A little-known city law has educators figuring out how to talk to eighth and tenth grade students about the history of Chicago police abuse.
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It’s Like That: The Makings of a Hip-Hop Writer
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.
The Thrill (and the Heavy Emotional Burden) of Blazing a Trail for Black Women Journalists
Dorothy Butler Gilliam remembers how exciting it was to integrate The Washington Post, but also how lonely — and often attacked — she felt as the first black woman reporter in the newsroom.
When Zora and Langston Took a Road Trip
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston gave Langston Hughes a lift to Tuskegee in her Nash coupe, nicknamed “Sassy Susie.” It was one of most fortuitous hangouts in literary history.
West Across the Sea
Tryggvi Hlinason is a sheep farmer at the center of a new generation of Icelandic basketball talent. He’s trying to do something that only one other Icelander has done before — play in the NBA.
The Ladies Who Were Famous for Wanting to Be Left Alone
The Ladies of Llangollen fell in love, ran away together, and lived a scholarly life of “delicious seclusion” — secluded, that is, except for all the visitors.
O, Small-bany! Part 1: Spring
A bygone spring: notes from an adopted hometown.
O, Small-bany! Part 1: Spring
A bygone spring: notes from an adopted hometown.
Longreads Best of 2017: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
Judging Books By Their Covers
Jason Diamond analyzes his obsession with Vintage Contemporaries paperbacks from the 80s.

