Sarah Underwood— Reading poetry normally does not make me hungry, but after “Lake of Little Birds,” poet Katherine Larson had me ready for “[s]wordish/ drizzled with virgin oil, rubbed with/ mint and saffron”…and several other dishes. The 2010 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize uses her experience
Marcel Proust said: “The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe with the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing the hundreds of universes that each of them sees.” The Margellos World Republic of Letters
Native fashion is hip: Native American costumes are sold by the thousands every Halloween, partygoers and celebrities are photographed donning pasted feather headdresses, and some sports teams still brand themselves using Native American themes. Although some argue that these actions express admiration rather than disrespect, cultural appropriations such as these
We’re all used to reading about South Asia in the headlines, but it takes an expert to grasp the complex political, social, and military history of a region that has spent the last thirty-plus years as one of the focal points of U.S. foreign policy. Dilip Hiro, author of more
An important, and critically well received, component of this year’s Whitney Biennial is an adeptly curated roster of performance pieces and a frequently updated schedule of film screenings. Punctuating the exhibition’s expected fare of painting, sculpture, photography and installation, these elements of sound and movement serve to readjust and reengage
It’s snowing. Under the flakes, a door opens at last On the garden beyond the world. I set out. But my scarf Snags on a rusty nail, And the cloth of my dreams is torn. “The Garden,” by Yves Bonnefoy; translated from the French by Hoyt Rogers In Second Simplicity:
Adrienne Rich is unforgettable. Last month, we announced the winner of the 2012 Younger Poet Series competition, and beginning our celebration of Poetry Month in April, it takes little effort to remember one of YSYP’s best and greatest poets. The world was sad to note her passing last Tuesday, March
In her second piece for “Eminent Biography” Emily Bernard, author of Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White, explores the relationships of Carl Van Vechten and the many women who circled through his interracial and inter-artistic world of the Harlem Renaissance. After all, it is
As one of America’s foremost political thinkers, Michael Walzer has written about a wide variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy, including political obligation, just and unjust war, nationalism and ethnicity, economic justice, and the welfare state. In his forthcoming book, In God’s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew
The United States Supreme Court is, in the words of today’s New York Times headline, up against a “momentous test.” As most Americans are aware, the justices are hearing arguments about the constitutionality of requiring citizens to obtain health care: the “mandate” that is one of the central components of