Posts Tagged: Kentucky
To Look for America: A Road Trip, a Soundtrack
One thing I was taught about travel—because my father is a black man born in Alabama in 1950—was that there are safe places for black people to go and places that aren’t as safe.
...moreAlbum of the Week: True to Self by Bryson Tiller
Bryson Tiller made himself known in 2015, when, hailing from the streets of Louisville, KY, the then-twenty-two-year-old singer, rapper, and songwriter posted his debut single “Don’t” on his Soundcloud page, introducing a new style that blends “the urgency of trap music with the smoother sound of alternative R&B.” Subsequently, Tiller released his first album, T R A P […]
...more
Spotlight: “Unofficial History” by Arwen Donahue
“Unofficial History” takes place on a 21st-century Kentucky farm, yet the landscape of the Holocaust is nearer than it might seem.
...more
Falling into Fear
I knew that just as the country was reverting, so was I. Every face now seemed a potential enemy and these were feelings I had not felt in almost twenty years.
...more
The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #15: Contemplation + Politics
Thomas Merton, the most prominent Catholic monk of the 20th century, famously left the world to live a cloistered life at the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemini in rural Kentucky, taking vows and becoming Father Louis. As many will recall, he described his journey to the cloister in one of the century’s masterpieces of memoir, The […]
...more
Reimagining America
I’m a performer, and in hard times, this job gets harder. I make music when the nation mourns, and my music can sound like hope.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with J.D. Vance
J.D. Vance talks about his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the perils of upward mobility, and never forgetting where you come from.
...more
Spotlight: “Distance” by AshleyRose Sullivan
“Distance” is part of a growing collection of graphic essays in which AshleyRose Sullivan tries to make sense of her oddball family history by looking at it through the lens of popular culture.
...more
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Mike Adams’s Uncompromising Taste
This stuff is my favorite drink in the world, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
...more
Sound & Vision: Tim Barnes
Internationally recognized percussionist, composer, sound designer, and audio archivist Tim Barnes talks with Allyson McCabe about how his musical career has developed and changed, and what he’s up to now.
...more
VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Tania James
Tania James discusses her most recent novel, The Tusk That Did the Damage, the challenges of writing an elephant narrator, and the moment when she knew she could be a writer.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Manuel Gonzales
Manuel Gonzales talks about his new novel, The Regional Office is Under Attack!, transitioning from nonprofit work to teaching, and how to zig when a trope wants you to zag.
...more
Are We All Our Own Vanishing
We will never be an exclamation point, an ellipses, a question mark. We must all leave with this: a period—solid, and utterly irrefutable.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Garth Greenwell
Garth Greenwell discusses his debut novel, What Belongs to You, crossing boundaries, language as defense, and the queer tradition of novel writing that blurs boundaries between fiction and essay and autobiography.
...more
Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
(Dan Weiss is out on tour with his band The Yellow Dress. He’ll be back on August 3rd.) In galactic news, now we know what Pluto looks like. Ever wonder where all the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge money went? Two men film themselves holding hands on a walk through Moscow. Hit an inconvenient red light […]
...more
Daisy Duke and the Manosphere
The story goes, if you can dehumanize a population with a stereotype, there’s no need to share their fate.
...moreNo Lights, Nobody Home
Alex Taylor’s collection of stories set in Kentucky channels Southern greats like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor.
...more