The 17-Year Itch

In this personal essay, Laura Jean Baker finds that being a feminist married to a progressive man isn’t a fail-safe against sexism occasionally intruding in their marriage.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 7, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,590 words)

The Killer Who Spared My Mother

In an attempt to understand her own chronic pain, Diana Whitney uncovers a violent trauma from her mother’s past.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 3, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,338 words)

M.I.A. and the Defense of Nuance

Fariha Róisín considers the limits of cancel culture.

 

Source: Affidavit
Published: Jul 30, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,877 words)

Anika Noni Rose Was Waiting for This Moment

Theatre critic Jose Solís profiles Anika Noni Rose, the actress and singer playing the title role in the musical “Carmen Jones” at New York’s Classic Stage Company.

Published: Aug 1, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,866 words)

This Black Woman Was Once the Biggest Star in Jazz. Here’s Why You’ve Never Heard of Her.

Jazz pianist Hazel Scott was the first black woman to host a variety show on US television, but after being accused of “communist sympathies” in 1950, her career faltered.

Source: narrative.ly
Published: Aug 1, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,768 words)

The World’s Most Peculiar Company

How does Hammacher Schlemmer, which publishes the longest-running mail-order catalog in American history, survive in the age of Amazon?

Published: Jul 31, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,122 words)

All About My Mother: Brandon Taylor on Love, Rage, and Family

“My family was a series of hushed rages behind shut doors…In my family, love was the slow accumulation of moments in which I was not subjected to great harm.”

Source: LitHub
Published: Aug 1, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,336 words)

Sex and Hotels

Slate has done us all a solid by bringing Geoff Dyer’s classic Nerve essay back to the internet, which examines why sex in hotel rooms is so much sexier than in other locations.

Author: Geoff Dyer
Source: Slate
Published: Jul 31, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,613 words)

A Woman’s Work: The Art of the Day Job

In the second installment of her illustrated essay series, Carolita Johnson looks back on the many ways she’s tried to juggle work with her *work.*

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 2, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,134 words)

Groomed to Death

Grooming beaches to rid them of the tons of trash that careless humans leave behind is a necessary evil — but one that compromises habitat for sand fleas who subsist on kelp, which also feeds flies, which feed shorebirds like plovers and killdeer, and so on and so on. By making beaches too clean, we’re destroying miles upon miles of natural seaside habitat that compromises an entire ecosystem.

Source: Hakai Magazine
Published: Aug 31, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,397 words)