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…
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Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
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….
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
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…
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
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…
Contemporaries Essays, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster
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…
Contemporaries Essays, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster
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…
Contemporaries Essays, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster
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…
Contemporaries Essays, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster
“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,…
Contemporaries Essays, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster
Queer Childhoods and Drag Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race cares about queer kids. Drag queens in the final episodes give advice to their younger selves. The show recites “drag family values” of accepting LGBTQ+ youth and…
Contemporaries Essays, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster
Drag Queens in Stars and Stripes
The prerequisite for RuPaul’s form of queerness is nationalism. As many queer theorists from Judith Butler to Jack Halberstam to Jasbir Puar have noted, the horizon of LGBTQ liberation has…