8 Black Eco-Poets Who Inspire Us | Sierra: The national magazine of the Sierra Club
Contemporary scribes draw links between environmental and ancestral resilience. Eco-poetics may be a recently christened genre, but of course, humans have been writing poems about nature for centuries.
Can Music Ever Be Green? An Overview Of The Changing Musical Climate
Recent terminological developments including ‘ecomusicology’, defined by Aaron S. Allen as a discipline considering ‘musical and sonic issues, both textual and performative, related to ecology and the natural environment’
Gen-X Is More Creative Than Gen-Y, According to Harvard | Inc.
Roughly twice as many “talent professionals” are looking to hire Millennials than looking to hire Gen-Xers, according to a recent survey reported in USA Today. Research reveals that workers in their 40s and 50s are on average smarter than everyone else in three key areas.
For One Chicana Rocker and Memoirist, Music is Activism, and a Way of Life
For more than 20 years, the Chicano rock band has done it their way — rejecting sponsorship money from tobacco or alcohol companies (a choice Gonzalez refers to in the book as “professional suicide”) and using what she calls “participatory community art practices.” It’s not uncommon for the band to invite neighbors to workshops to co-write songs…
The Sealey Challenge: An Expansive Way of Reading Poetry | Literary Hub
The Sealey Challenge is a call to action, to any one who’d like to participate: read 31 poetry books or chapbooks of your choice in 31 days. There is no prize waiting at the end; instead, participants are left with the knowledge of 31 fresh voices, a sense of belonging to a discovered community, and—hopefully—a newfound (or renewed) love of poetry.
Why ‘All We Can Save’ Will Make You Feel Hopeful About the Climate Crisis
A new anthology spotlighting women climate leaders offers solutions, encouragement, and an invitation to join the movement. The book is a feast of ideas and perspectives, setting a big table for the climate movement, declaring all are welcome.
How to Fight Fascism Through Literature | In These Times
Arundhati Roy’s new book “Azadi” raises important questions about how we can resist authoritarianism by expressing not only outrage but joy. In the early 2000s, historian Ramachandra Guha called Arundhati Roy crazy…
Meet the PhD Student Inventing a New Scientific Language in Welsh
In Cardiff, Wales, Bedwyr Ab Ion Thomas, 23, is conducting his doctoral research on medicinal chemistry entirely in the Welsh language at Cardiff University. While it may seem ordinary for a researcher to work entirely in their native language…
The Great Unread: On William Deresiewicz’s “The Death of the Artist”
From Silicon Valley and its boosters, we hear: “There’s never been a better time to be an artist.” Anyone can easily market their own music, books, or films online, drum up a thousand true fans, and enjoy a decent living. We see proof of this, time and again, in profiles of bold creators who got tired of waiting to be chosen, took to the web, and saw their work go viral.
What Kind of Sonnets Will Computers Write? | Catapult
If poetry is an act of discovery for a writer, then even a computational poem has to uncover something new. Computers can outperform people. I have never beaten a calculator at long division or memorized the entire catalog of a library. But soon after I started a doctorate in computer science, I began to realize just how much computers were inching their way into new and wild domains.
“We Need To Start Living As If We Are A Part Of The Ecosystem.” Interview With Tomm Moore And Ross Stewart, Directors Of WOLFWALKERS
“It’s very easy for Tomm and myself to get influenced by all of the Irish folktales and mythology, there’s such a deep well to draw from, but I think this one tackles tales environmentalism and the divide of society,” says Ross Stewart, co-director, alongside Tomm Moore, of Wolfwalkers, “I mean there’s still a huge emphasis on family, like in Song of the Sea, but I think this tackles darker themes in it”.
InterLibrary Loan Will Change Your Life | Literary Hub
Even in an age when we can buy most any book with a single click, the InterLibrary Loan system remains a beautiful creation—and one that is often free. It is also a pleasant metaphor: we are loaned knowledge from afar, but we have to take care of it. Just remember not to tear that white band.
Grants Celebrate Disability Culture | M. Leona Godin< | Writers & Poets
In October, twenty disabled artists were announced as the first class of Disability Futures Fellows and received grants of $50,000 each, to be used in whatever way is most useful in supporting their work. The new fellowships celebrate disability culture by honoring accomplished practitioners in a wide variety of fields, including writing, theater, dance, architecture, painting, and garment making.
14 Fabulous Contemporary Lady Nature Writers: The Greatest—and Greenest
For Women’s History Month, we’d like to recommend 14 outstanding contemporary writers. Each of these women’s words can make us reconsider or better appreciate our relationship to the natural world.
Mi’kmaw student creates lab at Acadia to share traditional knowledge with future scientists
All first-year biology students at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., now learn about Mi’kmaw traditional knowledge thanks to the efforts of one student who was tired of seeing Indigenous perspectives ignored in science.
