Schemes, Dreams, and Some Thoughts on Poetry
Listening to Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When Barack Obama and Donald Trump met at the White House shortly after the election, President Obama was, as always, a statesman and gentleman.
The Difficult Lessons of Richard Wright's Native Son
Lately I've been thinking about Richard Wright's famous protest novel, Native Son (1940). The book is a page-turner like no other, and there is much to learn from it during this long season of exhibitionistic murders.
Somewhere in America: Before and After Charleston
Somewhere in America, as I write this, you sit hunched over a laptop in your family’s basement planning a rampage.
The Trouble in Baltimore, the Literature of Ann Petry
If you want to understand the mayhem in Baltimore that occurred after Freddie Gray's entirely preventable death, get a copy of Miss Muriel and Other Stories (1971) by Ann Petry and read "In Darkness and Confusion," a novella based on the Harlem race riot of 1943.