George Foreman

Remembering George Foreman, the King of the Comeback

By Gerald Early

George Foreman was not such a political naïf as he led people to think. He was castigated and ostracized by many Blacks in Houston. But he was on the road to becoming heavyweight champion of the world. He had a name, and even if his skills were not polished. He was big, strong, with a hard punch, and a willingness to train and follow his trainers’ instructions. What were his Black critics, those loudmouthed, street losers he left behind, going to be? Nobody was buying what they were selling. What Foreman learned early on was this: do not try to sell unhappiness. People are already more unhappy than you think.

Essays

The Raw, the Cooked, and the Difference between Them

By John Griswold

I had known her parents, and now all four of our parents were in their graves, and we were parents of grown children. We lived in the same metropolitan area. Why would it not be pleasant to sit together and imagine the futures that remained in each of our separate lives?

Essays

How Roy Ayers Put Soul on “Nice”

By Ben Fulton

Roy Ayers coasted on his unique sentiment and vibe. It was sublime, positive, and unfailingly warm and luminescent. What else would you expect a writer, any writer, to say about the musical talent who gave us the song “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”?

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

How Zelensky Might Channel Thucydides

By Ben Fulton

It is anyone’s guess as to whether Ukrainian President Volodoymyr Zelensky has read ‘The History of the the Peloponnesian War,’ even if his words spill into realms that Thucydides, with his imperatives for the preservation of law and solidarity against violence and calamity, would recognize at once.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Most Points Wins

By John Griswold

The goal is to make you feel slightly more virtuous, briefly. But why stop there? People are crazy, and times are strange.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

I Hate Nazis. Why Does Facebook Want Me to See Them So Badly?

By John Griswold

Facebook’s algorithms, which drive what any of us see individually, are a mystery to most of us. At best they make us passive consumers; at worst, easy pupils to brain-train for nefarious ends.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

The Universal, Demarcating Power of The Scream

By Ben Fulton

By drawing a line between its disturbed central figure and the serenity of the two bystanders at the vanishing point of the painting’s perspective, The Scream asks us to question the “sanity” we pretend to hold on to.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Music Not Missiles: Memories of a Reluctant Cold Warrior

By Chris King

The guys in Gaza must be nearing 60 like my bandmates and I. I wonder if they stayed in our country after they were free to return to theirs without booking a steady gig in a gulag. I wonder what they make of Vladimir Putin having an ally in the White House or a short-timer like Pete Hegseth having oversight of the mightiest military on Earth.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Oksana Maksymchuk and the War in Ukraine

By John Griswold

Oksana Maksymchuk explained that she started writing ‘Still City’ in Ukraine, “maybe half a year before the actual invasion in the summer of 2021…and the Russian troops were amassing on the border, and we were assured that there would be nothing happening, but it seemed very threatening. I thought, ‘I’m going to write it as a kind of narrative about a non-event,’ something that I was sure would not take place.”

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Our Current Saga of Eggs

By Ben Fulton

For the resourceful and the resilient, there will always be something else to eat for breakfast. Still, how interesting would it be if we let the high price of eggs direct our thoughts and actions beyond the simple matter of cost?   

People & Places | Dispatches

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