The cover over of Freedomways, Volume 20, Issue 3, 1980

A New Civil Rights Movement, a New Journal

Freedomways, the African American journal of politics and culture chronicled the civil rights and Black freedom movements starting in the early 1960s. Read it on JSTOR.
Five female literacy volunteers return to Havana at the end of the literacy campaign in December 1961.

Rosa Hernández Acosta on the Cuban Literacy Campaign

Armed with just some textbooks and a kerosene lantern, Rosa Hernández Acosta taught literacy in rural Cuba without electricity, running water, or paved roads.
The 135th St Branch of the New York Public Library

JSTOR Companion to the Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation Reading List

JSTOR has created an open library to support readers seeking to engage with BIPOC+Q-authored reading lists like the one developed by the New York Public Library.
a caricature of three women whose depicted clothing satirizes the beginnings of neo-classical fashion influences in England.

Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?

The British Regency era lasted less than a decade, but it spawned a staggering number of unlikely fictional marriages.
Actors Robert Stephens (1931 - 1995) as a cook and Mary Peach as waitress Monique during rehearsals for the play 'The Kitchen' by Arnold Wesker at the Royal Court Theatre in London, 27th June 1961.

In The Gay Cookbook, Domestic Bliss Was Queer

Chef Lou Rand Hogan whipped up well-seasoned wit and served a gay take on home life during the early-1960s craze for camp.
A collage of book covers

What We’re Reading in 2020

Funk music, floating cities, poetic prose, and a return to the classics.
Illustration: An illustration from the cover of Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree, Jr.

Source: Ballantine

James Tiptree Jr. and Joanna Russ: Sci-Fi Pen Pals

The two feminist authors corresponded about writing and romance, especially after Tiptree's true identity leaked.
An illustration depicting two regency-era women speaking with an iMessage bubble

Our Editors’ Favorite Stories of 2020

This tectonic year brought shocks to the world, and though we don't know how it'll all shake out, we hope we've brought you nerdy joy.
Two pages from the Kaufmann Mishneh Torah, 1296

How to Revive a Dead Language

Although it was the language of sacred texts and ritual, modern Hebrew wasn't spoken in conversation till the late nineteenth century.
Bernadette Mayer

Stories That Got Lost in 2020’s Erratic News Cycle

No matter how hard you work on a story, especially this year, it might get overlooked. Here are 20 that deserve more love.