Related Articles
Solidarity Is a Process: Talking with Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Josh Kun, and Destin Jenkins
The basic idea behind this conversation is that solidarity is a very, very long-standing concept within and between communities of color—or all communities, really. It’s…
What Would a Feminist City Look Like? Talking with Leslie Kern
What might the feminist city look like? Recent events, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the murder of George Floyd, have added urgency to that question.…
This Is Not an Essay on Poetry of the Past 20 Years
I was supposed to be writing an essay on American poetry of the past 20 years—a synoptic essay commissioned by the poet and essayist Rowan…
Beyond the Objectivity Myth | Public Books
On March 11 of this year, I closed the door to my study, not sure when or if I would return. It is one of…
Pornography Porn | Public Books
In the fall of 1990, at the beginning of my senior year of college, I became obsessed with pornography—or, rather, I became obsessed with the…
Public Thinker: Shobita Parthasarathy on Why We Need to Diversify Expertise
To converse with Shobita Parthasarathy is to be enveloped in two kinds of warmth: that of a generous-spirited, energetic, and passionate human, and that of…
Public Thinker: Marcia Chatelain on Feminism, Fast Food, and First Gens
Marcia Chatelain is the hardest-working woman in history—as a scholar, a public intellectual, a teacher, and a force for social change. Her work includes a…
“Somewhere in This Brain”: Memories of Segregation, Soul Music & “Macbeth” with Al Bell
Al Bell is a legend of the Memphis music scene. As a songwriter, record producer, and former chairman and owner of Stax Records—the famous soul-music…
Public Thinker: B. R. Cohen on How Food Became “Pure”
Bright pink margarine. “Olive oil” made from cottonseed in Tennessee. A cross-country police chase to arrest a sugar scammer’s widow. In Pure Adulteration, Benjamin Cohen…
Identity, Islands, and Hazel V. Carby
What histories do we inherit? In the current crisis of Brexit—which points to larger global shifts toward nationalism and xenophobia—there is no more urgent a…
Responses