What have you been reading, watching, making, doing this week? Weigh in in the comments.
What We’re Reading…
With Putin’s autocratic regime putting on a show at Sochi (go team USA), it’s no surprise that freedoms of speech and expression have been foremost in our minds – and on our reading lists – especially with the release of Freedom of Expression: The Gray Areas by our friends at Guernica. We salute their work on this issue in collaboration with Free Word and in association with Article 19 and English PEN. Read it!
And Re-Reading (ICYMI)…
Ian Shapira and an amazing team at the Washington Post should be commended for their unforgettable work on this story about the Wise family, whose narrative of military service and personal loss deserves reading, re-reading, listening, and listening again.
And Looking At…
We couldn’t tear ourselves away from this video of two (now former) members of Pussy Riot on The Colbert Report or stop looking at these gorgeous maps of running routes over at Deadspin – not to mention the web site for this exhibition of thirty years of work from the superlative Carrie Mae Weems (which we cannot wait to check out in person at the Guggenheim).
What We’re Commemorating: Anniversaries, Mournings, Celebrations…
This week marked the anniversary of two landmark pieces of legislation: Title VII of The Civil Rights Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Slate‘s Clay Risen offered up this background of the racist, accidental origins of Title VII. Over at Huffington Post, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand noted the anniversary of FMLA by arguing that paid family leave is long overdue in the U.S. (reportedly one of only eight countries without such a policy). Find out more at #FAMILYAct.
February is Black History Month, which we’re commemorating by reading pieces like this one from LeVar Burton on Alex Haley and visiting the Black Powered: Amiri Baraka In Memoriam pop-up exhibition at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. If you’re in NYC, check it out ASAP! Tomorrow is the last day, people.
There is still much mourning to be done over the untimely passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman, a reality poignantly brought home by some great writing about the elusive and pernicious nature of addiction. Heartbreakingly, we must add the loss of poets Maxine Kumin and Hashem Shaabani to those great artists we have to mourn this week.
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