America’s poisoned cities

Everything is falling apart—and I don’t mean that metaphorically. In Texas, a winter storm recently caused the power grid to fail, leaving millions without heat and icicles dropping from ceiling fans. In Jackson, Mississippi, 96 broken water mains in a 100-year-old system of municipal pipes have dirtied the water for three weeks and counting, and […]

Gospel according to Harold

Between 1980 and 1994, Christian/gospel music sales grew from $190 million to $390 million. And some folks in the business were uncomfortable with that success. Because gospel music is different.  “Were the contemporary gospel artists who experimented with the rhythms of funk, disco, and hip-hop more concerned with selling records than with saving souls?” wonders […]

Microaggression rebrand

Tiffany Jana doesn’t like the term microaggression. “The very nature of the word puts people on the defensive,” says the diversity and inclusiveness expert. “It definitely is not a place from which people grow very readily.” Jana and co-author Michael Baran both took umbrage with the term and set out on a mission to rebrand […]

Exalt in the everyday

With the one-year anniversary of hunkering down in our houses approaching, it’s easy to forget about the beauty of the natural world that we still have access to. Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil are here to remind us.  Poets Gay and Nezhukumatathi will discuss their essay collections—The Book of Delights and World of Wonders, respectively—during […]

Impossible choices

Writer Sadeqa Johnson was walking the Richmond Slave Trail when she came across a shocking piece of local history. She’d heard of Robert Lumpkin, a notorious figure who ran a slave jail known as the Devil’s Half Acre, where thousands of Black people were brutally tortured and mercilessly auctioned off. But Johnson hadn’t known that […]

PICK: We Banjo 3

Pickin’ back up: Looks like we’ll need to celebrate another St. Paddy’s Day with a pint on the couch. But lucky for us, We Banjo 3 will be streaming live from Dublin, Ireland. Since 2012, the Irish quartet has been wowing critics and crowds with its innovative take on traditional Celtic, bluegrass, and American music, […]

PICK: Feeling Into The New (Moon)

Star power: Can you feel it? That change in the air? If you follow your weekly horoscope faithfully (p. 29) and align your moods with celestial bodies, local astrologer Ilana Khin’s guided meditation Feeling Into The New (Moon) may be the gentle assist you’re looking for to connect with the cosmos. Khin offers “ritual suggestions […]

Out, out and away

By Erika Howsare Most of us have experienced some degree of cabin fever during the past year. As we near the anniversary of the dramatic upheaval brought on by the pandemic, we look back on a full 12 months lived much closer to home than many folks are used to. At the same time, spring […]

Believing in ‘yes’

Attempting to sum up a person’s life in a few words is often an unreasonable, almost futile, effort. But James Yates has a word for his wife, artist Beryl Solla, who died February 19 after a 13-year battle against cancer: Yes. At some point during their 43-year marriage, Solla made a wooden folk-art inspired sculpture […]