Langston Hughes

The Drag Aesthetic of Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes' poetry was influenced by the drag scene in 1920s Harlem.
Harem Pool Jean-Léon Gérôme [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Other Orientalism: Colonialism in the Caucasus

For centuries, the Caucasus was to the Russian Empire what the Middle East was to the British and French: a savage land to be dominated and a romanticized Other against which Russia could define its own “European” identity.
temple of apollo

The Temple of Apollo on the Ocean Floor

In 1993, divers discovered a shipwreck from the Hellenistic period off the coast of Turkey. It held marble columns from the Temple of Apollo.
Refugees Hungary

“Let the Traumatic Image Haunt Us”

When tragedies strike, it is through photographs, rather than think pieces and reportage that the reader can see the sheer scale of the problem.
Grammar workbook

Dear Pedants: Your Fave Grammar Rule is Probably Fake

What constitutes ‘correct’ grammar in English seems to have a cyclical life, aided and abetted by new generations of enthusiastic grammarians.
Black and white illustration of a man writing outside surrounded by wildlife with several visitors arriving by mule

Gabriel García Márquez’s Papers Go to University of Texas at Austin

The archive of Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, will go to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Education and Leisure

The Rise and Fall of “Education for Leisure”

Where did the notion of teaching people how to spend their free time come from, and why did it disappear?
Opening lines of Frank O'Hara's "The Day Lady Died" written in 1964.

Lunch Poems Turns 50

2014 marks the 50th anniversary of Frank O’Hara’s groundbreaking book Lunch Poems.