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Jazz: On the Cusp of a New Golden Age
Jazz fans are world class in many regards, but especially when it comes to fretting. That’s not an insult; jazz lovers have good reason for concern. Despite the rise of programs like Jazz at Lincoln Center and organizations like SF Jazz and the Thelonious Monk Institute, jazz is starved for institutional support. Sales of jazz…
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Remixing Grandma's Voice
Every time a format changes – from tape to CDs to MP3s – some crucial information risks obsolescence and loss. That’s why my Mother’s Day present to my family wasn’t a card or a call. It was a digital version of an interview I taped with my grandmother, Elizabeth Evans, back in 1990. Eighteen years…
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What Did You Do Today, Mommy?
As I sit here in my bedroom with the door closed, reflecting on the beauty of motherhood, I am distracted by the mess that surrounds me. A Trident bubble gum package lays open on the floor, half of the gum devoured in one shot judging by the trail of empty wrappers around it. An open…
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Viva Vogue Italia!
Don’t let “America’s Next Top Model” fool you—the politics of the runway are rarely so neatly wrapped up. Sure, four of the show’s nine winners so far have been black (plus Boricua Jaslene Gonzalez), but catwalks in the States and overseas have been slow to integrate as industry insiders still claim that non-white models just…
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Oakland A's Envy
I root for both Chicago baseball teams, but I have Oakland A’s envy. I’ll bet a lot of other baseball fans suffer from the same syndrome, especially now that the A’s are one of the biggest surprises in baseball this season. It isn’t that the A’s win more than any other team. They don’t. It’s…
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Across the Water
At about the same time my little sister was getting married three weeks ago – it was a lovely beach ceremony in the Florida Keys; she was beautiful, and I was teary, having the bittersweet privilege of subbing for our dead father on the walk up the aisle – food riots were breaking out across…
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Uncle Don's Double Mustard Greens & Roasted Yam Soup
Yield: Serves 4 to 6 Soundtrack: “I Can’t Stand the Rain” by Ann Peebles from Brand New Classics Working on my first book, Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, was a deeply spiritual process for me. I often tell close friends how the book was written through me. Inspired by a technique described in…
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Dear Gov. Dean: Are You Ready to Lead?
Dear Gov. Dean, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are not tied. You know this. There is little chance of a gracious settlement offer from the Clinton camp. The slim margin in Indiana gives her just enough rationale to stay in it. Given that she will not voluntarily withdraw, Mr. Dean, I am asking you to…
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Pangs of Hunger, Pangs of Guilt
Most Americans, even those who have occasionally faced what the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls “food insecurity,” will never experience the depth of hunger gripping poor countries around the globe and triggering a rash of food riots. It is the sort of hunger that causes families to forage garbage dumps to look for discarded food,…
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Hip-Hop's Daisy Age
Book Excerpt Editor’s Note: This summer marks 20 years from what is considered by many to be hip-hop’s Golden Age, a tumultous period in urban life that fueled an explosion in black cultural nationalism in cities across the U.S. The following essay is adapted from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and…