Portside

Walter Benjamin found his calling after accepting he would never get a job as an academic, so he junked hitherto unfathomable reflections on language to cover contemporary culture, with an emphasis on its more popular forms, for newspapers and general publishers. His radio broadcasts, many aimed at children, show writing that is engaging, vivid and, above all, understandable. Conclusion: the best thing that ever happened to the man was his failure to land a lectureship

“There is space for us to fight along multiple dimension at once. We don’t have to pick one. I don’t have to be a worker today, a queer person tomorrow, a woman tonight. I can be all of those things, all at once, hallelujah.“ It’s not about identity politics. It’s about our lives. The very sanctity of our lives is at stake. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

These may be banner days for African American poetry and poets. For example, this year the Pulitzer Prize for poetry went to Digest, by black poet Gregory Pardlo, of Brooklyn. Yet the book trade remains overwhelmingly white. Pardlo is one of a growing number of poets and writers of color who are now challenging racial inequality in publishing, as Angela Chen reports. Along with Chen's article are links to reviews of Pardlo's prize-winning volume.

Poultry worker average about $11 an hour, or between $20,000 and $25,000 a year. For every dollar spent on a chicken product, a worker sees just two cents. That kind of pay qualifies a poultry worker with two children for food stamps and free school lunches. And they still might not see all of their promised pay. They often working more than 40 hours a week — they’re required to stay at most plants until all chickens are processed — but rarely get overtime pay.

People go vegan or veg for many reasons, but losing weight may become another reason to go meatless.

It is time to push strategies that go beyond the minimum wage and penalize low-wage employers for the harm they do to workers and communities.

Hillary Clinton’s endorsement Friday by the country’s largest public employee union marks a turning point in her nomination battle as she shores up support from a labor movement that flirted in recent months with Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

When “Supergirl” has its premiere on Oct. 26, it will enter a cultural landscape where female superheroes are better represented than ever before: where they have nearly as much opportunity to right wrongs and fight crime – and to play the central roles in their own stories — as their muscle-bound male counterparts.

ATU Local 836’s Fight for Dignity in Grand Rapids, Michigan

The UK poet Jane Spiro, a seasoned traveler and keen observer, reminds us that pleasure, wisdom and all good things depend on knowing "where to look."