Alex Sayf Cummings's Blog, page 5

Old Formalists, New Content Creators

The sensibility of Gen Z is uncritical and anti-intellectual, assuming that everyone suffers from crippling anxiety and trauma, a sensitivity which any criticism might imperil.

Professor Asha Samad-Matias: Expert Witness

We must not forget this passionate educator and inspirational fighter for social justice whose legacy would be all too eagerly elided by institutions of power in higher education.

Instacore and the Impact of ‘Impact’

Maybe information itself is more pernicious than the dis- or mis- varieties. The glut of facts can feel—in their sheer impenetrable volume—anxious-making, anomic, and numbing

Notes on Instacore: The Social Horizon of Sensibility and a Sense of Self

Recently at a writer’s conference—AWP in Seattle, for those who are curious—I bumped into a colleague I knew […]

Looking for Direction: Adia Reid on the Work of Care in Babysitting, Teaching and the Theater

Playwright and director Adia Reid talks to us about her family’s journey from Costa Rica and Jamaica to […]

When Hoover Met Palmer: Domestic Surveillance and Radical Suppression in the Early Days of the FBI

J. Edgar Hoover's ascent within the FBI reveals the birth of an unprecedented surveillance apparatus that would survey US citizens for decades to come.

Do I Dare to Eat a Lehman? 15 Years Since the Crisis that Ruined All of Our Lives

Like so many things in American life, this momentous and catastrophic event should teach us a lot but has instead gone down the memory hole.

Breece Pancake of West Virginia

The brilliant writer offered unblinking insight into hard-luck characters on the fringe of society, yet his own inner world remained elusive during his short life.

Fast Car Rewind: Taking a Look Back at Tracy Chapman and the Women’s Music Movement

The recent controversy over country singer Luke Combs's surprise hit cover obscures the deeper history of Chapman and her cultural movement in powerful ways.

“Daddy, What Did You Do in the Suburbs?” Patrick Vitale on High-Tech Pittsburgh

In the 1979 cult classic The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, a down-on-their-luck basketball team called the Pittsburgh Pythons is desperate for a change of fortune. They lose constantly, despite being led by the legendary Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and in a strange twist they turn to an astrologer (Stockard Channing) for help...