#Margaret Pollitt

[film-classics]

Movie: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Throughout the entirety of the film, a simple gold necklace with a dainty heart-shaped pendant is a staple of Margaret "Maggie the Cat" Pollitt (Elizabeth Taylor). The understated glam of the pendant and the simple elegance of her costumes designed by Helen Rose allows Elizabeth's performance to really shine through, especially since she is known for flaunting her legendary jewelry collection.

Her real-life third husband, film producer Mike Todd, had the necklace made for Elizabeth, along with an identical one for his mother, as a Valentine's Day gift. Elizabeth was photographed wearing it on February 12, 1958 during a press trip to Europe and the 1958 Golden Globe Awards.

The sentiment Elizabeth felt for the necklace was clearly attached to the fact that she received it shortly before Mike died in a plane crash on March 22, 1958. She wore the necklace constantly for almost two years after he died, including his funeral, her wedding to Eddie Fisher and as part of her costume in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). It wasn’t until 1960 when Taylor landed on the set of Cleopatra (1963) in Rome that the necklace became less of a mainstay in her daily jewels.

Not much is known about the necklace's current location, but Elizabeth may have bequeathed it in her will, just as her former mother-in-law passed it down to her granddaughter, Liza Todd, Elizabeth's only daughter with Mike Todd since it is not part of any of the auctions to benefit the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation throughout the years as well as the Christie's live auction, The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor: The Legendary Jewels after her passing.

[lizbethborden]

Hi again! Yeah, from your bookshelf! You seem well informed and I wanna know the type of stuff you read and might recommend. I don't even know what to tell you for my interests because I feel like I'm just begining. Sorry I'm young and dumb still haha.

#1 you're not dumb and #2 nothing to apologize for :)

Here's some books I've got on my shelves or that I've read:

Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists, Laura Bates

Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, Katha Pollitt

Women, Race, & Class, Angela Davis

American Girls, Nancy Jo Sales

Lesbian Culture: An Anthology, eds. Julia Penelope and Susan J Wolf

Lesbian Studies, Margaret Cavendish

Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall

Against White Feminism, Rafia Zakaria

Sister and Brother: Lesbians and Gay Men Write About Their Lives Together, eds Joan Nestle and John Preston

Another Mother Tongue, Judy Grahn

Aimee & Jaguar, Erica Fischer

Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought, ed. Briona Simone Jones

Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell

The Mary Daly Reader, eds. Jennifer Rycenga and Linda Barufaldi

Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, eds. Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus, George Chauncey Jr.

Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society, Cordelia Fine

Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of the Father's Tongue, Julia Penelope

The Resisting Reader, Judith Fetterley

The Double X Economy, Linda Scott

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, ed. Roxane Gay

Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists, Joan Smith

Intercourse, Andrea Dworkin

The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Government Plan to Imprison "Promiscuous" Women, Scott Stern

The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory, Marilyn Frye

Only Words, Catharine A. Mackinnon

Everything Below the Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution, Jennifer Block

Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts, Anne Llwellyn Barstow

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, Peggy Orenstein

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado-Perez

Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Values, Sarah Lucia Hoagland

We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement, Andi Zeisler

Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, Adrienne Rich

On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, Adrienne Rich

Feminism, Animals, and Science: The Naming of the Shrew, Lynda Birke

The Female Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Susan Rubin Suleiman

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldua

Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery, Virginia L Blum

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Patricia Hill Collins

Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality, Gail Dines

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Susan Faludi

From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Marilyn French

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, eds. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua

Seeing Like a Feminist, Nivedita Menon

With Her Machete In Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians, Catriona Reuda Esquibel

The Disappearing L: Erasure of Lesbian Spaces and Culture, Bonnie J. Morris

Foundlings: Lesbian and Gay Historical Emotion before Stonewall, Christopher Nealon

The Persistent Desire: A Butch/Femme Reader, ed. Joan Nestle

The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Monique Wittig

The Trouble Between us: An Uneasy History of White and Black Women in the Feminist Movement, Winifred Breines

Right-Wing Women, Andrea Dworkin

Woman Hating, Andrea Dworkin

Why I Am Not A Feminist, Jessica Crispin

Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women, Leila J Rupp

I tried to avoid too many left turns into my specific interests although if you passionately want to know any of those, I can make you some more lists LOL

I would suggest picking a book that sounds interesting and using the footnotes and bibliography to find more to read. I've done that a lot :) a lot of my books have more sticky tabs or w/e in the bibliography than in the text so I don't lose stuff I'm interested in.

Hope this helps!

[adventuressclubamericas]

Banned Books Week - New Orleans Authors/Playwrights Edition Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams

We revisit Williams tonight, this time with his “…story of brothers vying for their dying father’s inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt.” - Goodreads. The Pulitzer Prize winning play was banned in Britain for its references to homosexuality.

“At the rise of the curtain someone is taking a shower in the bathroom, the door of which is half open. A pretty young woman, with anxious lines in her face, enters the bedroom and crosses to the bathroom door. MARGARET [shouting above roar of water]: One of those no-neck monsters hit me with a hot buttered biscuit so I havet' change!…”

[zippocreed501]

Elizabeth Taylor as Margaret “Maggie The Cat" Pollitt

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958)

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2019

[coldlittle-heart]

You look so cool, so cool, so enviably cool.

Maggie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

[bestperformances]

Elizabeth Taylor as Margaret Pollitt / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Academy Award Nominated as Best Actress

[didanawisgi]

A Letter on Justice and Open Debate

July 7, 2020

The below letter will be appearing in the Letters section of the magazine’s October issue. We welcome responses at letters@harpers.org

“Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts. But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity. As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices against the second. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy. But resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion—which right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.

The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident, the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers, artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus, or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement.

This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us.”

