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Portside
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The 19th Century’s Greatest Vegetable Photographer

Allison Meier Hyperallergenic Newsletter
The vegetable photographs of Charles Jones are remarkable, being ahead of their time in still life photography, and presenting a very modern view with the careful framing and studio portraits.

When Past Is Present: 'After Fire' Is A Nuanced Portrait of Women Veterans

Amelia Ayrelan Luvino Bitch Media
The opening scenes of After Fire, the new documentary about the struggles faced by women veterans after they leave military service, make a case for its importance through statistics. Viewers are informed that women are the fastest growing group of veterans, and that one in five veterans are women.

JFK

Peter Neil Carroll Poet Lore
As the anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination returns in a month of political trauma, Peter Neil Carroll's "JFK" reflects on the loss of possibility and the hope for renewal.

Necessary Trouble: A New Protest Movement Emerges

Ken Nash Public Employee Press
With the far right now soon to command government, ongoing movements are also growing to challenge corporate domination, white supremacy, environmental degradation, union busting and organize workers in low-paid industries. Written before the November election, Sarah Jaffe's book chronicles these and other struggles, letting the activists--many new to politics-speak, and suggesting the fight for social and economic justice is ongoing, no matter which party reigns.

The Sellout

Reni Eddo-Lodge The Guardian
This novel by Paul Beatty won England's Man Booker Prize last month. He is the first American writer to ever win the award. Here is a review of the book.

'Sky Ladder': The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

Robin Menken Hollywood Progressive
Ever since his workshop days in Japan, gunpowder artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, has been obsessed with creating a Ladder In The Sky, exploring ways to create a structure that could hang in the air and support a series of fuses. Each time he found a sponsor to underwrite the Ladder something fell through, Finally, as shown in the film, he decided to pay for the experiment himself, to create it in the fishing village on Huiyu Island, Gwanhzhu, where his grandmother was born.

Trash can to table: The rise of waste cafes

Kieron Monks CNN
The Real Junk Food Project (RJFP), which organizes networks of cafes and shops to sell ‘waste’ food recovered from supermarkets and restaurants, has launched over 120 eateries in seven countries from Israel to Australia, and the movement is gathering pace.

Jill Soloway on ‘Transparent’ Season 3, Future of Feminism and Confronting Privilege

Sonia Saraiya Variety
As the creator of a program that has become a vital example both of the transgender rights movement’s growing steam and of streaming television’s revolutionary power, “Transparent” creator, writer, and director Jill Soloway has become something of a lightning rod, too. As beloved as “Transparent” is, the show has also received criticism for the casting of a cisgender man (Jeffrey Tambor) as a transgender woman.