‘Beans’: Coming of Age in the Oka Crisis
'Beans' focuses on the Oka Crisis, a 1990 standoff between Mohawk protesters and the Quebec police. The issue at hand: whether the community of Kanesatake would be allowed to mow down ancestral Mohawk land to expand the Club de golf d’Oka.
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Lucille Clifton: “blessing the boats,” “homage to my hips,” and “won’t you celebrate with me”
These three Lucille Clifton poems are ones I love for their fresh, fierce, and sassy voice; compression; deceptively simple diction; rejection of punctuation and other conventions; humor and honesty; and above all, their joyous message of female empowerment, agency, and strength.
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‘Spencer’ Fantasizes Princess Diana’s Holiday from Hell
'Spencer' is not a fairy story; in fact, many of its scenes and sequences feel more like horror. As a meditation on the crisis of mental health that Princess Diana lived through, it’s devastatingly effective.
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Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: “Aunt Chloe’s Politics,” and Marilyn Chin: “19th Amendment Ragtime Parade”
Today poems feature works by women about voting, and about our country. They emphasize the urgency and potency of the vote, reminding us of the difficult paths many have walked to secure our representation.
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Searching for Family, Lost and ‘Found’
'Found' is an intimate story about three particular Chinese-American girls, teenagers coming of age and on a quest to discover where they came from and, in doing so, who they really are.
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“Poem,” by Joan Naviyuk Kane
In today’s poem, “Poem,” by Joan Naviyuk Kane, the speaker’s search for a word in Inupiaq, the language of her mother, uncovers compounded losses—natural, cultural, ancestral, and personal—that have accrued over time and echo through generations.
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‘Passing,’ A Powerful Debut and a Profoundly Beautiful Film
With 'Passing,' every note of every scene is pitch-perfect. But the film transcends its own material. Although it’s about very specific people in a particular place and time, the questions it raises and the experiences it dramatizes are broader, more universal.
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Feminist Frights:
Halloween Horror with Women on Top
Horror is not a genre that’s often synonymous with feminism. Luckily for us, directors over the years have pushed to allow heroines to prevail.
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Athena Kildegaard:
“a safe, well-defined, acceptable unknown”
In the poem’s last lines, “evidence” is a crucial word. Seeking “a safe, well-defined, acceptable unknown,” perhaps, we look for scientific validation of the mystery, a concept fundamentally not susceptible to this kind of metric.
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‘Maid’: Beautifully Made and Terribly Important
'Maid' follows the story of a young mother who tries to escape her emotionally abusive, alcoholic boyfriend, Sean, only to find that the system offers very little opportunity for a fresh start.
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Poetry Sunday: “Tree of Life,” by Diane Frank
I wrote “Tree of Life” after the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018, to honor and grieve for my friend, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, and the other beautiful souls who lost their lives that day.
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‘Diana: The Musical’: Yes, It’s That Bad
There isn’t much to love about 'Diana: The Musical.' And that’s a shame, because a lot of talented people have spent quite a lot of time (and money) bringing the show to life.
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Poems by Lisa Rosenberg and Mini-Review of
A Different Physics
These four poems share very similar paths of creation. An unexpected sighting—backyard bird, beloved fossil, lost poet, solar eclipse—set in motion a questioning of inherited models: cultural, cognitive, and physical.
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The Benefits of Change: Retiring, Relocating or Reinventing Yourself
There comes a time, though, when old habits and patterns are obsolete, or when circumstances change enough so that they don’t work the way they used to.
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For these Female Directors, First Time’s the Charm
Here’s to larger budgets, broader audiences, and many, many more opportunities for women to tell important stories and share their unique visions, as these promising new directors have.
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“Even Now” by Susan Zimmerman
Sometimes we rely on poetry as a sort of goad—to bear witness, expose evil or hypocrisy in others, or expose ourselves to ourselves.
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What Do Margaret Thatcher and Sex Education Have in Common?
“What Do Margaret Thatcher and Sex Education Have in Common?” Gillian Anderson—a serious talent who shines equally bright in stories about affairs of state, affairs of the heart, and the clumsy affairs of hormonally challenged teenagers.
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Poetry Sunday: “Blackbody curve,” by Samiya Bashir
As enriching as it is to consider “Blackbody curve” in terms of its scientific allusions or placement in Samiya Bashir’s collection, it’s important to note that the poem stands on its own as an enjoyable and rewarding literary experience.
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In ‘Y: The Last Man,’ Women’s Work is Never Done
'Y: The Last Man' raises many more questions than it answers. It’s also smart, timely, compelling, and extraordinarily well-acted television.
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Poetry Sunday:
“Before the Killing Frost,” by Diana Whitney
“Before the Killing Frost” is suffused with longing for the natural world—an almost physical grief at summer’s end—and the longing for a beloved.
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Fall Television:
It’s the Most Musical Time of the Year
There may be several opportunities for us to enjoy some musical television together this fall.
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Leticia Hernández-Linares:
“One Million Minus One” and “Despierta”
The poems in 'Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl' paint their own murals in words glowing with passion and conviction. There is also a good dose of sass, a quality visually captured in book’s cover photo.
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In ‘The Chair,’ Sandra Oh Combines
Acting and Activism
'The Chair' tells the trials and tribulations of Professor Ji-Yoon Kim (Oh), the first woman and the first person of color to chair the English department of “lower-tier ivy” Pembroke College.
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‘CODA,’ The Celebrated Sundance Film, Sings
If you paid attention to Sundance’s (virtual) Film Festival last January, you’ve already heard of 'CODA.' It not only took the festival’s top honors — the Grand Jury Prize as well as the Audience Award — it set a new record for distribution rights.
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