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For Worse, For Poorer, In Sickness

Stephanie Brown Green Mountains Review
Southern California poet Stephanie Brown knows a thing or two about a relationship that sours, suffers, and never recovers as it goes on.

Sisters of the Night Sky

Sam Kean The American Scholar
This new book tells the inspiring story of a trailblazing group of women astronomers.

Don't Let Oscar Blunder Overshadow Moonlight's Monumental Achievement

Steve Rose The Guardian
Barry Jenkins’s movie is a brave, brilliant work of art that also happens to be a black, gay story. What a shame if the announcement gaffe is what people remember about its victory. There were echoes of Hattie McDaniel, 76 years ago, who had to walk up to collect her Best Supporting Actress Oscar from a table way down the back of the hall and was seated separately from the rest of the Gone With The Wind stars. A moment of triumph tranished.

Jessica Henwick’s Iron Fist Role to ‘Inspect’ Asian Stereotypes

Brandon Staley Comic Book Resources
Henwick spoke how the series is looking to investigate the Asian stereotypes that spawned the character, rather than rely on them. When asked about concerns over the character’s Orientalist origins, Henwick recounted her own recent journey from actively avoiding Asian character roles to embracing them — so long as there’s something meaningful to say.

Forecast

Philip Fried Terrain.org
The weather report is never good news, in Philip Fried's poem, about the atmospheric patterns of the nuclear age.

Remembering Martin Luther King's Last, Most Radical Book

Peter Kolozi and James Freeman New Politics
Martin Luther King's last book was downplayed when it was first published in 1967; even radicals thought it passe. On the 50th anniversary of its first publication--it is still in print-- the reviewers find much of value here for contemporary readers.

When Stuart Hall was White

James Vernon Public Books
Stuart Hall, the Jamaican immigrant who became one of the premier left wing intellectuals in the United Kingdom during the last half century, was a pioneering theorist on the rise of the right wing in modern politics, an major exponent of postcolonial theory, and a founder of Cultural Studies as an academic discipline. In this ironically titled review of two new important books of Hall's writing, Vernon offers a compelling portrait of this important figure.

‘The Salesman’: Will Academy Members Give it an Oscar To Protest Trump?

Anne Thompson Indiewire
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who won an Oscar in 2012 for “A Separation” and whose second Oscar-nominated film, “The Salesman” is playing on more than 65 screens and could pass the $1 million mark this weekend, grabbed a lot of press when he canceled his plans to attend the February 26th Oscars ceremony following President Donald Trump’s 90-day visa ban for citizens from seven Muslim countries, including Iran.

The New Deal Meal

Rachel Laudan Wall Street Journal
During the Depression, a loose coalition of Progressives set out to remake the American diet. Milk was regarded as the perfect food. This tension between scientific advice and traditional preferences can be traced back to the Great Depression, suggest Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe in “A Square Meal.”