Standard recording contracts screwed Bluesmen out of royalties in the early 1900s, and the system was no different when Columbia released “Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings in 1990.”
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Lyrical Ladies, Writing Women, and the Legend of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan’s “She Begat This” looks back at how Lauryn Hill crashed through hip-hop’s glass ceiling, while our critic looks at how the author and a cadre of black women writers did the same for hip-hop music journalism.
People Sorting: An Interview With ‘Personality Brokers’ Author Merve Emre
Merve Emre on the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
What Gwyneth Paltrow and Great Expectations Taught Me about the Male Gaze
Sara Petersen explores the origin of her desire to perform a certain type of femininity, and how the performance ultimately led her to pursue motherhood as a path to purpose.
Series Exhumes Out-of-Print Books by Black Authors
“The Blackist,” a column for Catapult’s magazine, introduces audiences to out-of-print novels written by black authors.
On Asylums
A problematic cat offered more insight into the author’s ailing father than you’d think.
Just Like Heaven? Four Stories About Nordic Countries
Why are we Americans so drawn to the Scandinavian Peninsula and beyond? Why do some Republicans speak of Sweden with disdain or horror, whereas left-leaning folks go starry-eyed? Does the recent influx of refugees to these countries mark the beginning of institutionalized xenophobia?
Betsy DeVos’s Cynical Defense of the Trump Education Budget Cuts
The Education Secretary makes the case before Congress that “less money” becomes “more latitude.”
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Angora
Angora rabbit fur is fluffy, and silky, and was especially popular with two influential 20th-century groups: Hollywood starlets and Nazi officers.
