Visiting the Acropolis Museum

By Krzysztof Wodiczko

DEC 22–JAN 23 | Special Report

Wounded, mutilated, and dismembered by wars, ancient war sculptures—such as these of heroes of Persian, Trojan wars and embattled mythological gods—are perceived by the Museum visitors as “romantic” ruins of idealized antiquity, rather than as the horrifying forensic evidence of war’s atrocities and as the masterpieces of war art implicated in cultural perpetuation of such atrocities through their aesthetic sanctification of armed violence.   

Judah Schept’s Coal, Cages, Crisis

By Jarrod Shanahan and Abby Cunniff

SEPT 2022 | Field Notes

A crumbling strip of asphalt winds through the craggy countryside of eastern Kentucky, striated with power lines sagging in every direction. Wobbly pavement markings and errant skidmarks vanish at a hairpin bend buffered by low guard rails framing a rolling, sparsely tree-spotted expanse of hills. On one side of this road stands a roughly chiseled open coal seam, marking the remnants of a former mine. On the other, a bowed chain link fence capped in razor-wire announces the outer periphery of Otter Creek Correctional Facility. This remarkable image by photographer Jill Frank adorns the jacket of prison scholar Judah Schept’s Coal, Cages, Crisis (New York: NYU Press, 2022), confronting the reader with the book’s central preoccupations.

A Song for the Strivers in Evanston Salt Costs Climbing

By Billy McEntee

NOV 2022 | Theater

Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, directed by Danya Taymor and produced by The New Group, is a song for the striving: a love letter to those who feel too much, who can’t help but give and give of themselves even if it comes at their own expense. Such characters exist throughout Arbery’s other plays, including the wounded Emily in Heroes of the Fourth Turning and saintly Isabel in Plano.

four

By Bianca Stone

MARCH 2022 | Poetry

Bianca Stone is author of The Mobius Strip Club of Grief (Tin House, 2018), Someone Else's Wedding Vows (Octopus Books and Tin House, 2014); the children’s book A Little Called Pauline, with text by Gertrude Stein, (Penny Candy Books, 2020). Her newest poetry collection is What is Otherwise Infinite (Tin House, 2022). She teaches poetry and hosts a podcast as Creative Director at the Ruth Stone House in Vermont.