Muhammad Ali
-
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Khadijah Queen
Khadijah Queen about her new collection I’m So Fine, the importance of including sexual assault as a part of everyday life, and how the poems in the collection found their form.
-
Binary States of America: A Letter to Obama
In the end, although I wanted you to be more like Charles Bronson or Malcolm or Luke Cage, I am very proud to have witnessed your historic presidency—the successes, and even the disappointments.
-
Hometown Hero
At BuzzFeed, Tracy Clayton reflects on returning home to Louisville for Muhammad Ali’s funeral and the ways in which a place and its people can attempt to hold each other: You want to dismantle it and start all over and…
-
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, the irreverent Eaton Hamilton recounts her history with pulmonary illness in gripping detail in the Saturday Essay. Hamilton, an aspiring animal researcher, discards her educational goals when the reality of her condition is revealed. Paralleling her story to the macabre qualities…
-
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: What’s in a Name? A Tale of Two Alis and Three Muhammads
Few things are as important to me as my name.
-
The Perfect Prism: Muhammad Ali and Literature
For the New York Times, Richard Sandomir investigates how Muhammad Ali influenced literature, as his life story functions as “the perfect prism through which to view sports, race, religion, politics, celebrity, comedy, tragedy.”
-
Remembering the Boxing Poet
He flipped similes and metaphors like a battle rapper holding court in a cipher that was his and his alone. Even his jabs were like couplets that told you more about yourself than you could have ever hoped to know.…
-
Respect for Muhammad Ali
Bob Dylan released a statement following the boxer’s death. Dylan responded to the news that the 74-year-old legend passed away by referencing the man’s self-proclaimed title, “the greatest”: If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on…
-
Paper Trumpets #17: Matador Ali
I watched the video of the fight online but the camera angle lowers so you don’t get to see this famous moment.
-
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #6: Royal Young in Conversation with Alexander Pridgen
I was sitting in a hospital chair by the mechanical bed of Muhammad Ali’s ex-bodyguard, Alexander Pridgen. After years of lavishing in limelight as well as dealing with the dark, violent flipside to fame, Pridgen was a patient at Rivington…