Everyone should read historian Timothy Snyder’s important essay “The American Abyss: A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next.” He writes: Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to createContinue reading “Required Reading”
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Poems in the Language of Death
In 1970 Paul Celan published a single line in the Paris journal L’Ephémère: “La poésie ne s’impose plus, elle s’expose” — Poetry no longer imposes itself, it exposes itself. Exposure resonates throughout Celan’s work: the isolated self, scarified by the horrific forces of history, exposes its wounds to the world in eloquent, gnarled, and deeplyContinue reading “Poems in the Language of Death”
The Independent Spirit of Herbert Gentry
Herbert Gentry was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1919 and died in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2003, at the age of 84. In 2001, he moved permanently to Sweden because America lacked an adequate health care program. Otherwise, he would have likely returned to New York City. During his lifetime, Gentry lived in Harlem and Chelsea, ManhattanContinue reading “The Independent Spirit of Herbert Gentry”