The Latest

Politics

Against Second-Rate Democracy in Kenya

Citizens of African countries are expected to accede to a lower political standard than real democracy. Not only does this perpetuate the old colonial imagination, it is also fundamentally wrong.

Arts in Society

Toward a New Antipastoral

Vievee Francis's sensuously lyrical poetry, written against a backdrop of ecopolitical crisis, is wild for survival.

Arts in Society

What Is Called Freedom Is a Frozen Freedom

Hackers, the Swedish poet Aase Berg's latest collection, depicts the feeling of late capitalism.

Arts in Society

As Artemis: Arguing with the Man Who Complains Everyone’s Always Saying, “I Love This, I Love That”

You said solitude is everywhere
and overwhelming
because love’s worn out from repetition.

Class & Inequality Science

Monopoly Men

After an eventful summer in Silicon Valley, there is blood in the water. At stake is democracy itself.

Politics

Schlesinger and the Decline of Liberalism

Schlesinger’s America has vanished, as has his unique brand of liberalism.

Arts in Society Politics

Saving Orwell

He has been pressed into service of all sorts of causes, but the real Orwell remains unknown.

Philosophy Science

Talking about Death

End-of-Life Care and Assisted Suicide

Politics

Disrupting the Conservative Platform

Given today’s economic challenges, some on the right are beginning to embrace a more robust safety net.

Arts in Society

hover

some days i carry my basket of swans
to a lake and drown them 

the feathers do not float       no
the feathers will not stop floating

Arts in Society

Fall Poetry Microreviews

New poetry from Andre Bradley, Barbara Claire Freeman, Maureen N. McLane, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, and Amy King.

Arts in Society

Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr

On this day, the Crows of the region joined the history of People, and their own history began.

Arts in Society

To Map, to Warn, to Hope

Introducing Global Dystopias.

Politics

No Eulogy for the Living

An open letter to the Philippines.

Law

No Rights Which the White Man Is Bound to Respect

The spectre of Dred Scott is haunting St. Louis.

Arts in Society

Vertical View of a City

Buildings stake my breath away
needle in a haystack all crumpled
gets in an unmarked car & follows
as usual people are polishing their
caves below & becoming lonelier

Law

Writing While Socialist

Vijay Prashad on writing, struggle, and hope in difficult times.

Politics

What White Supremacists Want

Trump's paternalistic language of care draws an exceptional circle around whites only.

Science

Know Thy Futurist

Many visions of the future proliferate in Silicon Valley. Which one is worth fighting for?

Politics

Bureaucrats to the Rescue

Following Trump’s election, bureaucracy has gone from being a thorn in the side of democracy to being its saving grace. But bureaucrats are also frontline workers who grapple independently with complex questions of democracy.

Race

The Descent of Democracy

While the United States has expanded its borders of inclusion over time, the borders of whiteness have never fallen. Only a robust black public sphere can change that.

Arts in Society

Tarkovsky’s Horse

Sleek & black writhed in the silent dust then rose
before us, turning, as it turned, into a horse,
the one from Andrei Rublev.

Arts in Society

Poet’s Sampler: Raquel Salas Rivera

The future is not guaranteed. Raquel Salas Rivera's poems remind us that the peril is greater for some than others.

Politics

The German Left Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Could Germany's left-wing parties unseat Angela Merkel in Sunday's election? Only if they bury the hatchet.

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