Black in the USSR
Soviet artworks that featured Black Americans tended to trade in stereotypes. The paintings of Alexsandr Deineka were an exception.
Burmese Women Novelists Speak Out
The novels of Ma Ma Lay and Wendy Law-Yone challenge the limits placed on the voices of Burmese women in the twentieth century.
It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
Rock and R&B have been considered separate genres for decades. But why?
Marianne Moore: Master Mentor
A widely published poet with deep editorial experience, Moore turned out to be the perfect mentor for a Vassar student named Elizabeth Bishop
Book Thieves Take the Story and Run with It
Book theft: the books may be rare, but the crime is not.
The Lost World of Pre-War Malay Cinema
Using the few surviving copies of the 1940s magazine Film Melayu, historian Timothy Barnard chronicles the discourse surrounding the Golden Age of Malay film.
Lines of Poetry, Rows of Trees
Ronald Johnson’s Valley of the Many-Colored Grasses, newly re-issued, offers entry into the work of a pioneering master collagist.
Keep Portland Yearbook Photos Weird
Across thousands of images, Portland State University's yearbooks captured both society's upheaval and the city's cultural metamorphosis.
Sneaky Racism in a Ghost Story
Guy de Maupassant’s spooky story "The Horla" captured French anxieties about race, foreigners, and contagious diseases.
Freddy Krueger, Folkloric Monster
Many aspects of Freddy Krueger's backstory and actions in A Nightmare on Elm Street echo portrayals of the folkloric bogeyman who targets children.