Portside

Food establishments are actively catering to users seeking 'Instagrammable' moments, where an photo-op worthy experience is virtually as important as the food itself

A New York Times investigation published today put names and specifics to unsourced stories that had been circulating for years, alleging that the filmmaker-performer pressured five female colleagues to watch or listen to him masturbate.

New Hampshire poet Jane Philips Meneghini writes eloquently of a war veteran's return “with pain and secrets.” Its title derives partly from a billboard seen outside Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., that boasted “Global Vigilance, Reach and Power for America.”

A collection of essays curated by the progressive group Jewish Voice for Peace, the book under review provides a diversity of perspectives and standpoints exploring critical questions concerning uses and abuses of antisemitism in the twenty-first-century, focusing on the intersection between antisemitism, accusations of antisemitism, and Palestinian human rights activism.

Jesmyn Ward is best known for her novel Salvage the Bones (2011). In this new book, says reviewer Ibrahim, "she traces an American highway odyssey, from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Parchman Farm, the notorious state penitentiary."

Apparently, the victimization of young black girls is not newsworthy enough for the mass media or the court of public opinion to be engrossed or enraged at Weinstein levels. Both treat the sexual assault of black girls as if it were hardly news at all. The predatory sexualization of young black girls is so ubiquitous, it is damn near an accepted social and cultural norm.

Food offers a powerful, surprising and sometimes uplifting path through difficult news events. For example, the story of emergency food relief in Puerto Rico shed light on the desperation across the island and underscored the lack of government aid, especially immediately after the storm. In Houston, after the hurricanes, cooks tried to instil a sense of normalcy by making makeshift kitchens. Post Katrina, its restaurants reflected NOLA's devastation and resiliance.

It’s not just about casting two women in the leads. It’s about keeping their characters nuanced and complicated in a genre dominated by men.

Tuesday is Election Day: the Iranian poet Behzad Molavi reminds us what to do.

Ludwig Lore's grandson recounts the life of the revolutionary militant and German emigre who began a new life as a newspaper editor and political commentator. A close associate of Leon Trotsky, Lore was a founder of the American Communist Party until his expulsion when he went on to be be a noted critic of both Stalin and Hitler.