I recently finished Dave Eggers’ first novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This book messed with my mind. He makes such a big deal in the (very elaborate, gimmicky) preface about how true the book is, that I was inclined to believe none of it. Then, at the end of the paperback edition, there’s [...]

Having just finished writing a major project about a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Brooklyn, I figured that now was the time to finally figure out the proper label for immigrants from Central and South America.*  I remembered learning something about how “Hispanic” was a term created not so long ago, not a term preferred by the [...]

Street art fascinates me. I admire anyone who is willing to risk life, limb, or incarceration for the sake of creative expression. For example, Jennifer Toth’s The Mole People contains a chapter about graffiti writers. Some would work all night on a subway car, dodging cops and literally running for their lives, even though they [...]