EssayLives

Dancing Alvin Ailey’s Revelations in Black and Brown

By Jamila Wilkinson March 15, 2019

How can I perform a story that isn’t mine to tell?

Arts & CultureRace

EssayLives

An Apex of Babble

By John Sperry March 6, 2019

I grew up in a community where the phenomenon of speaking in tongues (called glossolalia by linguists) is more than just some loaves-and-fishes Sunday School curiosity.

Religion

Essay

What Remains

By Jacqueline Alnes February 21, 2019

How can I write a history of myself without remembering? And why am I compelled to?

AmericasBodies & Nature

Essay

New Series: Rewriting the West

By Adriana Gallardo, Michelle García, Fernanda Santos, Raúl Ramos, and Carolina A. Miranda February 19, 2019

Reconsidering the origin stories and mythologies of Los Angeles, Texas, Arizona, the Alamo, and a family.

Rewriting the West

Essay

Death of a Dream

By Michelle García February 19, 2019

As demographics shift, Latinos in Texas are claiming the majority and seeing themselves in the center of the national story.

Rewriting the West AmericasHistoryPolitics

Essay

The Alamo is a Rupture

By Raúl Ramos February 19, 2019

It’s time to reckon with the true history of the mythologized Texas landmark—and the racism and imperialism it represents.

Rewriting the West AmericasGovernmentHistoryPolitics

Essay

Remapping LA

By Carolina A. Miranda February 19, 2019

Before California was West, it was North and it was East: the uppermost periphery of the Mexican Empire, and the arrival point for Chinese immigrants making the perilous journey from Guangdong.

Rewriting the West AmericasHistoryRace

Essay

“The Best Kind of People”: Shifting Definitions of Citizenship and the Making of Arizona

By Fernanda Santos February 19, 2019

For a century, Anglos from cold corners of the country have been lured here by the promise that this was a place where they could live among their own, in communities with nary a brown person in sight.

Rewriting the West AmericasHistoryPolitics

Essay

The Lucky Ones

By Adriana Gallardo February 19, 2019

I told her we were brought over the Rio Grande on a raft. I never called it a smuggling.

Rewriting the West AmericasFamily & RelationshipsPolitics

Essay

White Witchery

By Elissa Washuta February 14, 2019

I just want a version of the occult that isn’t built on plunder, but I suspect that if we could excise the stolen pieces, there would be nothing left.

Bodies & Nature

EssayPhotography

To Smolder, Burn Slow

By Harrison Dietzman February 5, 2019

In this photoessay, a Washington State firefighter recounts how suppressing wildfires involves bleeding hands, burning lungs, and rare moments of freedom.

Climate & Environment