Technology engulfs our lives. Since the birth of the steam engine in the 1830s, we haven’t looked back. However, the excitement that marked the unprecedented profits brought on by the Industrial Revolution slowly transformed into unease about the future of manual labor. Today technology critics, economists, and policy makers alike are concerned with the […]
According to Ancestry.com, I am composed thus: Benin/Togo, 40% My grandmother went to Ghana and a woman touched her face and traced a path across her forehead and down her nose and back three hundred years. You’re from Mauritania, she said. I googled “people of Mauritania,” looking for my face, my mother’s face, some […]
You know what’s spookier than demons and goblins and witches? America’s lack of belief—in people of color, minorities, immigrants, and women. I came across an article assessing events related to the confirmation of Kavanaugh on the judicial court, “The Kavanaugh hearings have become a ‘witch hunt,’ where belief is all that matters.” In the article […]
In the last days of this past summer, I was walking in a pre-dusk yellow, surrounded by flowers. I wasn’t alone. I was with my queer mother, Camille, and one of my closest friends, F. Busy schedules and personal drama had finally given way to a respite of summer meandering. My queer mother bought us […]
I didn’t stay up all night watching election results roll in from across the country. It would have been way too stressful. But I did check the results as soon as I woke up the next morning and saw that a record number of women won elections. According to the L.A Times, 121 women were […]
Spoilers abound for NieR: Automata! One of my more controversial stances on video games and literature is that the video game is the best way to tell stories. So controversial, in fact, I haven’t said it to anyone yet. I’m finally feeling brave enough to defend this particular point, so here goes. Authors, put away […]
On an average rainy day in New York City (NYC), you can expect to receive a flash flood warning on your phone, or experience extreme travel delays, but you will never hear about sewage overflow. NYC operates with a combined sewer system. This means wastewater from toilets, sinks, and drains combines with stormwater runoff after […]
Alternative Pop music might not be what you think of when you think of Walden, and yet one of the more recent albums that reflects that work is Pines by Allison Sudol. Sudol is a musician turned film actor who released music under the moniker A Fine Frenzy, taken from the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sudol’s career is […]
Digging in an archive is sort of like entering a waking dream. There’s something about physically holding an object from another moment in time—something with meaning, with history, an object worth saving. It sets off the imagination. And when you come back from the past, you can feel the object resonate in the present. Throughout […]
Last year, I reviewed Angie Thomas’s debut novel The Hate U Give. Marketed as the Black Lives Matter book, the film rights sold before the copies hit the shelves. With few exceptions, The Hate U Give has remained atop the Young Adult New York Times Bestseller list since its publication. It tells the story of Starr Carter […]
