To Pimp a Mockingbird: A Lesson Plan
Literacy, you know firsthand, is a tool, is a motivator, is the beat of education.
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Music
Keeping Time in Los Angeles
Music was noise, and noise was music, and George Antheil was on his way.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #102: Ten Influential Albums
Music columnist Rick Moody writes on ten albums that influenced him through his life.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #101: A Really Big Band
Zappa, on the other hand, was never sentimental.
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“Close to You”: A Family’s Love, Depression, and Grief
In my hands is the record of my youth.
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Voices on Addiction: Jack and the Boss
My sobriety is still a mystery to me. Forty years this December.
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You Never Win, You Never Lose: Talking with Gabriel Birnbaum
Gabriel Birnbaum discusses his new album, NOT ALONE.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Erin McKeown’s Dress
I still had the dress and decided to wear it.
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Everything Is Happening All of the Time: Talking with Sven Ratzke
Sven Ratzke discusses his new show, WHERE ARE WE NOW.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Tom May’s Hiking Boots
It’s good to know I’ll always be prepared for what’s out there.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #99: One of These Days It’s Gonna Set You Free
I’m just being an artist. I’m just being creative.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Donna Dresch’s World of Radio
It was like a nationwide Yellow Pages of radio.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Sanae Yamada’s Favorite Foods
It’s beyond comfort food. And when I’m out on the road it’s a signifier of home.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #98: Against Jazz
Nate Wooley, the reason for this piece, is a essential force in the contemporary music.
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The Mania of Queer Desire: In Praise of Fever Ray’s Plunge
I remember driving a bird mad once.
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The Lost Art of the Mixtape in Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
Lawlor uses the act of making a mixtape to show us their character’s mind at work.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #97: It’s a Wonder We Can Even Feed Ourselves
What follows, then, is a sort of first-thought-best-thought discussion of MORE BLOOD, MORE TRACKS.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Snail Mail’s Beloved Books
Wherever I go out on tour, I always have a book with me, and another for when I’m finished.
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When Michel Legrand Dies
I sing it to feel the darkness of it. I demand access.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #96: Voices of Displacement
Thank God music has wings and it can fly wherever, even countries we can’t reach.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Palehound’s Special Skateboard
In a lot of ways, I kind of gave up on my body.
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An East African Girl and Her White Troubadours
I was a lonely, dreamy, occasionally silly girl.
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Spotlight: “I Met Prince Once”
While struggling with a severe bout of depression I found myself inexplicably drawn to Prince’s music.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #95: Omnidirectional
If you love this album as much as I think you’re going to, make sure to tell a friend.
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Wanted/Need/Loved: Moby’s 30 Rock
It really was art imitating life imitating art imitating life.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #94: I Think I Might
This is a deep dive, therefore, into the site of brilliant, uncompromising contemporary work.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #173: Hanif Abdurraqib
“I mostly hope that upon putting down this book, a reader crafts their own love letter to someone living.”
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Katie Alice Greer’s Found Magazine
[B]eing a weirdo is what creativity is all about.
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Both Nostalgia and Dream: Talking with Sadie Dupuis
Sadie Dupuis discusses her debut collection, MOUTHGUARD.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #93: Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
I see both subjectivity and objectivity as constructions.
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