-- Simms Taback, the illustrator and author, has died. He was a Caldecott-winner who enjoyed adapting Yiddish stories into children's books.
-- The new issue of World Literature Today spotlights eight favorite children's books.
-- The Los Angeles Times asks 25 writers, editors, and publishers about their literary resolutions for the new year. My favorite comes from Chad W. Post of Open Letter Books.
-- Largehearted Boy picks six favorite graphic novels of the last year. Meanwhile, Jezebel highlights "13 fantastic female creators in comics."
-- Jenny Hendrix on "the afterlife of Tintin"
-- In 1965, James Baldwin and William F. Buckley debated whether the "American Dream has been achieved at the expense of the American Negro" at Cambridge University. Today, you can watch it all go down, including when the audience that is 99.9% young white British men give Baldwin an unprecedented standing ovation. God, I love Baldwin's beautiful spontaneous grin.
In Part 4, look for Baldwin noting Robert F. Kennedy's suggestion that "it was conceivable, in the next forty years, to have a Negro president" -- and then articulating the "laughter and bitterness and scorn" with which this statement was greeted in Harlem. Also noteworthy: Baldwin's expression when Buckley suggests that in his wonderful book, The Fire Next Time, he "threatens America" and refrains from "using the British accent that he used tonight." Hilarious.
-- A different kind of debate (or is it...?) narrated over at The Millions: "Race and American Poetry: Dove v. Vendler."
-- In images: "The Case of Loving v. Bigotry."
-- Sex education and texting: direct-to-you answers. The New York Times profile is a good one, but it leaves out my favorite sexuality resource for young people: Scarleteen, led by Heather Corinna, who gave me a wonderfully generous and provocative interview years ago. Corinna is the author of this excellent book on sex for teens and young adults. You can "help lift sex ed to a higher plane" by supporting Scarleteen here.
-- Four plays by South African playwright Athol Fugard are being staged in New York.
-- From The New York Times: "Female playwrights historically have not found Broadway a welcome home to their new plays, but this season has been a surprising exception."
-- Painter Helen Frankenthaler has died. See a slideshow of her work here.
-- "The Far-Apart Artists." The New York Review of Books turns its eye to Georgia O'Keeffe. Her painting, "Oriental Poppies" (1928), is above.
-- TJ Clark's The Painting of Modern Life is one of the best art history books I've read. In an article for the London Review of Books, Clark turns his sharp eye to another time and place: Leonardo da Vinci and "the chill of disillusion."
-- NPR profiles classical music in black communities. Years ago, I wrote an article for Colorlines about the intersection of classical music and people of color, starting with Beethoven's star violonist, who had the Kreutzer Sonata written for him. One of my favorite interviews was with Aaron Dworkin, whose Sphinx Organization in Detroit is catalyzing exciting music.
-- "If there was a tougher moment over the last 40 years to be a leader in the American environmental movement, it would be hard to put your finger on it." An examination of how large environmental groups are adapting their strategy to address crises in the natural world (especially climate change) and public skepticism.
-- "The State of Zapotec Poetry: Can Poetry Save an Endangered Culture?"
-- "For Sale: Baby." Guernica interviews an investigative journalist that I'm really falling for.
-- The Atlantic: "What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland's School Success."
-- Cultivating cultural coverage in Philadelphia, as part of the Knight Journalism Challenge.
-- Racialicious is hosting an Octavia Butler Book Club. #awesome
-- Alan Lightman has a provocative feature in Harper's on "The Accidental Universe: Science's Crisis of Faith."
-- Robert Fay asks: "Where Have All the Catholic Writers Gone?"
-- Here is a bouquet of winter poems for you.
-- Have I told you lately how much I love So Many Books, a thoughtful lit blog written by a librarian named Stefanie? See, for example, "In Other Worlds" and "Science By Women: The List."
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