Fall Blog Titles

From the moment Patti Smith burst onto the scene, chanting "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine," the irreverent opening line to Horses, her 1975 debut album, the punk movement had found its dissident intellectual voice. Yet outside the recording studio—Smith has released eleven studio albums—the punk poet laureate has been perhaps just as revelatory and rhapsodic in interviews, delivering off-the-cuff jeremiads that emboldened a generation of disaffected youth and imparting hard-earned life lessons. With her characteristic blend of bohemian intellectualism, antiauthoritarian poetry, and unflagging optimism, Smith gave them hope in the transcendent power of art. Her interview archive serves as a compelling counternarrative to the albums and books. Initially, interviewing Patti Smith was a censorship liability. Contemptuous of staid rules of decorum, no one knew what she might say, whether they were getting the romantic, swooning for Lorca and Blake, or the firebrand with no respect for an on-air seven-second delay. Patti Smith on Patti Smith is a compendium of profound and reflective moments in the life of one of the most insightful and provocative artists working today.
 

The figure who embodied the militant and controversial spirit of the Black Panther Party more than anyone was Eldridge Cleaver. Charismatic, brilliant, and courageous, Cleaver built a base of power and influence that struck fear deep in the heart of white America. It was therefore shocking to many left-wing radicals when Cleaver turned his back on black revolution, the Nation of Islam, and communism in 1975. While Cleaver seemed sincerely disillusioned with radicalism, his erratic behavior over the next two decades revealed something that had been a latent part of his psyche all along—his narcissistic megalomania. His influence declined significantly through the 1980s until he found himself back on the streets committing petty crimes. By the time he died, in 1998, he was largely viewed as a turncoat who had betrayed the cause of black freedom. How can we make sense of Cleaver’s precipitous decline from a position as one of America’s most vibrant black writers and activists? Revolution or Death provides the first life story of one of the most notorious black revolutionaries in history.

 

In The Power of Hex, author Shawn Engel shows young witches how to use their own power in an inclusive way, and empowers them to create their own spells with their new knowledge. Beginning with the definition of hexing, unpacking the ethics, and showing how disenfranchised groups have used this type of magic throughout history for protection, The Power of Hex leads into modern takes on the practice. From there, an overview of focusing energy in different rituals leads into four main spell chapters, rounding out to a chapter dedicated to building your own spells using aligned ingredients. This book sets itself apart because it aims to simplify this powerful type of magic while enforcing morality. We don’t want to sink to the level of those we are cursing; hexing is meant to protect and arm. This beautiful, four-color illustrated guide introduce new witches to sigils, amulets, potions, and spells. Hex responsibly and effectively!

The story of how Mario Lavandeira became Perez Hilton, the world's first and biggest celebrity blogger. With Perez's help, many promising young artists reached the masses – Katy Perry, Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Lady Gaga, to name a few. Soon Perez was a Hollywood insider, but after a dramatic fallout with Lady Gaga, his blog became increasingly mean. When people called him a bully and a hypocrite for outing gay celebrities, Perez was forced to reevaluate not only his alter ego, but also himself. TMI reveals the man behind the blog in a new, revealing, and still juicy memoir.

There’s something about a fresh haircut that can change a Black man’s outlook on the world, change his outlook on himself. The experience extends beyond just the cut but to the environment of the barber shop. Growing up, getting a hair cut was a weekly event Antonio M. Johnson looked forward to more than anything. His uncle Jason was a barber and embodied everything cool. There in that tilted chair, under the hand of his uncle, surrounded by members of his community and totems of a shared experience, Johnson felt safe—felt like anything was possible. Over the years, he came to understand that barber shops are more than places simply to get a cut. They are about the only spaces in American life created where Black men can speak and receive feedback about who we are, who we want to be, and what we believe to be true about the world around us. The interpretation of the barber shop as community center falls short of capturing what they really are for so many Black men: sanctuaries in a hostile land. You Next is an intimate photographic exploration of the ways Black barber shops operate as sites for the cultivation of Black male identity and wellness in major US cities—Gary, Indiana; Washington DC; New York City; Oakland; Atlanta; Los Angeles; Detroit; New Orleans; Montgomery; Memphis, and Johnson’s hometown of Philadelphia. These photos, interviews, and essays tell the full story of the Black barber shop in America. “You next” is what a barber says to customers to communicate that they’re on deck for a haircut; it’s the question between customers to determine where they are in line. Thus, it is an invitation, an invocation, an affirmation. Because after waiting your turn in a barber shop, sharing, laughing, debating, those magic words signify you are about to be transformed.

For a long time, when people asked Dr. Meera Shah what she did, she would tell them she was a doctor and leave it at that. But over the last few years, Shah decided it was time to be direct. “I’m an abortion provider,” she will now say. And an interesting thing started to happen each time she met someone new. One by one, people would confide—at BBQs, at jury duty, in the middle of the greeting card aisle at Target— that in fact they’d had an abortion themselves. And the refrain was often the same: You’re the only one I’ve told. This book collects those stories as they’ve been told to Shah to humanize abortion and to combat myths that persist in the discourse that surrounds it. An intentionally wide range of ages, races, socioeconomic factors and experiences, shows that abortion does not happen in isolation—it always occurs in a unique context. Today, a healthcare issue that’s so precious and foundational to reproductive, social, and economic freedom for millions of people is exploited by politicians who lack understanding or compassion about the context in which abortion occurs. Stories have power to break down stigmas and help us to empathize with those whose experiences are unlike our own. They can also help us find community and a shared sense of camaraderie over experiences just like ours. You're the Only One I've Told will do both.

Long before Superman or Batman made their first appearances, there was Zorro. Born on the pages of the pulps in 1919, Zorro fenced his way through the American popular imagination, carving his signature letter Z into the flesh of evildoers in Old Spanish California. Zorro is the original caped crusader, the first hero to have a band called the Avengers, and the character who laid the blueprint for the modern American superhero. In Zorro’s Shadow, historian and Latin American studies expert Stephen J. C. Andes investigates the legends behind the mask of Zorro, revealing that the origin of America’s first superhero lies in Latinx history and experience. Revealing the length of Zorro’s shadow on the superhero genre is a reclamation of the legend of Zorro for a multiethnic and multicultural America.