybe they never recorded it.
Remembering Scott Walker By Tom Maxwell Feature When the pop singer went avant garde, he traded narrative meaning for emotional truth to explore those things that lay beyond language.
None of the President’s Men By Soraya Roberts Feature Journalism now is a lot more fear and insecurity and a lot less corduroy and Robert Redford, but you’d never know it from what is projected.
Editors Thinking About Editing at the AWP Conference By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary The only way to work as an editor and a writer is to continue learning from other editors and writers.
It’s Tennis, Charlie Brown By Patrick Sauer Feature An obscure character was a stand-in for the creator of Peanuts when he fell in love with tennis during the sport’s boom in the 1970s.
For the Thirsty Girl By Soraya Roberts Feature Thirst used to be desperation, now it’s aspiration. And men are finding it hard to quench.
‘What Is Missing Is Her Soul’: Women and Art, Girls and Men By Alana Mohamed Feature In a new book, Camille Laurens examines the life of the model for Degas’ masterpiece, “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen.” But there’s still so much we don’t know.