Elliot Ackerman Saladin Ambar, Rutgers University Martin Amis Anne Applebaum Marie Arana, author Margaret Atwood John Banville Mia Bay, historian Louis Begley, writer Roger Berkowitz, Bard College Paul Berman, writer Sheri Berman, Barnard College Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet Neil Blair, agent David W. Blight, Yale University Jennifer Finney Boylan, author David Bromwich David Brooks, columnist Ian Buruma, Bard College Lea Carpenter Noam Chomsky, MIT (emeritus) Nicholas A. Christakis, Yale University Roger Cohen, writer Ambassador Frances D. Cook, ret. Drucilla Cornell, Founder, uBuntu Project Kamel Daoud Meghan Daum, writer Gerald Early, Washington University-St. Louis Jeffrey Eugenides, writer Dexter Filkins Federico Finchelstein, The New School Caitlin Flanagan Richard T. Ford, Stanford Law School Kmele Foster David Frum, journalist Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University Atul Gawande, Harvard University Todd Gitlin, Columbia University Kim Ghattas Malcolm Gladwell Michelle Goldberg, columnist Rebecca Goldstein, writer Anthony Grafton, Princeton University David Greenberg, Rutgers University Linda Greenhouse Rinne B. Groff, playwright Sarah Haider, activist Jonathan Haidt, NYU-Stern Roya Hakakian, writer Shadi Hamid, Brookings Institution Jeet Heer, The Nation Katie Herzog, podcast host Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College Adam Hochschild, author Arlie Russell Hochschild, author Eva Hoffman, writer Coleman Hughes, writer/Manhattan Institute Hussein Ibish, Arab Gulf States Institute Michael Ignatieff Zaid Jilani, journalist Bill T. Jones, New York Live Arts Wendy Kaminer, writer Matthew Karp, Princeton University Garry Kasparov, Renew Democracy Initiative Daniel Kehlmann, writer Randall Kennedy Khaled Khalifa, writer Parag Khanna, author Laura Kipnis, Northwestern University Frances Kissling, Center for Health, Ethics, Social Policy Enrique Krauze, historian Anthony Kronman, Yale University Joy Ladin, Yeshiva University Nicholas Lemann, Columbia University Mark Lilla, Columbia University Susie Linfield, New York University Damon Linker, writer Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Steven Lukes, New York University John R. MacArthur, publisher, writer

Susan Madrak, writer

Phoebe Maltz Bovy, writer

Greil Marcus Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Kati Marton, author Debra Mashek, scholar Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago John McWhorter, Columbia University Uday Mehta, City University of New York Andrew Moravcsik, Princeton University Yascha Mounk, Persuasion Samuel Moyn, Yale University Meera Nanda, writer and teacher Cary Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Olivia Nuzzi, New York Magazine Mark Oppenheimer, Yale University Dael Orlandersmith, writer/performer George Packer Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University (emerita) Greg Pardlo, Rutgers University – Camden Orlando Patterson, Harvard University Steven Pinker, Harvard University Letty Cottin Pogrebin Katha Pollitt, writer Claire Bond Potter, The New School Taufiq Rahim Zia Haider Rahman, writer Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, University of Wisconsin Jonathan Rauch, Brookings Institution/The Atlantic Neil Roberts, political theorist Melvin Rogers, Brown University Kat Rosenfield, writer Loretta J. Ross, Smith College J.K. Rowling Salman Rushdie, New York University Karim Sadjadpour, Carnegie Endowment Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University Diana Senechal, teacher and writer Jennifer Senior, columnist Judith Shulevitz, writer Jesse Singal, journalist Anne-Marie Slaughter Andrew Solomon, writer Deborah Solomon, critic and biographer Allison Stanger, Middlebury College Paul Starr, American Prospect/Princeton University Wendell Steavenson, writer Gloria Steinem, writer and activist Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard Law School Kian Tajbakhsh, Columbia University Zephyr Teachout, Fordham University Cynthia Tucker, University of South Alabama Adaner Usmani, Harvard University Chloe Valdary Helen Vendler, Harvard University Judy B. Walzer Michael Walzer Eric K. Washington, historian Caroline Weber, historian Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers Bari Weiss Sean Wilentz, Princeton University Garry Wills Thomas Chatterton Williams, writer Robert F. Worth, journalist and author Molly Worthen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Matthew Yglesias Emily Yoffe, journalist Cathy Young, journalist Fareed Zakaria

[rocknrollbodhisattva]

Metal TvTropes:

The Smurfette Principle

The Smurfette Principle is in action when the cast is made up of a group of males and exactly one female. This can occur even in works with Loads and Loads of Characters, so long as each sub-Ensemble (of five or more) contains only one female character. Adding a second female to the ensemble creates a related trope. With the relatively few female-aimed works, contrasting the sheer enormity of works that are aimed at males, it stands out that the demographics of fiction shows a ratio of female to male characters much lower than Real Life.note The name of this trope was first coined by an article by Katha Pollitt in the New York Times printed April 7, 1991, called "The Smurfette Principle". The article focused on the trope as it applies to young children, and discussed the negative message: males are individuals who have adventures, while females are a type of deviation who exist only in relation to males. See also Margaret McGowan's Reel Girl column Females 51% of population but minority of imaginary characters and real life power positions.

[Insp by]

[roarformeprettylion]

List of Banned Books

How Many Have You Read?

Children’s Books:

Allan, Nicholas. Where Willy Went

Allard, Harry. Bumps in the Night

Allard, Harry. The Stupids series

Allington, Richard. Once Upon a Hippo

Ancona, George. Cuban Kids

Avi. The Fighting Ground

Babbitt, Natalie. The Devil’s Storybook

Bailey, Jacqui, and Jan McCafferty. Sex, Puberty, and All That Stuff: A Guide to Growing Up

Bannerman, Helen. Little Black Sambo

Birdseye, Tom. Attack of the Mutant Underwear

Blume, Judy. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

Blume, Judy. Blubber

Brannen, Sarah S. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding

Brittain, Bill. The Wish Giver

Brown, Laurie Krasny, and Marc Brown. What’s the Big Secret? Talking about Sex with Girls and Boys

Brown, Marc Tolon. Buster’s Sugartime

Butler, Dori Hillestad. My Mom’s Having a Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy

Carle, Eric. Draw Me a Star

Christensen, James, C., Renwick St. James and Alan Dean Foster. Voyage of the Basset

Clutton-Brock, Juliet. Horse (DK)

Cohen, Daniel. Ghostly Warnings

Cohen, Daniel. Phantom Animals

Cole, Babette. Mommy Laid An Egg

Cole, Joanna. Asking About Sex and Growing Up

Collier, James Lincoln, and Christopher Collier. Jump Ship to Freedom

Collier, James Lincoln, and Christopher Collier. My Brother Sam is Dead

Collier, James Lincoln, and Christopher Collier. With Every Drop of Blood

Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War

Coupe, Peter. The Beginner’s Guide to Drawing Cartoons

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

Dahl, Roald. James and the Giant Peach

Dahl, Roald. The Witches

de Haan, Linda. King & King

DeClements, Barthe. Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You

Elliot, David. An Alphabet for Rotten Kids

Fierstein, Harvey. The Sissy Duckling

Fogelin, Adrian. My Brother’s Hero

Fox, Mem. Guess What?

