Song of the Day: “Harlem River”
Of the countless homages to New York City, a multitude of styles and approaches could be cited, from Billy Joel to Lou Reed to Jay-Z. A 2013 album by guitarist Kevin Morby,…
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Max Gray
260 posts
Read more of Max Gray at Big City Sasquatch or follow him on Twitter @City_Sasquatch. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Encounters, Mount Hope, Conte, tNY.press, and English Kills Review. He co-hosts the etymology podcast Words For Dinner and is a graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA program.
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Essay, Nicole Walker considers her relationship with her partner, Erik, and the ways that raising children fray that relationship. When they sleep apart, the absent intimacy…
Song of the Day: “Bitter Lemon”
Broadly speaking, singer/songwriters have flown under the radar in recent years. Their relative heyday in the 90s was punctuated by radio darlings like Alanis Morissette, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, and…
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks applies his irreverent sense of humor to an illustrated story of three child innovators. Next, in the Saturday Essay, Megan Burbank offers a funny, tender recollection of a…
Song of the Day: “Happy Days”
While McCoy Tyner is known far and wide for his indelible influence on jazz piano, his contribution to the genre would still be staggering if he had decided to throw in…
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
Poet Kamden Hilliard is the subject of this week’s Saturday Interview. Jellyfish Magazine editor Gale Thompson talks to Hilliard about sexual violence, the “colonized” body, and his love for James Baldwin.…
Song of the Day: “Memphis Blues”
The story goes that up-and-coming composer W.C. Handy, an admirer of Scott Joplin and John Philip Sousa, was waiting at a small-town train station somewhere in the Mississippi Delta in 1903…
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks shares a short series that he failed to place at a newspaper, “Burger Butler,” along with hilarious notes from the editors who rejected the series, and his…
Song of the Day: “Matchbox Blues”
Perhaps no other blues artist in history, along with contemporaries like Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, and Lightnin’ Hopkins, had such an influence on later generations of musicians as Blind Lemon Jefferson. After…
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Interview, Deesha Philyaw talks to celebrated writer Darryl Pinckney about his latest novel, Black Deutschland, and drawing inspiration from Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories. Pinckney describes Berlin as “a…
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, we close out National Poetry Month with Sophie Klahr breaking down literary conventions in “Slant,” and Sandra Simonds offering two powerful poems about sexuality and shame. Meanwhile, Brandon Hicks illustrates what he has…
Song of the Day: “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”
In the furor surrounding the unexpected release over the weekend of Beyonce’s “visual album” Lemonade, the general attitude toward Queen Bey’s newest creation is surprise, exuberance, and unadulterated glee. Much…