We rely on readers to keep our website open to all. Help sustain a public space for collective reasoning and imagination—make a tax-deductible donation today.
Charif Shanahan is the author of Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing, winner of the 2015 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Prize. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, he was recently named a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.
. . . Free is not a negro doused
in white, blanched,
bleached, and sent down
the path. Free
almost never means alive, so
please try—
I’m asking for help.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission
For nearly 50 years, Boston Review has been a home for collective reasoning and imagination on behalf of a more just world.
But our future is never guaranteed. As a small, independent nonprofit, we have no endowment or single funder. We rely on contributions from readers like you to sustain our work.
If you appreciate what we publish and want to help ensure a future for the great writing and constructive debate that appears in our pages, please make a tax-deductible donation today.
That’s what sociologist Alondra Nelson says of Boston Review. Independent and nonprofit, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world.
That’s why there are no paywalls on our website, but we can’t do it without the support of our readers. Please make a tax-deductible donation to help us create a more inclusive and egalitarian public sphere—open to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.