Partners in Crime: The Life, Loves & Nuyorican Noir of Jerry Rodriguez By Michael Gonzales Feature Michael Gonzales remembers a real friendship and the makings of a brutal crime novel.
How the U.S. Systematically Puts Black Farmers Out of Business By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight How America stacks the deck against black farmers.
The Resplendent Photography of Carrie Mae Weems By Danielle Jackson Highlight Carrie Mae Weems may be our best contemporary photographer.
Elena Ferrante and the “My Brilliant Friend” Adaptation for HBO By Danielle Jackson Highlight Merve Emre interviews Elena Ferrante about an upcoming HBO adaptation of her novel, “My Brilliant Friend.”
Remembering Ntozake Shange By Danielle Jackson Commentary The poet, novelist, and playwright Ntozake Shange died Saturday, October 27.
On Blackface, Bert Williams, and Excellence By Danielle Jackson Commentary A complicated racial anxiety rests at the heart of American entertainment.
Reading with Kiese Laymon’s “Heavy” By Danielle Jackson Commentary “Heavy” confronts generations of Black art.
I’ll Have an Open-Face Nacho Sandwich With Extra Pork Fat and a Side of Mop Water, Please By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Investigating the benefits of menu hacking and customer re-personalization.
Greens By Longreads Feature “’I’m good,’ I told him. I didn’t tell him I was running eleven miles, playing two hours of ball, and eating eight hundred calories a day.”
A New View of Crime in America By Longreads Feature What does incarceration do for the member of a family that views prison as a rite of passage? A New York Times reporter takes a close look at intergenerational criminality.
Filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ Adaptation of James Baldwin’s “If Beale Street Could Talk” By Danielle Jackson Highlight “I think when I found film,” he said, “I found a way — I still hide a bit — but a way to not hide as much. I felt like I could put these things into the work because it’s the movie. It’s not me.”
Lady Gaga, Celeb Profiles, and the Third Remake of “A Star is Born” By Danielle Jackson Highlight Rachel Syme profiles Lady Gaga and dives deep into the mystique and mythology of “A Star is Born.”
25 Years of Vibe Magazine By Danielle Jackson Highlight From its first issue in 1993, Vibe magazine reflected the “multicultural mainstream.”
The Gilded Age of (Unpaid) Internet Writing By Rebecca Schuman Feature How ’90s webzines heralded the best — and worst — of today’s online media landscape.
Home Is a Mug of Coffee By Candace Rose Rardon Feature It takes a lot of percolating to become your own person.
Appropriation in the Land of Enchantment By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In New Mexico, cultural appropriation by newcomers is fueling Indigenous activism over colonialism and property rights.
Listening for a Way Out By Niya Marie Feature Growing up, Niya Marie sought refuge in Whitney Houston’s ethereal notes; as an adult, Marie found recognition in her silences.
Home Is a Mixed Bag, Like America By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Why would a successful black woman move from the Bay Area back to Mississippi?
On the Origins of the Word ハーフ, or Hafu (Half): Belonging and Not Belonging at Once By Danielle Jackson Highlight Nina Coomes unpacks the origins and legacies of the Japanese word hafu, or half.
An Igbo Slaver’s Descendants Reckon With History By Danielle Jackson Highlight Adaobi Tricia Nwaumbani reveals her Igbo great-grandfather’s history with the transatlantic slave trade.
How Japan Deals with the Remains of Your Days By Krista Stevens Highlight In Japan, business is booming for those who clean out apartments after people die.
Bridget Jones’s Staggeringly Outdated Diary By Rebecca Schuman Feature Nineties relationship books had some serious issues, man.
The Castration Heard Around the World By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Lorena and John Wayne Bobbit’s famous castration story remains relevant twenty-five years after the incident, and just as painful.
‘Wild With Love’: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah on the Portraits of Henry Taylor By Danielle Jackson Highlight Henry Taylor’s portraits are sacred objects that lovingly center black subjects and black interiority.
Some Like It Hot By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The history of the chili pepper is entwined with the history of Chinese Communism and the fiery temperament of the Sichuanese people, but why?
The Town That Camp Built By Krista Stevens Highlight “Key West’s brand of camp reflects Wolkowsky’s understanding — never on the nose, always sideways, a place where anonymity feels like an innate right.”
How Brooklyn Lost Itself By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight On the way from the old Brooklyn to the new branded, post-industrial Brooklyn, the city got lost.
A Reading List for Reconsidering the Fourth of July in 2018 By Danielle Jackson Reading List How should we think about the Fourth of July in 2018?
Seeing the Modern World In the Disposable Plastic Straw By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight How our planet came to be filled with more disposable plastic straws than most of us will ever need.
