In the process of exploring the ideas that shaped Lorraine Hansberry’s understanding of her art and the world, the volume confirms the writer’s relevance during these troubled but potentially transformative times.
Book Review: “Cheese, Wine, and Bread” — On the Menu, Confession and Fermentation
The current rage for inserting the personal/confessional in everything from cookbooks to literary criticism can go too far.
Book Review: John Edgar Wideman — Masterful Stories that Bear the Weight of Reality
A singular muscularity infuses these short stories, a confidence that astonishes.
Book Review: “Children Under Fire: An American Crisis” — Gun Violence Run Amuck
Children Under Fire examines gun violence in America, focusing on how it is threatening our nation’s children.
Book Review: “Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch” — Nosh Nirvana?
Jake Cohen is “modern” in that he takes a contemporary approach at spreading the gospel; he is an expert at using social media.
Poetry Review: “Field Music” — Lyrical Visions of Hardscrabble Vermont
The voice in Field Music is disciplined, its cagey earthiness unfailingly engaging our attention.
Television/Theater Review: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” — Listening to the Lessons of the Blues
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a stellar artistic accomplishment, a blazingly powerful dramatic experience.
Book Review: “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” — Would You Like Time Travel with That Latte?
To his credit, Kawaguchi is a canny enough craftsman to give the time tripping cliché a healthy spin.
Book Review: Black Food Matters — “The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food”
The Rise is the rare cookbook that does more than offer a culinary and educational journey. It inspires.
Poetry Feature: Louise Glück Wins Nobel Prize in Literature
Louise Glück crafts her poems with an insinuatingly thorny power that demands the reader pay close attention.