Fox, Paula. The Slave Dancer

Garden, Nancy. Holly’s Secret

Geisel, Theodor Seuss. Hop on Pop: The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use

Geisel, Theodor Seuss. If I Ran the Zoo

George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves

Gordon, Sharon. Cuba

Grove, Vicki. The Starplace

Hahn, Mary Downing. The Dead Man in Indian Creek

Hanford, Martin. Where’s Waldo?

Harper, Charise Mericle. Flashcards of My Life

Harper, Kathryn. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Harris, Robie. It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health

Harris, Robie. It’s So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families

Harris, Robie. Who’s In My Family?: All About Families (Let’s Talk About You and Me)

Henkes, Kevin. Olive’s Ocean

Henson, Jim. For Every Child a Better World

Hergé [Georges Remi]. Tintin in America

Hergé [Georges Remi]. Tintin in the Congo

Herthel, Jessica, and Jazz Jennings. I Am Jazz

Hill, Douglas Arthur. Witches and Magic-Makers

Homes, A.M. Jack

Ignatow, Amy. The Popularity Papers

Jukes, Mavis. It’s a Girl Thing: How to Stay Healthy, Safe and in Charge

Kehret, Peg. Stolen Children

Kellogg, Steven. Pinkerton, Behave!

Kilodavis, Cheryl. My Princess Boy: A Mom’s Story About a Young Boy Who Loves to Dress Up

Kotzwinkle, William, and Glenn Murray. Walter the Farting Dog

L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time

Lewis, Richard, comp. There Are Two Lives: Poems by Children of Japan

Lindgren, Astrid. The Runaway Sleigh Ride

Lowry, Lois. Anastasia Krupnik series

Lowry, Lois. The Giver.

Madaras, Linda. What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons

Madaras, Linda. What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters

Martin, Michael. Kurt Cobain

Mayle, Peter. Where Did I Come From?

Mercado, Nancy E., ed. Tripping Over the Lunch Lady and Other Short Stories

Merriam, Eve. Halloween ABC

Merriam, Eve. The Inner City Mother Goose

Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us

Nelson, O.T. The Girl Who Owned a City

Newman, Leslea. Heather Has Two Mommies

Okimoto, Jean Davies, and Elaine M. Aoki. The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption

Opie, Iona. I Saw Esau

Orgel, Doris. The Devil in Vienna

Pardi, Francesca, and Tullio F. Altan. Little Egg (Piccolo uovo)

Park, Barbara. Junie B. Jones (

Parr, Todd. The Family Book

Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia

Paterson, Katherine. The Great Gilly Hopkins

Perritano, John. Amityville

Peters, Lisa Westberg. Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story

Pilkey, Dav. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby: The First Graphic Novel

Pilkey, Dav. Captain Underpants series

Pittman, Gayle E. This Day in June

Polacco, Patricia. In Our Mothers’ House

Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials series

Quinlan, Patricia. Tiger Flowers

Reavin, Sam. The Hunters Are Coming

Richardson, Justin, and Peter Parnell. And Tango Makes Three

Rodgers, Mary. Freaky Friday

Rosen, Lucy. I Am Bane

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter series

Ruby, Laura. Lily’s Ghosts

Sachar, Louis. The Boy Who Lost His Face

Sachar, Louis. Marvin Redpost: Is He a Girl?

Schniedewind, Nancy. Open Minds to Equality: A Sourcebook of Learning Activities to Affirm Diversity and Promote Equity

Schreier, Alta. Vamos a Cuba ( A Vist to Cuba)

Schwartz, Alvin. And the Green Grass Grew All Around

Schwartz, Alvin. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat

Schwartz, Alvin. Ghosts! Ghost Stories in Folklore

Schwartz, Alvin. Scary Stories series

Sendak, Maurice. In the Night Kitchen

Sherman, Josepha, and T.K.F. Weisskopf. Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts

Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic

Smith, Jeff. Bone series

Snyder, Zilpha Keatley. The Egypt Game

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Sign of the Beaver

Steer, Dugald. Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin

Stine, R.L. Goosebumps series

Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand

Stroud, Jonathan. The Golem’s Eye

Stroud, Jonathan. Ptolemy’s Gate

Tamaki, Mariko, and Jillian Tamaki. This One Summer

Taylor, Mildred D. The Land

Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Telgemeier, Raina. Drama

Texier, Ophélie. Jean Has Two Moms (Jean a deux mamans)

Toriyama, Akira. Dragon Ball: The Monkey King

Willhoite, Michael. Daddy’s Roommate

Winter, Jeanette. The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq

Winter, Jeanette. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan

Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings

Young Adult Books:

Adler, C.S. The Shell Lady’s Daughter

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alva0rez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies

Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless Me, Ultima

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Twisted

Anderson, M.T. Feed

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Anonymous. Go Ask Alice

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why

Atkins, Catherine. Alt Ed

Atkins, Catherine. When Jeff Comes Home

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale

Barnes, Derrick. The Making of Dr. Truelove

Barron, T.A. The Great Tree of Avalon: Child of the Dark Prophecy

Baskin, Julia, Lindsey Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, and Courtney Toombs. The Notebook Girls: Four Friends, One Diary, Real Life

Bauer, Marion Dane. On My Honor

Bauer, Marion Dane, ed. Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence

Benioff, David. City of Thieves

Block, Francesca Lia. Baby Be-Bop

Block, Francesca Lia. Girl Goddess

Block, Francesca Lia. I Was a Teenage Fairy

Block, Francesca Lia. The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

Block, Francesca Lia. Witch Baby

Blume, Judy. Deenie

Blume, Judy. Forever

Blume, Judy. Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson

Blume, Judy. Tiger Eyes

Bode, Janet, and Stan Mack. Heartbreak and Roses: Real Life Stories of Troubled Love

Bower, Bert, and Jim Lobdell. History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond

Boyle, T. Coraghessan. The Tortilla Curtain

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451

Brashares, Ann. Forever in Blue, the Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Burgess, Melvin. Doing It

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game

Cart, Michael. My Father’s Scar

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. House of Night series

Chambers, Aidan. Dance on My Grave: A Life and Death in Four Parts

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts

Clerc, Charles, and Louis Leiter, comp. Seven Contemporary Short Novels

Cohen, Susan, and Daniel Cohen. When Someone You Know is Gay

Clinton, Cathryn. A Stone in My Hand

Colasanti, Susane. When It Happens

Cole, Brock. The Facts Speak for Themselves

Cole, Brock. The Goats

Colfer, Eoin. The Supernaturalist

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games Trilogy

Conly, Jane. Crazy Lady

Cooney, Caroline. The Face on the Milk Carton

Cooney, Caroline. The Terrorist

Cormier, Robert. After the First Death

Cormier, Robert. Beyond the Chocolate War

Cormier, Robert. Fade

Cormier, Robert. Heroes

Cormier, Robert. I Am the Cheese

Cormier, Robert. Tenderness

Cormier, Robert. We All Fall Down

Coville, Bruce. Am I Blue?

