Michael S. Harper (1938-2016), Acclaimed African American Poet

Poetry Foundation
Michael S. Harper, who died on Saturday in Rhinebeck, N.Y. at the age of 78, was a major American and African American poet. He was a writer of complex poems that combined history and memory with a deep network of African American cultural, folkloric, and musical allusions and symbols. This brief biography of Harper is from the Poetry Foundation's website. A generous selection of Harper's work can be found on the Foundation's website.

Film: ‘Daughters of the Dust,’ a Seeming Inspiration for ‘Lemonade,’ Is Restored

Mekado Murphy The New York Times
In his praise of Julie Dash's “Daughters of the Dust” during its initial theatrical release in 1992 critic Stephen Holden called it “a film of spellbinding visual beauty.” Now restoration of the film aims to bring more of that beauty to the forefront. The Cohen Film Collection announced that it has completed a digital restoration of “Daughters of the Dust” and plans to release that version theatrically this fall.

A WRITER'S PLEA TO SAVE THE FOODS WE LOVE

Keith Pandolfi Serious Eats
Simran Sethi's book, "Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love," is a call to arms: a warning of the dire consequences of what she sees as a disturbing lack of diversity in the foods we eat.

The little woman round the corner

John Daniel Lighting the Fire
The English poet John Daniel provides a perfect Mother's Day memory of his hard-working Mum, Violet Daniel, who defied the usual expectations of mothering. Happy Mothers Day!

There's No Going Back

Sam Rosenfeld Democracy
The initiatives of the New Deal and FDR's Second Bill of Rights represented less a permanent triumph of the welfare state or a model for a progressive way forward than a unique combination of non replicable circumstances, including a temporary cessation of enduring tensions involving race, immigration, culture, class, and individualism, which served to sustain a pale social democratic reform for just a few decades. What followed instead was today's new Gilded Age.

Chilled

Phyllis Wax Portside
Milwaukee poet Phyllis Wax throws a cold eye on this year's election: her conclusion is chilling.