Portside

David Hernandez, poet from southern California, brings us to a moment of tragedy--seemingly random, seemingly fated--from the Iraq War.

New York poet Carolyn Raphael offers a not-so subtle warning to those summer readers who bake too long on the sand.

In the end, those who must live without hope easily turn to hate — or at least resentment. That is how we ended up with a referendum campaign that rarely reached beyond “fear” and “immigrants.” Throughout history, the right only feeds in the spaces vacated by progressive, inclusive politics. At least on the Labour side, much of the Leave vote has its roots more in poverty than in prejudice. And this is where Labour must begin.

While a sharp contribution to discussions of women's oppression and liberation, the book under review is faulted for not demonstrating the actual radical connection between class and other forms of oppression. While rejecting a tendency to reduce Marxism to a one-dimensional critique of class, the book's author is faulted for downplaying the limits of intersectionality as not articulating--but instead fudging--the existing gulf between identity politics and Marxism.

The "great majority of people deemed philosophers in history," writes Justin E. H. Smith in this new book, "have not had PhDs, have not belonged to a professional philosophical organization, and have not carried out their careers in ‘departments.’” Smith teases out the significance of that observation, as he seeks to help us rethink what philosophy is and what it means to "philosophize." Robert Minto assesses Smith's effort.

Leaders in both the environmental and labor movements say the country could prevent more public health disasters like the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, if old infrastructure is fixed or replaced -- like leaky drinking water pipes, and natural gas pipelines. And at the same time, the repairs would create jobs.

There are genetic differences in our ability to taste food. It has been known for many years that some people are extremely sensitive to the taste of bitter substances, while others perceive little or no bitter taste. The former were called super-tasters and the latter non-tasters. In the middle was everyone else.

(Orginally published in Spanish on SubVersiones, see links at the end.) If the national teachers movement in Mexico manages to bring down the educational reform, there will be a path to bringing down all the structural reforms that are occurring in the country’s strategic sectors, such as the energy sector. This is the assessment that teachers are making. This is precisely the fear of the federal government.

A brief primer, for those unfamiliar with Penny Dreadful: the show takes place in a fictional Victorian London where gothic creatures of the night exist, seances abound, and famous literary characters (Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray) mingle with original characters.

In essence, Wilderpeople is about an urban Maori (the indigenous people of NZ) juvenile delinquent type, Ricky Baker (the droll, roly-poly Julian Dennison), who is placed in a foster home somewhere out in the bush. There, he is begrudgingly adopted by “Uncle” Hec, a Caucasian ex-con and “bush man” played by the great Sam Neill.