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The Alignist
FOR ZADIE SMITH, THE CLOUDS HAVE ROLLED IN OVER ...

“On November 10 The New York Times reported that nearly seven in ten Republicans prefer America as it was in the 1950s,” Smith said, “A nostalgia of course entirely unavailable to a person like me, for in that period I could not vote, marry my husband, have my children, work in the university I work in, or live in my neighborhood.” 

FOR ZADIE SMITH, THE CLOUDS HAVE ROLLED IN OVER MULTICULTURALISM
Q&A
The Alignist
(3+7) (Q&A) ON LANGSTON HUGHES' SONG FOR ...

As outrage over the killings of unarmed black men by white police hours plays again rattles the nation, Langston Hughes’ poetry of protest has become only more prescient. 

(3+7) (Q&A) ON LANGSTON HUGHES' SONG FOR AMERICA, SEXUALITY, AND IMPACT ON BLACK LIVES MATTER
Q&A
The Alignist
(3+7) (Q&A) ON A FRENCH MEMOIRIST WHO BELIEVED ...

Although a new film and documentary about Violette Leduc’s life have added to her popularity in recent years, the groundbreaking writer remains largely unread outside of France. THE ALIGNIST’s Beenish Ahmed called up New York University professor Elisabeth Ladenson to talk about Leduc’s troubled life and unsung legacy -- but mostly, about her unsparing prose. 

(3+7) (Q&A) ON A FRENCH MEMOIRIST WHO BELIEVED THAT 'TO WRITE IS TO PROSTITUTE ONESELF'
The Alignist
(3+7) (Q&A) WITH NOVELIST JENNIFER CLEMENT ON ...

Jennifer Clement's latest novel, Prayers for the Stolen, maps the landscape of violence wrought on the people of Guerrero, Mexico by the drug wars and traces the story of some of its "stolen." THE ALIGNIST spoke with Clement about her response to the disappearance of 43 teaching students from the state last year and asked her how her work came to be one of social protest.

(3+7) (Q&A) WITH NOVELIST JENNIFER CLEMENT ON MEXICO'S MISSING
The Alignist
HENRY DUMAS WROTE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE KILLED BY ...

"A young black man, Henry Dumas, went through a turnstile at a New York City subway station," reads an invitation by Toni Morrison for a posthumous book-launch party she threw for Dumas in 1974, six years after he died. "A transit cop" — who was white — "shot him in the chest and killed him. Circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. Before that happened, however, he had written some of the most beautiful, moving and profound poetry and fiction that I have ever in my life read."

HENRY DUMAS WROTE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE KILLED BY COPS. THEN HE WAS KILLED BY A COP.

barack obama

PRESIDENT OBAMA WANTS YOU TO BE EMPATHETIC LIKE ATTICUS FINCH. DON'T.

PRESIDENT OBAMA WANTS YOU TO BE EMPATHETIC LIKE ATTICUS FINCH. DON'T.

In his farewell address, President Obama invoked the glorified version of To Kill a Mockingbird's Atticus Finch who has been incorrectly read as a civil rights hero for decades. 

JOY HARJO, NATIONAL PARKS, AND THE 'BEGINNING AND END' OF RECOGNIZING TRIBAL HISTORIES

JOY HARJO, NATIONAL PARKS, AND THE 'BEGINNING AND END' OF RECOGNIZING TRIBAL HISTORIES

Although every National Park was once inhabited or used by Native people, their stories are glaringly absent in this year's centennial celebrations of the National Parks Service as “America’s best idea.” Poet, musician, and member of the Mvskoke Nation, Joy Harjo takes the United States' limited account for tribal histories to task in her poem, "Someone Talking."