In “Snow,” the opening poem of David Berman’s first and only collection Actual Air, the speaker walks through a winter scene with his younger brother: I pointed to a place…
Contemporaries Essays
David Berman’s Edge Cities: Poetry, Commercial Real Estate, Municipal Feeling
In Roe Ethridge’s cover photograph for David Berman’s book of poems Actual Air (1999), two glass office towers rise over a row of pines (fig. 1). Below, a dry and…
Slipping Between Worlds in Actual Air
Actual Air was the first book of poetry I read that felt contemporary. It was 2003 or so and the book had been published by Open City in 1999. I…
Bridge Ethics
A rabbi, a real cabbalist, once said that in order to establish the reign of peace it is not necessary to destroy everything or to begin a completely new world….
David Berman, Ambivalent Aphorist
“Songs are like tattoos.” In the hours after news of David Berman’s tragic death swept across social media in August 2019, I found myself remembering Joni Mitchell’s memorable line about…
Introduction
David Berman — musician, poet, accidental comedian, non-accidental philosopher — released seven albums, one book of poetry, a collection of cartoons and a handful of EPs. He didn’t tour his…
Drag is the Medium [Outro]
In the lightly edited interview that follows, Ian Morrison — who performs as Brittany Lynn, and is the Don of Philly’s Drag Mafia — says his priority is for folks…
Piñata Drag: Crystal Methyd and The Pleasures of Quirky Latinx Aesthetics
It’s not simply that the couch juts into the camera’s frame, but that it is a bronze couch. Bronze with a garish sheen. A glossy bronze befitting a vintage 1970s…
Drag Queens Everywhere
There is an unobvious potentiality in Drag Race’s travels, one that sits alongside the negative and more obvious impacts of exporting “Americana on steroids” and invites us, perhaps, to approach…
“I Love You Dearly, Bitch”
RuPaul’s cultural impact in the Philippines is unmistakable. This past Fall, Drag Race Philippines released its first season and announced the winner, Precious Paula Nicole. Following the first season’s success,…