By challenging traditional ideas around academia, Mark Anthony Neal has broadened what it means to be a scholar. Originally published in Duke Magazine. Click. A video of R&B musician Jill Scott fills the screen. She’s belting out “Strange Fruit,” a ballad written in the 1930s to protest the lynchings—hangings and other mob violence—that were terrorizing African-American […]
Brothers in Arms
How two friends came to rest side by side at Arlington National Cemetery. Originally published in Parade. ON MEMORIAL DAY 2004, TRAVIS MANION, a newly commissioned Marine officer, went to cheer on his roommate and best friend, Brendan Looney, at the national lacrosse championship in Baltimore. It was an emotional afternoon. Three days earlier, both […]
Lights Out
Can contact sports lower your intelligence? Originally published in Discover. SOME 20 YEARS AGO, IN FRONT OF A FRENZIED and antagonistic crowd, Harry Carson hurled his entire bulk—240 pounds—into an equally massive human body racing toward him across the field at Washington’s RFK Stadium. A middle linebacker with the New York Giants, Carson was a celebrated defensive […]
The New Men’s Movement
Thousands of men have flocked to rallies led by the Promise Keepers, a religious organization that aims to restore male authority and make men better husbands and fathers. But what price will women pay? Originally published in New Woman. SITTING ON THE FLOOR OF THE SILVERDOME in Pontiac, Michigan, it’s hard not to fixate on the overhead […]
Faerie Culture
Originally published in Southern Exposure. For a PDF of the pages, click here. THE NEW EMPRESS OF SHORT MOUNTAIN wore royal purple to the coronation: a billowing ankle-length dress made from yards and yards and yards of polyester. On his head he wore a wig of rainbow-colored shredded tinfoil; on his feet, brown sandals. (“I […]
Faerie Culture
Click here for “Faerie Culture,” Southern Exposure, Fall 1988. Opens as a PDF.
