A stunning speech and a radiant reading from Elizabeth Alexander, Barack Obama’s inaugural poet.
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A stunning speech and a radiant reading from Elizabeth Alexander, Barack Obama’s inaugural poet.
People are complicated… Societies and cultures are really complicated… These are living organisms, and it’s messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding.
Barack Obama, quoted in this fantastic New Yorker’s piece by David Remnick – nothing less than a work of magic, difficult and beautiful. Complement with President Obama on what his mother taught him about love.
Those who tell you ‘Do not put too much politics in your art’ are not being honest. If you look very carefully you will see that they are the same people who are quite happy with the situation as it is… What they are saying is don’t upset the system.
Chinua Achebe, born on this day in 1930, in conversation with James Baldwin about the political power of art.
Toni Morrison on the artist’s task in troubled times – powerful, timely, immensely important read.
H.L. Mencken, writing nearly a century ago, on reclaiming democracy from the mob mentality that masquerades for it.
James Baldwin on what Shakespeare taught him about language as a tool of love and the poet’s responsibility to a divided society – beautiful, consolatory, badly needed perspective.
Debbie Millman and other designers respond constructively to what can be done about the political situation today.
Also see Carl Sagan on moving beyond us vs. them.
The wise and wonderful Neil Gaiman turns 56 today. His timeless wisdom on the power of cautionary questions and the resilience of ideas seems timelier than ever right now.
That moment when you grasp in your bones why Dr. King was such a remarkable human being for preaching and practicing nonviolence amid enraging circumstances. May we never forget his wisdom, but especially today.
Today more than ever, Rebecca Solnit’s much-needed wisdom on hope in the dark and what we can do instead of outrage and resignation
Hear 21-year-old Hillary Rodham’s poetic and prescient 1969 Wellesley commencement address.
Every day, but especially today.
If the only tool we have ultimately to use is our lives, so we use it in the way we can by choosing a way to live that will demonstrate the way we feel and the way we know.
Hear 21-year-old Hillary Rodham’s remarkable 1969 Wellesley speech, brimming with prescience.
A particularly timely portion of Neil Gaiman’s wholly terrific wisdom on why we read and what books do for the human experience.
Thoreau, writing 150 years ago and timelier than ever, on how to use civil disobedience to advance justice.