Relearning “The Piano Lesson”

The more of Wilson’s plays I read, the more I appreciated The Piano Lesson for its stark symbols and robust characters: Boy Willie and his determination to buy the land his ancestors had slaved on; Berniece, resolved to keep the piano and build a life for her daughter in Pittsburgh; Sutter’s ghost haunting the house, the family, the instrument, from the top of the stairs.

2025-06-30T08:24:40-04:00June 23, 2025|

Gephyrophobia

For starters, we need to talk about suicide. We need to not be afraid to say the word “suicide,” because the word “suicide” will not kill anyone. We need to clean up societal problems that increase the likelihood of suicide, not just push the responsibility for prevention onto the mental health profession. We need to worry less if a homeless person wants to live by choice under a bridge and more about the social bridges of connection, kinship, and community collapsing all around us.

2025-06-19T08:50:39-04:00June 12, 2025|

True Story of a Sandwich

the Parker Sub doesn't want those things. It likes simple. Plain. Which is why it's something a simple and plain man has to ask for. But I am a Parker. And I do want those: the pepper, the onions, the upgrades. That’s because I see our sub as a project, not a perfected object.

2025-06-16T08:18:41-04:00June 9, 2025|

The Tao of Iggy

Unexpected guidance came in the form of a job with yet another Detroit legend, James Osterberg, who if you know anything about rock music, you recognize as Iggy Pop.

2025-02-24T07:48:45-05:00February 10, 2025|

Terranexus in the Rust Belt

If we are going to care about the environment and preserve natural spaces in the so-called “rust belt,” then we must love rust. We must practice terranexus and accept and even love the chaotic intersection of civilized and natural worlds.

2025-02-20T10:20:45-05:00February 6, 2025|

Turtle Lake

Those who did it from a distance erased the people’s language. Once they could claim their fiction of terra nullius they flooded in close and put up fences. They erased the history of their conquest and they erased the lake’s history too.

2025-02-21T13:57:05-05:00January 27, 2025|

Martin Luther King in Dayton

Although the irony is not lost on us that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday falls on the forty-seventh presidential inauguration, EbonNia and Black Palette Art Gallery provide beacons of communal light and hope.... We must remain a kind, resilient people who are not afraid to be vocal and broadcast empathy. We are never too old to learn and embrace new information.

2025-01-27T08:02:10-05:00January 20, 2025|

Homesteading in Soulard, St. Louis

Soulard today is seen as one of St. Louis’s most vibrant neighborhoods. It has gained residents while the city’s population has fallen. However, it remains the exception to how the city pursues redevelopment.

2025-01-20T08:15:19-05:00January 13, 2025|

Living the Tiny Cabin Life

The cabin guidelines ask you to be courteous and not too loud for your neighbors. No one near us was loud, even though most of the cabins appeared to be occupied. There are rules about too many people gathering at one site, to deter parties. This wouldn’t be the place to bring a big group and play drinking games.

2025-01-16T09:17:48-05:00January 9, 2025|

Fighting the Klan in Ohio, 1924

At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, a crowd estimated at 1,700 gathered for Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Catholic church established by Italian immigrants 18 years earlier. By 10:30 a.m., the Knights of the Flaming Circle started gathering in a park at North Main and Federal streets in Niles, across the street from General Electric. They were armed to the teeth and setting up blockades to keep the parade from happening. “We’ll meet the Klansmen as they arrive,” one Knight of the Flaming Circle told a reporter from the Youngstown Vindicator.

2024-11-01T10:22:13-04:00October 31, 2024|