Cox, Elizabeth. Night Talk

Crawford, Brent. Carter Finally Gets It

Cruse, Howard. Stuck Rubber Baby

Crutcher, Chris. Athletic Shorts

Crutcher, Chris. Chinese Handcuffs

Crutcher, Chris. Deadline

Crutcher, Chris. In the Time I Get

Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk

Daldry, Jeremy. The Teenage Guy’s Survival Guide

Dandicat, Edwidge. Krik! Krak!

Danforth, Emily M. The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Davis, Deborah. My Brother Has AIDS

Davis, Jenny. Sex Education

Dawe, Ted. Into the River

Dawson, James. This Book is Gay

Dessen, Sarah. Just Listen

Deuker, Carl. On the Devil’s Court

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother

Dorfman, Ariel. Death and the Maiden

Dorris, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

Draper, Sharon M., and Adam Lowenbein. Romiette and Julio

Drill, Esther. Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL

Duncan, Lois. Daughters of Eve

Duncan, Lois. Killing Mr. Griffin

Eleveld, Mark, ed. The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation

Elish, Dan. Born Too Short: The Confessions of an Eighth-Grade Basket Case

Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor, and Anthony Esler. World History

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man

Erlbach, Arlene. The Middle School Survival Guide

Ferris, Jean. Eight Seconds

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby

Forman, Gayle. Just One Day

Franco, Betsy. You Hear Me? Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Frank, E.R. America: A Novel

Frank, E.R. Life is Funny

Freedom Writers. The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

Freymann-Weyr, Garret. My Heartbeat

Friend, Natasha. Lush

Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere

Gaines, Ernest. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

Garden, Nancy. Annie on My Mind

Garden, Nancy. Good Moon Rising

Gardner, John. Grendel

Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass

Glenn, Mel. Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?

Going, K.L. Fat Kid Rules the World

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies

Gould, Steven. Jumper

Gray, Heather M., and Samantha Phillips. Real Girl/Real World: Tools for Finding Your True Self

Green, John. An Abundance of Katherines

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars

Green, John. Looking for Alaska

Green, John. Paper Towns

Greene, Bette. The Drowning of Stephan Jones

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Solidier

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey

Halpern, Julie. Get Well Soon

Hartinger, Brent. Geography Club

Hautzig, Deborah. Hey Dollface

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22

Hernandez, Gilbert. Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories

Heron, Ann. Two Teenagers in Twenty

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders

Hinton, S.E. Taming the Star Runner

Hinton, S.E. Tex

Hinton, S.E. That Was Then, This is Now

Holliday, Laurel. Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries

Holmes, Melisa, and Trish Hutchison. Hang-ups, Hook-ups, and Holding Out: Stuff You Need to Know about Your Body, Sex, and Dating

Hopkins, Ellen. Crank

Hopkins, Ellen. Identical

Horowitz, Anthony. Snakehead

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner

Howe, James. Totally Joe

Huegel, Kelly. GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurwin, Davida. Time for Dancing

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World

Hwa, Kim Dong. The Color of Earth series

Jahn-Clough, Lisa. Me, Penelope

Johnson, Maureen. The Bermudez Triangle

Jukes, Mavis. The Guy Book: An Owner’s Manual

Kehret, Peg. Abduction!

Kenan, Randall. James Baldwin

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon

King, Stephen. Carrie

King, Stephen. Christine

Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and Chocolate

Klein, Norma. Beginners’ Love

Klein, Norma. Family Secrets

Klein, Norma. Just Friends

Kleinbaum, N.H. Dead Poet’s Society

Knowles, Jo (Johanna Beth). Lessons from a Dead Girl

Koertge, Ron. Arizona Kid

Koertge, Ron. The Brimstone Journals

Koerge, Ron. Where the Kissing Never Stopped

Korman, Gordon. Jake Reinvented

Kuklin, Susan. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out

LaCour, Nina. Hold Still

Larson, Rodger. What I Know Now

Lebert, Benjamin. Crazy: A Novel

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird

Lester, Julius. When Dad Killed Mom

Levenkron, Steven. The Best Little Girl in the World

Levithan, David. Two Boys Kissing

Lipsyte, Robert. One Fat Summer

Locker, Sari. Sari Says: The Real Dirt on Everything from Sex to School

Lockhart, E. The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them

London, Jack. The Call of the Wild

Lopez, Tiffany Ana. Growing Up Chicana/o

Loux, Matthew. SideScrollers

Lyga, Barry. I Hunt Killers

Lynch, Chris. Extreme Elvin

Lynch, Chris. The Iceman

Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things

Mackler, Carolyn. Love and Other Four Letter Words

Mackler, Carolyn. Tangled

Mackler, Carolyn. Vegan Virgin Valentine

Martin, W.K. Marlene Dietrich

Martinac, Paula. k.d. lang

Mazer, Harry. The Last Mission

McBain, Ed. Alice in Jeopardy

McCormick, Patricia. Cut

McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding

McKissack, Fredrick, Jr. Shooting Star

McNally, John, ed. When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School by Today’s Top Writers

