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A Rush of Americans, Seeking Gold in Cuban Soil

Kim Severson The New York Times
American bureaucrats, seed sellers, food company executives and farmers seek the prizes that are likely to come if the United States ends its trade restrictions against Cuba.

How Jesse Williams Stole BET Awards With Speech on Racism

Katie Rogers The New York Times
The BET Awards Sunday featured tributes to Prince and Muhammad Ali, and a performance by Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar. But this year, the actor Jesse Williams commanded the spotlight with an impassioned speech calling for an end to police killings, racial inequality and cultural appropriation.

Mosul

David Hernandez Kenyon Review
David Hernandez, poet from southern California, brings us to a moment of tragedy--seemingly random, seemingly fated--from the Iraq War.

SKIN DOCTOR ON A NUDE BEACH

Carolyn Raphael White Violet Press
New York poet Carolyn Raphael offers a not-so subtle warning to those summer readers who bake too long on the sand.

Can We Combine Intersectionality with Marxism?

Laura Miles International Socialism
While a sharp contribution to discussions of women's oppression and liberation, the book under review is faulted for not demonstrating the actual radical connection between class and other forms of oppression. While rejecting a tendency to reduce Marxism to a one-dimensional critique of class, the book's author is faulted for downplaying the limits of intersectionality as not articulating--but instead fudging--the existing gulf between identity politics and Marxism.

Socrates of Amazonia

Robert Minto Open Letters Monthly
The "great majority of people deemed philosophers in history," writes Justin E. H. Smith in this new book, "have not had PhDs, have not belonged to a professional philosophical organization, and have not carried out their careers in ‘departments.’” Smith teases out the significance of that observation, as he seeks to help us rethink what philosophy is and what it means to "philosophize." Robert Minto assesses Smith's effort.

Super-Tasters vs Non-Tasters: What's Better?

Guy Crosby, PhD, CFS Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
There are genetic differences in our ability to taste food. It has been known for many years that some people are extremely sensitive to the taste of bitter substances, while others perceive little or no bitter taste. The former were called super-tasters and the latter non-tasters. In the middle was everyone else.

Penny Dreadful Is Proving that Misandry in Feminism Can Be Fun

Lauren Sarner Inverse
A brief primer, for those unfamiliar with Penny Dreadful: the show takes place in a fictional Victorian London where gothic creatures of the night exist, seances abound, and famous literary characters (Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray) mingle with original characters.

Film Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Ed Rampell Hollywood Progressive
In essence, Wilderpeople is about an urban Maori (the indigenous people of NZ) juvenile delinquent type, Ricky Baker (the droll, roly-poly Julian Dennison), who is placed in a foster home somewhere out in the bush. There, he is begrudgingly adopted by “Uncle” Hec, a Caucasian ex-con and “bush man” played by the great Sam Neill.

Prayer for Anything but Prayer

Chris Emslie Rattle
Alabama poet Chris Emslie writes: "This is a poem in response to [the] shooting in Orlando….a poem that…expresses… gratitude to be both queer and alive. I dedicate it to the shooter…in the spirit of maintaining dignity in the face of hatred."