Month: February 2015

The racquet and the pen

Guest post by Eric Allen Hall “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet,” said Toni Morrison, “then you must write it.” Arthur Ashe would do just that.  Following his retirement from tennis in 1980, Ashe “felt a subtle but pervasive dissatisfaction with life. . . and a…

The racquet and the pen

Guest post by Eric Allen Hall “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet,” said Toni Morrison, “then you must write it.” Arthur Ashe would do just that.  Following his retirement from tennis in 1980, Ashe “felt a subtle but pervasive dissatisfaction with life. . . and a…

Examining ‘Callaloo Art’

For nearly 40 years, the journal Callaloo has showcased original work by and about writers and visual artists of African descent worldwide. The quarterly offers an engaging mixture of fiction, poetry, critical articles, interviews, drama, and visual art. In late 2014, however, a long-time dream of journal founder and editor Charles Henry Rowell came to life…

“Still Alice” reminds us to remember the challenges facing the caregiver

Guest post by Laura Wayman,  The Dementia Whisperer In the film Still Alice, Alice Howland is a linguistics professor who endures, at the unusually young age of 50, dementia symptoms caused by a form of young onset Alzheimer’s that runs in her family. Although this type of Alzheimer’s is rare, the dementia symptoms are the same…

“Still Alice” reminds us to remember the challenges facing the caregiver

Guest post by Laura Wayman,  The Dementia Whisperer In the film Still Alice, Alice Howland is a linguistics professor who endures, at the unusually young age of 50, dementia symptoms caused by a form of young onset Alzheimer’s that runs in her family. Although this type of Alzheimer’s is rare, the dementia symptoms are the same…

Should we bring historians to the movies?

Guest post by Thomas Leitch Why do otherwise intelligent and discriminating people routinely come away from movies like Selma, American Sniper, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything under the impression that their fictionalizations of history are true? Can’t they tell the difference between real life and the movies? In a word, no, they…

Should we bring historians to the movies?

Guest post by Thomas Leitch Why do otherwise intelligent and discriminating people routinely come away from movies like Selma, American Sniper, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything under the impression that their fictionalizations of history are true? Can’t they tell the difference between real life and the movies? In a word, no, they…