Mead, Richelle. Vampire Academy series

Meyer, Michael, ed. Bedford Introduction to Literature

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight series

Morrison, Toni. Beloved

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye

Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon

Mungo, Raymond. Liberace

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels

Myers, Walter Dean. Hoops

Myracle, Lauren. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r series

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Alice series

Nix, Garth. Shade’s Children

Nixon, Joan Lowery. Whispers from the Dead

Nunokawa, Jeff. Oscar Wilde

O’Brien, Sharon. Willa Cather

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried

Oates, Joyce Carol. Sexy

Ockler, Sarah. Twenty Boy Summer

Oh, Minya. Bling: Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels

Orwell, George. 1984

Parish, James Robert. Whoopi Goldberg: Her Journey from Poverty to Mega-Stardom

Park, Barbara. Mick Harte Was Here

Parks, Gordon. The Learning Tree

Paulsen, Gary. Harris and Me

Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die

Pelzer, Dave. A Child Called It

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes

Pike, Christopher. Bury Me Deep

Pike, Christopher. Chain Letter 2

Pike, Christopher. Die Softly

Pike, Christopher. Last Act

Pike, Christopher. The Listeners

Pike, Christopher. The Lost Mind

Pike, Christopher. The Midnight Club

Pike, Christopher. Remember Me 3

Pike, Christopher. The Star Group

Pike, Christopher. Witch

Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body of Christopher Creed

Pomeroy, Wardell. Boys and Sex

Pomeroy, Wardell. Girls and Sex

Rapp, Adam. The Buffalo Tree

Reiss, Johanna. The Upstairs Room

Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging

Rennison, Louise. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas

Rennison, Louise. On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

Reynolds, Marilyn. Detour for Emmy

Riley, Andy. The Book of Bunny Suicides: Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don’t Want to Live Anymore

Rivera, Tomas. And the Earth Did Not Devour Him

Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor & Park

Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye

Sanchez, Alex. Rainbow Boys

Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican

Sapphire [Ramona Lofton]. Push

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Schouweiler, Thomas. The Devil: Opposing Viewpoints

Scott, Elizabeth. Living Dead Girl

Selzer, Adam. How to Get Suspended and Influence People

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet (No Fear Shakespeare)

Shusterman, Neal. Unwind

Sidhwa, Bapsi. Cracking India

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep: A Novel

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Smith, Lee. Fair and Tender Ladies

Smith, Patrick. A Land Remembered

Snyder, Jane McIntosh. Sappho

Sones, Sonya. One of Those Hideous Books Where the Moher Dies

Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know

Sonnie, Amy, ed. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Spies, Karen Bornemann. Everything You Need to Know About Incest

St. Stephen’s Community House. The Little Black Book for Girlz: A Book on Healthy Sexuality

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men

Stine, R.L. Double Date

Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History: Eighteenth to Twenty-First Century Art, Third Edition

Stone, Tanya Lee. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

Srasser, Todd. Give a Boy a Gun

Summers, Courtney. Some Girls Are

Tarbox, Katherine. A Girl’s Life Online

Taylor, Mildred D. Mississippi Bridge

Touchette, Charleen. It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral

Twain, Mark [Samuel L. Clemens]. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Twain, Mark [Samuel L. Clemens]. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

von Ziegesar, Cecily. Gossip Girl series

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple

Walker, Kate. Peter

Watkins, Yoko. So Far From the Bamboo Grove

Wersba, Barbara. Whistle Me Home

Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront

Wittlinger, Ellen. Sandpiper

Wolfe, Daniel. T.E. Lawrence

Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life: A Memoir

Wood, Maryrose. Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love

Wright, Richard. Native Son

WritersCorps. Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems

Zindel, Paul. The Pigman

Zwerman, Gilda. Martina Navratilova

Classics:

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

Ulysses, by James Joyce

Beloved, by Toni Morrison

The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

1984, by George Orwell

Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

Native Son, by Richard Wright

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London

Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin

All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie

Sophie's Choice, by William Styron

 Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles

Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence

The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer

Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser

Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Source: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

[gradinar11]

Brick Pollitt: What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt: Just staying on it I guess, long as she can.

[politicsprose]

P&P at Busboys and Poets: the Summer Ahead

P&P is looking forward to hosting plenty of exciting (and free) author events at Busboys and Poets locations this summer! Check out what’s on the way:

Twitter and Tear Gas by Zeynep Tufecki (@zeynep) Direct Action by L.A. Kauffman (@LAKauffman) Tuesday June 6, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

Zeynep Tufekci, a New York Times contributor and a faculty member at Harvard’s Berkman Center and the University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science, looks in detail at the role of technology in three recent uprisings: the Zapatistas in Mexico in 1994, Egypt's Tahrir Square in 2011, and the Occupy movements in the U.S.  

Kauffman is a long-time organizer, strategist, and journalist. She’s been at work on this detailed and insightful history of protest for twenty-five of the thirty-plus years she’s been involved in organizing. The book starts with the myriad socio-political movements of the 1960s and traces activism through ACT UP to Occupy & Black Lives Matter.  Tufecki and Kauffman will be in conversation. Tufecki’s Twitter account, linked above, is very active, and often links out to other must-read pieces. Check out this essay Kauffman wrote earlier this year as a teaser of her experience as an activist.

The Reminders by Val Emmich (@ValEmmich) Wednesday, June 7 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

Emmich’s bittersweet first novel focuses on Gavin Winters, who has just lost his partner. After burning all the mementos and relics of his relationship with Sydney, he tries another way to relieve his pain: he moves from Los Angeles to New Jersey and asks his friend’s daughter Joan to use her preternatural memory to help him. If she can bring back Sydney by recalling his visits over the years, Gavin will use his musical talents to help her win a songwriting contest. But he hadn’t bargained on some of the surprises lingering in her uncanny memory, and Gavin soon has different kinds of loss to grapple with. 

Emmich is also a singer-songwriter and actor, and his presentation will include an acoustic performance. If you want a preview, Emmich put out a series of YouTube videos talking about his process for the book. For more info about the event, click here.

Loving by Sheryll Cashin (@SheryllCashin) Monday, June 12 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

Cashin’s study of racism in America uses the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision as a fulcrum for her investigation of the history of the idea of whiteness and her vision of a future that’s not merely color blind, but truly diverse and celebrated as such. A professor of law at Georgetown, frequent media commentator on law and race relations, and author of books including Place, Not Race, Cashin observes that approval for interracial marriage was just 4% in 1967, while today some 87% approve. Combined with rising rates of cross-racial adoption and immigration, interracial romance heralds the social revolution of a new “culturally dexterous” population.

Cashin will be in conversation with WAMU Editorial Director Alicia Montgomery as part of the WAMU Books series. Earlier this year, Cashin made an appearance on C-SPAN assessing Obama’s legacy on race relations. For more information about the event, click here.

