essays

It’s early morning in Los Angeles as I walk a side street to a coffee shop to work on a revision of this essay. I’m listening to the audio version of the article “An Epidemic of Disbelief,” a story unearthing the patterns of institutional negligence by the police...

When I first read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, it stirred up feelings of indignation, confusion, and disappointment.  However, more than anything, this book made me think. That is the beauty of this book, not that it necessarily made me believe in Malcolm X’s...

The creative landscape is changing. Some might say not nearly fast enough, but change usually occurs in waves—some high and some low. Right now, I’d argue we are somewhere in the twilight of the high and low as various creative industries—namely publishing,...

“Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii” is a marble sculpture designed by Randolph Rogers [1825–1892], and reproduced in two sizes for 167 copies. “Nydia” portrays how narratives can inspire art and, in turn, how art can function as a communicative medium that...

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC – 8 BC), known to the anglophone world as Horace, was a Roman lyric poet. Published between 23 BC and 13 BC, his Odes are a collection of praise songs, adapted principally from earlier Greek lyrics, on diverse subjects. In Horace, The...

Today, books are increasingly available to us in formats other than the printed volume. At the same time, the communal activity of the book club is adapting to the current technological age: Authors are establishing Facebook groups and engaging in Twitter discussions...

For scientists, these are times both exciting and apprehensive. From designer babies to genomic medicine, artificial intelligence, and molecular surveillance, science is arguably the most dominant force defining our future.But even as they eagerly claim the mantle of...

Cybernetic signs and symbols have increasingly become a magnetizing spectacle in contemporary culture. The cyborg as a hybrid of human and machine in high fashion runway shows of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and the ways in which it engages with identity,...

I love the supermarket — fiercely, obsessively, weirdly. I go to the supermarket when I feel overwhelmed. And it turns out I’m not alone. I used to hang out at my local grocery store every day and see hundreds of other people stopping in for lunch at the hot bar, or...

 It’s a truism for Octavia Butler fans: the postapocalyptic California landscape of her landmark Parable of the Sower (1993) is nearly indistinguishable from contemporary reality. In the novel, Butler’s teenage protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, navigates a...

The 2020s have arrived, bringing sensational headlines on the state of the global economy that anticipate “another Roaring Twenties” or condemn the comparison as “absurd.”  What these headlines miss, and often obscure, is the reality of political turmoil and economic...

Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, a tragedy likely written in late 1593 and set in ancient Rome, is a meditation on early modern race relations that still resonates today. The play follows a white, Roman family, the clan of Andronici, in their quest for vengeance...