December 20, 2015
I Am George Washington Gómez: On Works of Significant Worth and Importance
I remember the time I brought Américo Paredes’s novel George Washington Gómez into my AP English classroom; my teacher looked at the cover, frowned and asked: “Okay… So is […]
December 17, 2015
A Last-Minute Shopper’s Guide to Children’s Poetry
Before my son was born, I memorized a poem. I know how this must sound to parents and non-parents: another hopelessly sentimental exercise that’s more about the papa than the […]
December 15, 2015
COP21: In the hands of its people alive right now lies the fate of the earth and all her creatures for the rest of time.
Democracy works but democracy is hard work. It demands involvement from the entire civil society in order to make its way. This is not just my understanding but is that […]
December 11, 2015
EcoFeminism at Cop21
Few people remember the ecofeminist movement of the 1980s, spearheaded by my friends Ynestra King, Starhawk, Grace Paley, Dorothy Dinnerstein and others. Many of the young activists from around […]
December 10, 2015
Notes on Love and Violence, Part 3
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” —Albert Einstein (1) […]
December 8, 2015
Trump, Saunders
Throughout the summer and into the fall, I felt that Donald Trump’s hijacking of the Republican storyline was pretty funny. Recently, it’s become less funny; and yesterday it stopped being […]
December 7, 2015
An Issue of Blood
This Thursday is Emily Dickinson’s 185th birthday; she was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she died in 1886. In 1885, she wrote to Mabel Loomis Todd, who […]
December 6, 2015
Uri Ur (Wake Up): On Aviv Geffen and Impossible Homelands
Ha’eymah ha’eyvah shirim shel milchamah vesin’at achim sheb’chol yom goveret. (The terror, the hostility the songs of war and brotherly hate that gets stronger each day.) —Aviv Geffen, “Uri Ur” […]
December 4, 2015
Slang Cinema: On Camp Lo and Ski Beatz
If you were a hip hop head in the late 1990s, then you probably remember the exact spot on earth you were standing when you first heard Camp Lo’s first […]
December 1, 2015
Notes on Love and Violence, Part 2
“Well, he acts like he has genuine emotions… But as to whether he has real feelings is something I don’t think anyone can truthfully answer.” — Dave Bowman on […]
November 30, 2015
A Moveable Funeral
Sales of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast spiked in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. The media has framed it as a book that captures the dream of Paris, […]
November 25, 2015
Thanksgiving Playlist
Yes, indeed, the “winter” has come to California. In the city of angels, we are all shopping in the supermarkets of California today. And even though it’s a month past the […]