The Least Among Us by Rosa L. DeLauro (@rosadelauro) Tuesday June 13 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

DeLauro has represented Connecticut’s Third District in Congress since 1991, and is known for her impassioned advocacy of the social safety net. The ranking member on the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, DeLauro grew up with the Roman Catholic values of hard work and compassion. Acting on her parents’ model, DeLauro has used her office to fight for programs including food stamps, housing assistance, worker protection, and more. Her book recounts both her legislative battles, including the challenge of coming into office in the wake of the Gingrich Revolution, as well as the stories of people whose lives have been changed by progressive social policies.

Before attending the event, discover more about the Congresswoman’s platform and the actions she takes on a day-to-day basis by perusing her official website. For more info about the event, click here.

The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen (@PeterBrannen1) Wednesday June 14 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

As the world enters the Anthropocene, there’s a lot of talk about the sixth extinction. But what about the previous five? Brannen, an award-winning science journalist and former journalism fellow at Woods Hole, broadens our views of both climate and climate change with this vivid tour of the pivotal events of the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and other eras. Using fossils and myriad geological records, he shows us the globe as we’ve never seen it before, tracing the scars of asteroids, glaciers, fire, and other literally Earth-shaking calamities. By piecing together what happened in deep time, Brannen shows us what to expect in the near future.

Brannen will be in conversation with Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes. Late last year, Brannen wrote a great essay about whales’ strange evolutionary journey. For more info on the event, click here.

In Search of the Lost Chord by Danny Goldberg Monday, June 19, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

In his magical mystery tour of a book, Goldberg, president of Gold Village Entertainment, and former head of Atlantic Records, looks back over 1967, a year that included the release of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and debut albums from the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Then there was the Summer of Love, LSD, Muhammad Ali’s draft-dodging conviction, Stokely Carmichael and Black Power, the murder of Che Guevara, and much more. Goldberg gives us 1967 as he experienced it and draws on interviews with some of its stars, including Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Tom Hayden, and Gil Scott-Heron, showing the year’s lasting cultural and political significance. 

Goldberg will be in conversation with Sidney Blumenthal, author of A Self-Made Man and Wrestling with His Angel. At his personal website, Goldberg has a personal blog for those curious to know more about him. For more info about the event, click here.

Radicals Chasing Utopia by Jamie Bartlett (@JamieJBartlett) Tuesday, June 20 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V

The number of radical groups worldwide has surged in recent years, and ranges from ISIS to followers of Bernie Sanders to the citizens of Liberland, the world's first libertarian nation. However extreme some of these subcultures are, Bartlett, author of The Dark Net and one of today’s leading thinkers on radical politics, argues that all must be taken seriously. Each makes an important contribution to social change, whether by being symptomatic of society’s deeper malaise or by offering a viable vision for the future. Bartlett, Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos and a technology columnist for the Telegraph, reports in detail on a variety of underground and radical sub-cultures, exploring their members’ motivations, goals, and overall critique of the status quo.

Bartlett's talks page on his personal website has links to many of his appearances in the last several years. For more info about the event, click here.

Life’s Work by Dr. Willie Parker (@DrWillieParker) Wednesday, June 21 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 5th & K

As access to legal abortion becomes more restricted and organizations providing the service face cuts in federal funding, the fate of Roe v. Wade is in peril. To understand what the Trump era means for reproductive rights, join us for a discussion of the issues with a panel of distinguished writers and public figures headed by Dr. Willie Parker, winner of the 2015 Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and whose Pink House is the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. Parker will be in conversation with Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America and Reverend Dr. Christine Wiley and Reverend Dr. Dennis Wiley, co-pastors of the Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ. 

The discussion will be moderated by Jamila Taylor, a senior fellow at American Progress who specializes in domestic and international women’s health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice. Dr. Parker was also at Politics and Prose’s Connecticut Ave. store in April. Here’s video of that event, in conversation with Katha Pollitt. For more information about the event, click here.     

A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun by Angela Jackson Sunday, June 25 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V  

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was the first African American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, winning it in 1950 for her collection, Annie Allen. Mentored by writers including Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, Brooks chronicled the realities of urban black life in works of both lyrical power and narrative urgency. She became a leader of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and ‘70s, was appointed the Illinois Poet Laureate in 1968, and served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of congress—forerunner of today’s U.S. Poet Laureate—in 1985-‘86. In her warm and deeply researched biography, Jackson, an award-winning novelist, poet, and playwright, celebrates a poet whose work is as fresh and inspiring today as when it was first published.

Here’s a video of Jackson reading her poetry aloud in a collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

Beyond June, P&P is hosting three further author events at Busboys and Poets through July and August. Basic details are below, check back on this post soon or visit our online events calendar for more information!

Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets 14th & V  

Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler, in conversation with Kojo Nnamdi as a WAMU Books event  Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 6:30 p.m.                                                  Busboys and Poets 14th & V   

Hurston Wright Foundation Summer Workshop Reading featuring Kyle Dargan, Tiphanie Yanique, and Sheri Booker Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. Busboys and Poets Takoma  

[pangeanews]

“Lasciateci dissentire. Siamo scrittori e abbiamo bisogno di una cultura che ci lasci spazio per la sperimentazione, per l’assunzione del rischio e persino per gli errori”. Un appello contro il politicamente corretto

Non solo in Italia, evidentemente, ma anche in America un certo pensiero integralisticamente “correct” ci sta facendo soffocare. E fa cadere teste. Giornalisti, scrittori, studiosi, insegnanti beccati semplicemente a criticare o addirittura a non ossequiare abbastanza il pensiero mainstream perdono il posto di lavoro e di sostentamento. Ostracismo, maledizione sociale, gogna mediatica, perfino la galera stanno tornando di moda non verso persone violente o fraudolente, ma semplicemente per un pensiero espresso, un’opinione pubblicata. Non lo dico io; non lo dice un’accolita di reazionari o fascistoidi di ritorno. Lo dice un appello firmato negli USA da un gran numero di intellettuali, scrittori, docenti liberal e progressisti americani. Ha fatto specie infatti la pubblicazione su “Harper’s Magazine” del 7 luglio 2020 di “Una Lettera sulla Giustizia e sulla Libertà di Opinione” che propone la questione del rischio liberticida nella società causato da una certa deriva del pensiero unico dominante; in America è legata soprattutto ai tragici episodi della violenza della polizia ma anche della moda para-identitaria dei distruttori di statue, ma un rischio del genere in Italia potremmo correrlo anche con leggi come la Zan-Scalfarotto contro l’omotransfobia: qualora fosse approvata, potrebbe bastare una frase sbagliata per finire in prigione. Non so quanta eco questa lettera abbia avuto in Italia, temo molto scarsa. Per questo abbiamo deciso di proporla. Ringrazio per la traduzione Massimo Ridolfi, e non solo per la traduzione, ma anche per il dialogo, squisitamente e liberamente culturale, avuto intorno a queste problematiche. Idealmente ci aggiungiamo ai firmatari, felici di essere ultimi tra cotanto senno. Non sfugga che tra di essi spicca il nome di Noam Chomsky… (Gianfranco Lauretano)

