“I think it was important, a way of restoring their humanity, to give them back their names.”
POET AND UMASS AMHERST PROF MARTÍN ESPADA: “THIS BOOK IS … MASSACHUSETTS. IT’S WHO I AM.”
Book
THE HISTORY OF STAND-UP: FROM MARK TWAIN TO DAVE CHAPPELLE
From the podcast to the book, Wayne Federman chronicles the business of joke-telling.
ADAPTATION: A NEW ENGLAND “ROGUE SCHOLAR” SHAKES UP SHAKESPEARE
Michael Blanding’s new book goes beyond what “scholars have previously realized.” “At the very least it should be explored.”
DISASTER AND BUREAUCRACY: KIM STANLEY ROBINSON’S “THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE”
Robinson also passionately advocates direct democracy and popular participation in small scale, but he is oddly reserved about capitalism, which underlies climate change and prevents action to abate it.
ZEITGEIST PRESS RELEASING WORK BY LATE BOSTON POET MELINDA KWESKIN
Virtual event this weekend.
BOOK REVIEW: REAGANLAND
A seemingly endless recitation of events
AGE OF ILLUSIONS: BACEVICH LOOKS AT AMERICA’S LOST TIME
In general, though, the noted historian's depiction of the '90s and '00s as an age of fraudulent promises and wasted opportunities rings true.
INTERVIEW: A PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO GREATER BOSTON
“A People’s Guide to Greater Boston,” out now from the University of California Press, is a very readable text but one that’s hard to define. A guide book with a historical, left-wing perspective, it is both thoroughly well-researched and pleasing to the eye: a high-production-value text and a far-reaching survey of important sites in and around the city.
THANKSGIVING FICTION: WE LIVE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE THE BAD GUYS WON
"Americans today live in a very real universe where the functional equivalent of Nazis—European colonists—committed genocide against Native American peoples..."
HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST
An interview with Ibram X. Kendi
DigBoston sat down with Ibram X. Kendi, the author of Stamped from the Beginning, to discuss his new book, How to Be an Antiracist, ahead of his talk at Brookline Booksmith, Aug 28, at 6 pm.
How to Be an Antiracist serves not only as a guide to defining and recognizing racism in our society, but also chronicles Kendi’s own path towards antiracism. The mix of critical self reflection, historical recollection and the precise naming of racist ideas and systems creates a potent call to action for a better, antiracist society.
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I define an antiracist as someone who is expressing an antiracist idea or supporting an antiracist policy. I believe it is very important to have terminology to define ourselves by what we are, not by what we are not. The ideology behind the saying “I’m not racist’ was popularized first by eugenicists and then Jim Crow-era segregationists and today is still used by white nationalists. I don’t think people realize the term “not racist” has long functioned as a term of denial. It is a defense mechanism that allows people to refuse to recognize the ways in which they are being racist when they are charged with racism.
When someone today says “I’m not racist,” they are connecting themselves to eugenicists, segregationists, and white nationalists. In contrast, antiracism has a very clear definition. An antiracist is someone who believes that no race of people is inferior or superior in anyway—having been raised consuming racist ideas, being antiracist requires constant self-awareness and self-criticism.
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