By Erika Grumet When I was a kid, I would occasionally encounter people with numbers tattooed on their arms. I don’t remember a time when Nazis and what they had done to Jews (and by extension, my own family) weren’t a part of my consciousness. I heard the stories first hand from the survivors, in…
Month: May 2021
Mass-Grave found in Canada Dates from only about 45 Years Ago
By Adam Katz It gives me little pleasure to write this article, but I could not see failing to respond. Throughout most of the 20th century, Canada ran “Residential Schools” meant to deprive the aboriginal population of their culture. Yesterday, Friday, May 28, 2021, a mass grave was found beneath one of those schools. This…
Whitman’s Thrush
Walt Whitman at 202 By Adam Katz I guess most school-age kids read “O Captain, my Captain” at some point. Looking back at it now, it’s a poem you have to read quickly, I think. The line “O heart! heart! heart! / O the bleeding drops of red” does not really admit slowing down and…
You Don’t Look a Day Over 200
By Erika Grumet It’s birthday time here. Mine is this week, although I am nowhere near 200, but we’ll also be celebrating Walt Whitman’s 202nd birthday with this weekend’s episode of The Ivory Tower Boiler Room. I think it’s hard to grow up where I did on Long Island and not have at least a …
Erika’s Big Think #1:
Coming out of the Poetry Closet By Erika Grumet It’s a little ironic, I was the one who proposed that the topic for this month’s Big Think… should be “writing about ourselves as writers.” Of all the members of the Ivory Tower team, I’m the one who really struggles to self-identify as “a writer” and…
Nikole Hannah-Jones Gets a Seat at the Table. Maybe. For Now.
The 1619 Project was co-founded by Nikole Hannah-Jones. in addition to being a massive effort of journalism and scholarship, was a serious headline grabber in the last couple years. Despite inevitable arguments in a project this big, it isn’t so much controversial as it is a target for people who do not want to acknowledge…
Author Kyle Lukoff Spoke about being Censored
I met Kyle in college, before he was a recognized author. It’s been weird watching this controversy roil around him. I may say more at a different time. But for now: Kyle just gave the following speech about his books being banned from schools in Utah, Texas, and presumably elsewhere. The speech is gorgeous and…
We Stand with Fran’s House
Recently, 20 members of a disbanded franternity at Bucknell university attacked and harassed the residents of Fran’s House, Bucknell’s LGBTQ+ house, while campus safety officials did nothing or next to nothing to help. These students were minding their own business in their own home, which the university had provided for them after the building’s previous…
Sunday is for Swearing
By Adam Katz So. Erika and I were talking about the difference between a fanny-pack and a bum-bag. I didn’t know until a few days ago that, what in the United States, call a ‘fanny pack,’ in Britain is called a “bum bag,” apparently because in England (and elsewhere) “fanny” is a euphemism for “vagina.”…
Writing about Ourselves as Writers
So. The reason why I don’t feel comfortable any longer within the constraints of academia is what I’m doing right now. Starting out an essay (from the French essayer—to attempt) without a clear goal except to communicate what is on my mind in a given moment. This attempt may or may not have a bibliography….