*

Una Lettera sulla Giustizia e sulla Libertà di Opinione

Le nostre istituzioni culturali stanno affrontando un momento di prova. Le dure proteste per rivendicare una eguaglianza etnica e sociale stanno portando a richieste tardive in merito alla riforma delle forze di polizia (caso George Floyd, N.d.T.), insieme a domande più ampie di maggiore uguaglianza e inclusione in tutta la nostra società, non ultima nell’istruzione superiore, nel giornalismo, nella filantropia e nelle arti. Ma questa necessaria resa dei conti ha anche intensificato una nuova serie di atteggiamenti morali e impegni politici che tendono a indebolire le nostre norme che determinano la libertà di opinione e la tolleranza delle differenze a favore di una particolare adesione ideologica. Mentre applaudiamo gli iniziali esiti di tutto questo, alziamo però la nostra voce contro le sue immediate conseguenze. Le forze illiberali certamente stanno guadagnando forza in tutto il mondo e hanno un potente alleato in Donald Trump, che rappresenta una vera minaccia alla democrazia. Ma non bisogna permettere alle forze di opposizione di irrigidirsi e fissarsi nella propria impronta dogmatica o repressiva, che i demagoghi di destra stanno già sfruttando. L’inclusione democratica che desideriamo può essere raggiunta solo se manifestiamo contro il clima di intolleranza che si è palesato da entrambe le parti in causa.

Il libero scambio di informazioni e di idee, linfe vitali di una società liberale, sta diventando sempre più limitato. Mentre ci aspettiamo tale atteggiamento dalla destra radicale, la censura si sta invero diffondendo anche più ampiamente nella cultura cosiddetta democratica: intolleranza alle opinioni contrarie, un particolare gusto per il malgoverno e l’ostracismo, e la tendenza a dissolvere complesse questioni politiche dentro una accecante certezza morale. Sosteniamo il valore di un discorso controcorrente robusto e persino caustico da tutte le parti interessate. Ma ora è fin troppo facile sentire richieste di rapide e severe soluzioni in risposta a comportamenti ritenuti inopportuni e che percepiamo in tal modo solo grazie alla libertà di parola e di pensiero. Ancora più preoccupanti sono quei rappresentanti istituzionali che, nell’intenzione di contenere il danno, in preda al panico, stanno offrendo soluzioni affrettate e sproporzionate invece di riforme ponderate e durature. (Nel campo dell’informazione e della cultura, N.d.T.) i redattori sono licenziati per aver mandato in stampa pezzi controversi; i libri sono ritirati per presunta inautenticità; ai giornalisti è vietato scrivere su determinati argomenti; i professori sono indagati per aver citato opere letterarie in classe; un ricercatore è licenziato per aver fatto circolare uno studio accademico non autorizzato; e chi è a capo di complessi organismi ne viene espulso per quello che a volte è stato solo un errore materiale. Qualunque siano le argomentazioni su ogni particolare caso, il risultato è stato quello di restringere costantemente i confini di ciò che si può dire senza la minaccia di rappresaglie. Stiamo già pagando il prezzo con maggiore rinuncia al rischio da parte di scrittori, artisti e giornalisti che temono di perdere i propri mezzi di sussistenza (redditi, condizione patrimoniale, ecc., N.d.T.) se si discostano dal consenso o mancano di sufficiente zelo al sistema.

Questa atmosfera soffocante alla fine danneggerà quelle che sono le ragioni fondamentali del nostro tempo. La restrizione del dibattito, da parte di un governo repressivo o di una società intollerante, invariabilmente danneggia i più deboli e rende tutti meno capaci alla partecipazione democratica. Il modo per sconfiggere le cattive idee passa solo attraverso l’esposizione, l’argomentazione e la proposta, non certo cercando di zittirle o desiderare di allontanarle. Rifiutiamo qualsiasi falsa scelta tra giustizia e libertà, perché non possono esistere l’una senza l’altra. Come scrittori abbiamo bisogno di una cultura che ci lasci spazio per la sperimentazione, per l’assunzione del rischio e persino per gli errori. Dobbiamo preservare la possibilità di dissentire in buona fede senza il rischio di conseguenze professionali. Se non difendiamo la cosa da cui dipende il nostro lavoro (la Libertà, N.d.T.), non dovremmo aspettarci che il cittadino o lo Stato la difendano per noi.

Firmatari:

Elliot Ackerman Saladin Ambar, Rutgers University Martin Amis Anne Applebaum Marie Arana, author Margaret Atwood John Banville Mia Bay, historian Louis Begley, writer Roger Berkowitz, Bard College Paul Berman, writer Sheri Berman, Barnard College Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet Neil Blair, agent David W. Blight, Yale University Jennifer Finney Boylan, author David Bromwich David Brooks, columnist Ian Buruma, Bard College Lea Carpenter Noam Chomsky, MIT (emeritus) Nicholas A. Christakis, Yale University Roger Cohen, writer Ambassador Frances D. Cook, ret. Drucilla Cornell, Founder, uBuntu Project Kamel Daoud Meghan Daum, writer Gerald Early, Washington University-St. Louis Jeffrey Eugenides, writer Dexter Filkins Federico Finchelstein, The New School Caitlin Flanagan Richard T. Ford, Stanford Law School Kmele Foster David Frum, journalist Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University Atul Gawande, Harvard University Todd Gitlin, Columbia University Kim Ghattas Malcolm Gladwell Michelle Goldberg, columnist Rebecca Goldstein, writer Anthony Grafton, Princeton University David Greenberg, Rutgers University Linda Greenhouse Rinne B. Groff, playwright Sarah Haider, activist Jonathan Haidt, NYU-Stern Roya Hakakian, writer Shadi Hamid, Brookings Institution Jeet Heer, The Nation Katie Herzog, podcast host Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College Adam Hochschild, author Arlie Russell Hochschild, author Eva Hoffman, writer Coleman Hughes, writer/Manhattan Institute Hussein Ibish, Arab Gulf States Institute Michael Ignatieff Zaid Jilani, journalist Bill T. Jones, New York Live Arts Wendy Kaminer, writer Matthew Karp, Princeton University Garry Kasparov, Renew Democracy Initiative Daniel Kehlmann, writer Randall Kennedy Khaled Khalifa, writer Parag Khanna, author Laura Kipnis, Northwestern University Frances Kissling, Center for Health, Ethics, Social Policy Enrique Krauze, historian Anthony Kronman, Yale University Joy Ladin, Yeshiva University Nicholas Lemann, Columbia University Mark Lilla, Columbia University Susie Linfield, New York University Damon Linker, writer Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Steven Lukes, New York University John R. MacArthur, publisher, writer

