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Review: ‘Rosenwald' on a Philanthropist Who Created Schools for Blacks in the Jim Crow South

Kenneth Turan LA Times
It was when philanthropist Julius Rosenwald read Booker T. Washington's 'Up From Slavery' and then met the celebrated black educator on the campus of Tuskegee Institute that his life work came into focus. Rosenwald became passionate about providing funding for more than 5,300 schools in the Jim Crow South. At one point in the pre-civil rights era, it was estimated, one in three black youths in the South attended a Rosenwald school.

Menus of Change gives kudos to restaurants

Bret Thorn Nation's Restaurant News
Menus of Change conference discusses sustainability, ecology, water sourcing, the benefits of “plant-forward” diet, and food culture.

Review: Narcos is the Next Great Netflix Show

Kwame Opam The Verge
Led by executive producer and director José Padilha (2014's RoboCop), the series tracks the rise and fall of "King of Cocaine" Pablo Escobar, and the bloody drug war between the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Colombia’s notorious Medellín Cartel. A well-crafted blend of The Wire and Goodfellas, Narcos takes an unflinching look at one of the War on Drugs’ single most violent conflicts.

The Pope and the Planet

Bill McKibben The New York Review of Books
The pope's contribution to the climate debate builds on the words of his predecessors...He also cites the pathbreaking work of Bartholomew, the Orthodox leader sometimes called the "green patriarch"...Still, Francis's words fall as a rock in this pond, not a pebble...He has, in effect, said that all people of good conscience need to do as he has done and give the question the priority it requires.

Give Us the Ballot

Michael O'Donnell Barnes & Noble Review
The Voting Rights Act (VRA), passed by Congress in July, 1965 and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson fifty years ago this month, has had a storied history. This basic achievement of the Civil Rights Movement has also seen conservatives, including long-time anti VRA campaigner and now U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, fight it tooth and nail. Ari Berman tells this story, in a book Michael O'Donnell calls both a "depressing" and a "galvanizing" read.

Algae: It's What's For Dinner

Food Technology editors ift.org
Algae, quinoa and pulses are considered by some food technologists to be the best protein sources and strong alternatives to slow meat consumption, reduce food waste and help feed the world’s growing population.

How Fear the Walking Dead Will Explore the American Immigrant Experience

Lauren Davis io9
The Walking Dead spinoff Fear the Walking Dead is going to look at how different family units operate at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and one of those families will feature a Salvadorian immigrant and his first-generation American daughter, examining the American dream in the Walking Dead world.

Eclipse

Lee Rossi Wheelchair Samurai
In this mordant poem, Lee Rossi moves between massive tragedy and small tragedy, and the human temptation to avert the eye from the one or the other.

100 Best Novels: One in Five Doesn't Represent over 300 Years of Women in Literature

Rachel Cooke The Guardian (UK)
The Guardian is known for it's best of laundry lists. A recent list of the 100 best English-language novels came with a demurrer from culture columnist Rachel Cooke, saying in effect: The ladies not meant for spurning - and that just 20 books by female authors in a best-of-100 list covering a 300-year period--especially in a listing of authors of fiction--is incomplete bordering on bizarre. Cooke elaborates on what should be on, and what she says can surely be removed.