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Can We Touch Your Hair?

Skye Jackson Rattle
“I wrote this poem in response to the sense of horror I felt,” says New Orleans poet Skye Jack, “and in memory of my ancestors who would not have been given the privilege to refuse their touch.”

Disability, Class and Agency

Roddy Slorach International Socialism
The books under review give manifold examples of how Britain’s austerity regime penalizes differentially abled people, but the examples are equally evocative of conditions in the US and elsewhere. The essay looks at how affected people fight back.

African Europeans: An Untold History

Eric Martone New York Review of Books
Reviewer Martone calls this book "a well-researched, ambitious, accessible, and concise but comprehensive introduction to this neglected story in European history.”

Minnesota Rice: Twin Cities Chefs Team Up To Combat Racism

Cinnamon Janzer Food & Wine
Asian American chefs are sharing their stories the best way they know how—through food. "We're trying to get people to start that conversation about anti-racism, but start it by inviting people to the table," Minnesota Rice founder Nguyen says.

Simone Biles Doesn’t Owe Fans Anything

Aaron Freedman Jacobin
At the end of the day, Simone Biles is a worker. And she was right to put her mental health first, just as any worker should be able to stay home sick instead of pouring their life force into serving someone else.

Driving While Black and Jewish

Esther Cohen
Nothing pushes the panic button faster than the sound of a police siren coming up behind you, as New York-based poet Esther Cohen reports.

Heine’s Heartmobile

Michael Hofmann New York Review of Books
The liveliness and invention of Heinrich Heine’s writing changed 19th century German literature for the better. Poet, writer, literary critic, satirist and ironist, but banned in his homeland and expatriated to Paris, he was well appreciated by Marx