It was a marriage made under the table
December 16, 2015 Mr. Gooch didn’t have much to say about his inclinations toward matrimony, except to point out the obvious fact that he couldn’t marry both girls. When the solution to the impasse finally appeared, no one could say exactly where it had come from or who had suggested it. It was as though it had been there all along but had only revealed itself when the neighbors’ thinking had matured enough to recognize it.
What you know about your neighbors isn’t always enough to illuminate what you don’t
December 15, 2015 They were in this neighborhood before we were, and they’ll be here when we leave. Theirs is a sad and angry life. The woman’s voice itself is a caricature: coarse, booze and smoke-ravaged. She tends to shout and taunt and curse sarcastically—all her fury and misery spat out in expletives.
Reese Witherspoon gives young women a road map for finding their own future
December 14, 2015 Sometimes I think about all the things I wish I could tell my younger self—things like, “Don’t give in to peer pressure,” and “Don’t get bangs just because your friend Ashley did,” and “Don’t go to that party at Maggie’s house sophomore year—everyone’s going to make bad decisions and turn on you, and you’ll have to call your mom to pick you up.” But since it’s too late for me, I figured I should tell you a few things.
Allyson Hobbs uncovers the fascinating history of racial passing in the United States
December 11, 2015 As Allyson Hobbs reveals in her fascinating history, A Chosen Exile, black people endured great loss when they “passed” as white. Hobbs will discuss her book at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on December 17, 2015, at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Remembering Memphis novelist Mark Behr, who died on November 27
December 11, 2015 Mark Behr’s classes were a thing apart. His students entered his classroom with one identity and finished the semester with another. He was formidable and transformative. On five continents. If you were lucky enough to be one of his students, he routinely promised to destroy you, to fail you, to go for the jugular. To change your life.
Robert Norrell tells the story of Alex Haley, whose books shaped the way we think about black history and culture
December 10, 2015 In his new biography, Alex Haley and the Books That Changed a Nation, Robert Norrell not only chronicles the life of a fascinating author but also reveals how The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots shaped our thinking about African-American history and culture.