The Global Vaccine Poem: Do You See Us
My name is Mosab Abu Toha, and I’m a bilingual Palestinian poet from Gaza. Maybe unlike other parts in the world, Gaza has been in lockdown for many years. As a result, only a very small number of people could get the vaccine shots which were allowed to enter Gaza. I haven’t yet received mine. Here is my poem.
Mind the Gap: Why Hockney’s Piccadilly Line Roundel Uproar Signifies A Deepening Disconnect Between Art and the Public
Eddy Frankel explores why a slapdash but inoffensive logo design by the celebrated artist has caused such outrage, and how it symbolises the slow but sure decimation of arts education in Britain.
Where Did Music Come From? Here Are The Leading Theories
Did humans evolve to sing and dance, or did we invent our musical pastimes? Scientists are still debating the origin of this universal behavior.
John Hawkes: I Semi-Retired at 19. Which I Highly Recommend
The End of Sentence Star on His Punk Rock Ethos and The Road-Trip Movie That Took Him to Ireland
Two Native Writers Win Pulitzers | Indian Country Today
Writers Louise Erdrich and Natalie Diaz were named winners of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in the categories of fiction and poetry — also included was Marty Two Bulls Sr. who was named a finalist in editorial cartooning on Friday.
Neurodiversity And Entrepreneurship: Onyinye Udokporo Shows Us Where The Creative Flair Starts
We’ve heard a lot about the entrepreneurial flair of neurodivergent billionaires like Elon Musk in the recent week, runaway successes with large companies and lots of infrastructure.
Written In The Wild: The Best Radical Nature Writing
From this land is our land to why rebel, the message is that if we take heed of the natural world, we can heal ourselves.
65 LGBTQ-Owned Bookstores You Can Be Proud to Support
Visibility allows people with marginalized identities to see themselves and their stories reflected in and worthy of art. As Oprah herself recently wrote: “When we see ourselves, our presence and existence in the world has been validated.”
Books To Get You Started with Cli-Fi
As global leaders struggle to make firm commitments to reduce emissions and scientists discover ever more dangerous feedback loops and repercussions from climate change, writers are using the power of the pen to show us what the world might look like if we don’t act soon to combat climate change.
Against Nature Writing by Charles Foster
As a writer seeking to experience and express communion with the more-than-human world, Charles Foster begins to wonder if language can do anything other than constrain and tame the tangled wild.
Reading YA Books May Increase Empathy and Integrity
A new study from University of Oklahoma researchers Jessica E. Black and Jennifer L. Barnes published in Psychology of Popular Media suggests that young people who read YA books may be more empathetic than peers who do not.
The Pandemic Moved Classrooms Outside. Let’s Keep It That Way.
The pandemic forced schools to teach outside. Many teachers, parents, and kids want to keep it that way. Numerous studies have shown that outdoor learning helps students stress less and focus more, improving their overall well-being.
What the Warming World Needs Now is Art, Sweet Art | Grist
Here’s the paradox: If the scientists are right, we’re living through the biggest thing that’s happened since human civilization emerged. One species, ours, has by itself in the course of a couple of generations managed to powerfully raise the temperature of an entire planet…
Olympic-Bound Skateboarder Lizzie Armanto on Rising Above Sexism and Making History | Maggie Ryan
The progression of women’s skateboarding speaks for itself. Armanto described how “immensely” the sport has grown in the past few years, especially on the women’s side. “The gap between the 20th-ranked woman and first has become much closer. Now there’s more than a handful of women capable of winning an event.”
New Writing: Above the Tree Line | Teva Harrison | Granta Life
Teva Harrison is the writer wrote and illustrated In-Between Days, a memoir about living with cancer. Her writing and/or comics have appeared in the Walrus, Quill & Quire, Huffington Post, Carte Blanche, the Humber Literary Review, the Globe and Mail and many more. Born and raised in rural Oregon, Teva currently lives in Toronto with her husband.
Linguistic Diversity Is Key To Saving The Planet | Sustainability Times
If knowledge is power, why haven’t we already saved our planet? We know how to slow down global warming, and we understand that monocultures destroy biological diversity, yet temperatures continue to rise, and our soil is covered with soy and wheat and eucalyptus, lined up like soldiers as far as the eye can see. It seems that objective knowledge about sustainability doesn’t lead to action.
Mother and Son Who Are Both Poet Laureates Work to Inspire Others
Becoming a poet laureate is a coveted role and rare honor. Rarer still is having two laureates in the same family. Jeffrey Brown traveled to Philadelphia to meet with a poetic family and hear how a mother-son duo is working to bring poetry to a wider public.