Biographies, memoirs, & documentaries
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Published 22 years ago, before 9/11, before Madoff, before Black Lives, before the pandemic, the January 6 White terrorist attack on the Capitol, and a lot of other things that drain my psyche, Jane Goodall’s Reason to Hope is the book I needed right now. While I don’t know if I am any more or
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After her story,“Stargazing,” I read all of ND Chan’s poetry to the tune of Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” “Stargazing” is my favorite story in her collection of flash fiction and poetry, Saved as Draft: Stories of Self-Discovery Through Letters & Notes. Set during her morning commute through New York City’s Grand Central Station, a trip to the
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Aleksandar Hemon’s book of essays, The Book of My Lives reminded me that when I moved back home after failing to make it on my own after college, Yugoslavians were leaving their homes to escape what The Atlantic called “horrific acts of ethnic cleansing” in a “long, complex, and ugly” war. Hemon’s book documents his search for a new
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Admittedly, I should have read the description of Virunga more closely. All I saw on its Netflix banner was “Oscar Nominated” and the picture of a smiling man giving a baby gorilla a piggyback ride. I pressed PLAY expecting a Nature documentary about African Mountain Gorillas to unfold in bold colors and dreamy panoramics. However,
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There were two pieces of Bowie memorabilia I brought with me my freshman year of college and my first time away from home. One was a white t-shirt with a silhouetted image of Bowie with his jacket slung over one shoulder and the other was a Black & White door poster of him in an
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If given the opportunity to speak with Joan Cooney and the other surviving Sesame Street founders, the first question I would ask them is “Do you think it worked?” Did Sesame Street help the audience of economically disadvantaged kids whose plight was the inspiration for the show? Even though Sesame Street and its characters are
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Reading Rodney Dangerfield’s autobiography, It’s Not Easy Bein’ Me, was like listening to him do a long monologue on the Tonight Show couch. He starts off just like anyone else. He speaks casually, makes small talk. He seems sincere. He’s not angling for a punchline and then — Pow! Pow! Pow! He fires off a
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According to Wikipedia, in Wicca, standing inside a chalk circle can protect you from evil. It can even empower you. Wikipedia also says that Bertolt Brecht wrote a play called The Caucasian Chalk Circle: “The play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its natural parents.”
Vincent Young 