Day of my reentry, from a coupled wombman of my choosing (col.) or chosen (AFr.). Exact time and necessary racial classification unknown.
Some Afrikaners Photographed (1975) [by David Goldblatt] is pure visual music. The book’s insightful, nonjudgmental images etched into my retina, narrating a people that were part of the continent and yet insisted on apartheid. The first photo says it all: a wall built by two slaves two hundred years ago, a performative sculpture of stones, […]
On the second day of August 1978, 3:30pm, at the Cloncurry Merry Muster Rodeo: in Roy Bell’s traveling boxing tent, a small Aboriginal man named Grub climbed into the boxing ring to fight a giant pugilist. Everyone thought Grub would be pulverized. With courage, skill, speed, guile, determination, and self-belief, Grub emerged victorious after three […]
On page 106 of No Philosopher King: An Everyday Guide to Art and Life under Trump (which you can order now from Amazon or Barnes & Noble), at the beginning of Chapter 5 (‘Media/Medea/Medya’), you can read: [c]onsider the book you are now holding. If this is a blog to book situation, how did the […]
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes Athens. It was 11 at night, I still recall the TV show that was interrupted, the roaring sound, the trembling walls, the panic of evacuation. But also the excitement of not having to go to school and staying outdoors for days in a makeshift camp, a weird block party in […]
The first women’s demonstrations against martial law dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, who usurped power, abrogated the constitution, and hanged the prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Among other draconian acts, he instituted several antiwoman laws. The Women’s Action Forum was formed to challenge and combat these measures.
It feels right that it would be here in a post on my blog Minus Plato that I would launch my new book No Philosopher King: An Everyday Guide to Art and Life under Trump (Published by AC Books and available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the WexStore). This is where it all […]
I remember that day. Neighborhood seemed a little empty. We were out with my brother playing. The air and the sun felt sharp, we enjoyed it. This (sic) is a photo of a scientist, a “liquidator.” I would like to believe that it is Vladimir Shevchenko, the director who filmed Chernobyl some days after the […]
A twelve-year-old girl is walking home from school. She is in uniform and wears black, pointed shoes. She lets herself in with a key, hangs up her coat (drops it?), and turns on the TV. Some time later, her mother gets home from work. The girl says: – I’m not going back there. I’m not […]
January 29, 1987, was an ordinary day in history but a very important day for me: it was on that day that I first emerged from collective life. I went to Hainan Island off Haikou, where I saw the ocean for the first time, realized my country was about to experience huge changes, and began […]