Susan Madrak, writer Phoebe Maltz Bovy, writer Greil Marcus Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Kati Marton, author Debra Mashek, scholar Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago John McWhorter, Columbia University Uday Mehta, City University of New York Andrew Moravcsik, Princeton University Yascha Mounk, Persuasion Samuel Moyn, Yale University Meera Nanda, writer and teacher Cary Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Olivia Nuzzi, New York Magazine Mark Oppenheimer, Yale University Dael Orlandersmith, writer/performer George Packer Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University (emerita) Greg Pardlo, Rutgers University – Camden Orlando Patterson, Harvard University Steven Pinker, Harvard University Letty Cottin Pogrebin Katha Pollitt, writer Claire Bond Potter, The New School Taufiq Rahim Zia Haider Rahman, writer Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, University of Wisconsin Jonathan Rauch, Brookings Institution/The Atlantic Neil Roberts, political theorist Melvin Rogers, Brown University Kat Rosenfield, writer Loretta J. Ross, Smith College J.K. Rowling Salman Rushdie, New York University Karim Sadjadpour, Carnegie Endowment Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University Diana Senechal, teacher and writer Jennifer Senior, columnist Judith Shulevitz, writer Jesse Singal, journalist Anne-Marie Slaughter Andrew Solomon, writer Deborah Solomon, critic and biographer Allison Stanger, Middlebury College Paul Starr, American Prospect/Princeton University Wendell Steavenson, writer Gloria Steinem, writer and activist Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard Law School Kian Tajbakhsh, Columbia University Zephyr Teachout, Fordham University Cynthia Tucker, University of South Alabama Adaner Usmani, Harvard University Chloe Valdary Helen Vendler, Harvard University Judy B. Walzer Michael Walzer Eric K. Washington, historian Caroline Weber, historian Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers Bari Weiss Sean Wilentz, Princeton University Garry Wills Thomas Chatterton Williams, writer Robert F. Worth, journalist and author Molly Worthen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Matthew Yglesias Emily Yoffe, journalist Cathy Young, journalist Fareed Zakaria

*In copertina: Martin Amis, ragazzo

L'articolo “Lasciateci dissentire. Siamo scrittori e abbiamo bisogno di una cultura che ci lasci spazio per la sperimentazione, per l’assunzione del rischio e persino per gli errori”. Un appello contro il politicamente corretto proviene da Pangea.

from pangea.news https://ift.tt/3fcWvAP

[conceptanddesign-blog1]

top 10 creative directors

Firstly, let’s start with a question; what’s the criteria for being a member of this rarified club?Here’s my stab at it:The Creative Director was the very heart and soul of the agency.They were the one that every prospective client wanted to meet and every departing client tried to avoid.The one who hired and nurtured great talent, harrassed good ideas into great ideas and built teams to continue to do great work after them.The one who could truly influence a client. Who not only had a client’s ear, but their trust and their heart.The one who built a jaw-dropping body of work and an enviable agency reputation over a number of years.The one who started or dominated an agency, indeed it may have not existed without them.Secondly, let’s address the (very pale) elephant in the room.This group covers the pre-Mad Men era through to this early part of the 21st century, therefore while this is a very talented 10, it is a rather white bread one.Advertising has so far been a bit of a boys club, but events like The 3% Conference, and the many conversations being held on the topic of diversity in our industry are thankfully reversing that momentum.Recommended by Forbes MOST POPULAR Photos: The Richest Person In Every State +134,094 VIEWS California: The Physical Collapse Of A Social State IBMVoice: Three Pitfalls Of Leading A Digital Team (And How To Avoid Them)So this list could soon be welcoming the likes of the hugely talented Susan Hoffman, Colleen DeCourcy, PJ Pereira, Margaret Johnson, Jose Molla and Kate Stanners among others. Let’s hope so.One last thought: This wasn’t an easy 10 to curate. A lot of fantastic creative leaders are not here and more than a few heartthrobs are missing. I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of “ you idiot… how could you have this list without including …”However, here goes… and in no particular order.John WebsterSome creative directors are great inspirers, team builders, enthusiasts of bravery and brilliance from both client and agency, while some just quietly produce great work themselves.Work that inspires everyone else to want to do work as great (or try to).John Webster of Boase Massimi Pollitt in London is the perfect example of the latter and was described on his death in 2006 as "the best TV commercials creator in Britain when Britain was the best in the world" by London’s Independent newspaper and by The Guardian as "The greatest TV advertising author of the late 20th Century."John created some of the most famous campaigns of that period Cadbury's Smash Martians, The Gertcha campaign for Courage Beer and work for The Guardian Newspaper.There’s a lovely documentary featuring John, many of the campaigns he produced, how he worked, and many of the people who worked with him over the years.Watch and learn.John Webster, the Human Adman.

Lee Clow

I doubt there’s disagreement here.

One of the greats of American Advertising.

A phone call from Lee would be all most sane people in the industry would need to drop pencils and get the first flight to LA.

An astonishing record of great work, hiring and encouraging great people and of building a great reputation for an agency.

One of the few people who could stand alongside another giant of the industry, Jay Chiat, and not be in his shadow.

Lee joined Chiat/Day in 1972 and was co-creator of the 1984 Apple spot, considered the masterpiece of advertising.

He built a strong working relationship with Steve Jobs when he returned to Apple, that produced many great campiagns:

Think different, The Crazy Ones, I’m a Mac/ I’m a PC

Around the same time, he developed the Energizer Bunny, the Taco Bell chihuahua and introduced the world to Nissan’s Mr K and California Coolers.

In shorts and flip-flops, surfboard in hand, Lee Clow became the “guru” of the west coast school of laid-back advertising.

[gradinar11]

[last lines] Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt: Thank you for keeping still, for backing me up in my lie. Brick Pollitt: Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.