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.
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Behind The Writing: On Interviewing
In her first column on craft, Sarah Menkedick speaks with Sarah Smarsh, Lauren Markham, and Jennifer Percy on the art of the interview.
The Ubiquity and Brilliance of Tom Petty
The musician always seemed to be more of a friend to his fans than a distant celebrity.
How Does It Feel? An Alternative American History, Told With Folk Music
On Guthrie, Robeson, Seeger, Lomax, Dylan, the Red Scare, the fall of labor, and what folk music had to do with it.
La Otra
When a woman and her daughter moved in next door, Jaquira DÃaz found her world was suddenly turned upside down.
All Hail the Rat King
From Martin Luther to The Nutcracker, Germany’s original national nightmare was a tangled knot of writhing rats.
The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes
Leigh Hopkins faces the hidden truth about the world’s most famous spiritual surgeon and the irresistible desire to find ‘the cure.’
How to Predict the Unpredictable
After the death of her dog, Katie Gutierrez grapples with the ripple effects of her decisions — and how to live with uncertainty as a mother.
Violence Girl
How a young bilingual Latina became one of punk’s enduring icons and helped create a new musical universe.
How Black Panther Asks Us to Examine Who We Are To One Another
Rahawa Haile considers how, by sliding between the real and unreal, Black Panther frees us to imagine the possibilities — and the limitations — of an Africa that does not yet exist.
