Strolling around Harlem, where identical brownstones shoulder each other for streets on end, it’s easy to walk past and not identify one as the historical home of Langston Hughes. As a foundational figure in jazz poetry and the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes lived at the center of the movement, at 20 East 127th Street, from 1948 until his death in 1967. Today, it lays empty and, until recently, the owner was frantically searching for a purchaser at the area’s ballooning prices. Then along came the I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit arts conservation group that has begun a grassroots campaign to convert his Harlem …
Ah, coffee table books. Even though you’re essentially the grown person’s picture book, we still buy and covet you almost as much as we do other books in our collection. Much like memes or party-rappers, though, your desire to become more popular pushed yourself into some outrageous territories, and now it’s hard to tell when you’re a serious book or something made-up. Try it for yourself: can you guess which of these coffee table books were pushed to print and which ones were pure whimsy? Featured image courtesy of Scott Rogowsky / Running Late Show.
Botanical drawings of more than 100 species of plants that cannot be found growing. Surreal depictions of naked women, their bodies contorted and intertwined with tubes, like an H.R. Giger painting. Washes of an inked script that sprawls out like a map of Middle-earth, but clearly resembles language. This is the Voynich Manuscript, a 240-page book of sketches and incomprehensible script that was presumably crafted in Central Europe in the the 15th century (though the official range is ‘1400 – 1599 ?’). Some believe it to be a mystical text, written in a lost language no living person can understand. To put it …
Did ya miss us last week? We missed you too! Our resident playlist-er decided he liked the weekend so much, he’d make it a week long. Fortunately, the wait is over! We brewed you a double-shot of songs that remind us of the week’s top book stories, as well as various, beautiful, book-referencing songs we’ve found along the way. Take a taste! This fortnight’s article rundown: “Million Dollar Bills” by Lorde – Emily Roese’s look into whiteness and wealth in popular literature “Lamento Africano” by Art Blakey – An on-target tune to usher in Zadie Smith’s new novel about two bi-continental …
If it hadn’t been for one implosive misogynist, the internet’s banners would have been about how victorious a moment Amy Schumer was having. The standup’s new memoir, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, is a bright title in the fertile territory of comedians penning novels. It’s impressive, not only for how Schumer translates her humor into prose, but for its candor on serious subjects – which might be part of what troubles some people regarding her reaction to a growing controversy. This week saw the circulation of social media posts by Inside Amy Schumer writer Kurt Metzger, writing a defense pseudo-logical, fallacy-a-ganza on the sexual …
