An homage to Lou Rawls and to the St. Louis poet who became a Brit.     February is the cruelest month. Where did T.S. Eliot get that April business? […]

Eight years ago, I wrote a post about Richard Blanco’s poem, “One Today,” presented by the poet at Barack Obama’s second inaugural. I was so moved by Amanda Gorman’s poem […]

    Towards the end of the plague year we learned that someone somehow transported a ten-foot high silvery metal object to a remote canyon in the Utah desert drilling […]

What year were you born:? If you are lucky enough to meet Margaret Atwood, she might ask you that. Knowing when someone was born tells her what happened to them, […]

Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected by Haki R. Madhubuti Third World Press One of my favorite poems in Haki R. Madhubuti’s new, career-spanning collection Taught […]

She was the queen of Brooklyn although she wore no gold crown except in the public’s imagination and on t-shirts. Instead her apparel of choice was a white frilly lace […]

  Blessed   Blessed are the dead and the dying. Blessed, the mourn-filled good-byes to loves behind glass, behind walls.   Blessed, neighborhoods of pain, grief communities, lightning-struck homes, annunciations […]

Until recently, Pilsen Community Books was operated by owners Mary Gibbons and Aaron Lippelt. Current part-owner Katharine Solheim shares what’s changing and what will stay the same at the shop. […]

Everything Must Go: The Life and Death of an American Neighborhood By Kevin Coval and Langston Allston Haymarket Books What’s the best way to preserve a time and place? I […]

The Boys in the Band was revolutionary when it was first performed off Broadway in April 1968, in its portrayal of the lives and loves of gay men. The producers […]

Saturday Night Sage by Noah C. Lekas Blind Owl Reviewed by Carr Harkrader In Noah Lekas’ new poetry collection, Saturday Night Sage, Buddha’s divine path is paved over with Wisconsin […]

The Third Coast Review Lit Department had a very full year, with new writers Patrick T. Reardon, Terry Galvan, and Carr Harkrader joining us and sharing their impeccable insights. Reardon […]