The Archive
Levin’s Legacy
To Fund Communities or Jails?
New York City Council Member Stephen Levin B’03, is trying to push through an $11 billion jail expansion plan in New …
Within One Frame
Human closeness in Tsai Ming-Liang’s Vive L’Amour
content warning: suicide Last month, the film Joker won the Golden Lion—top honors—at the Venice International Film Festival. That the comic-book …
Game Change
A narrative of Gamergate through the lens of games
In 2014, a break-up on social media exploded into an online battleground. Here, on the planes of Facebook, Twitter, 4chan, and …
Right & Wrong & Right on Red
A look at Frank Caprio’s courtroom reality show: Caught in Providence
Judge Frank Caprio has a knack for extracting narratives for his courtroom reality show, Caught in Providence, where Providence’s traffic violations …
Shifting Gears
The United Automobile Workers strikes General Motors
On September 15, nearly 50,000 United Automobile Workers (UAW) union members formed picket lines outside of General Motors factories across the …
Dirty Undies
Seeing and unseeing the thong in pop culture
I bought my first thong when I was 15. It was a cinnamon color with light blue polka dots, framed by …
Possessions
All Al could talk about was how excited he was for dinner. He said his wife was cooking something special. “I …
Mosquito Trap
Everything you (wish you didn’t) need to know about Triple E
Consider this hypothetical scenario: mosquitoes carrying an infection with a 30-percent mortality rate have taken over, and you are the only …
The Bully Buster
Monica Huertas: Democrat for Ward 10
She stood amid overturned toy castles and idle trucks and talked canvassing routes, missed calls from constituents, and the newest batch …
Week in Tête-à-Têtes
THE NAMESAKE Name recognition is important in politics. Regardless of a politician’s public favor, constituents must know who they are before …
Bunnies
Valentine and I moved in together at the start of a Rooster year—the kind that, decades ago, my mother was born …
Making Cyber Space
Antitrust and Big Tech
Before he was the face of billionaire philanthropy, Bill Gates sat in the deposition chair of the United States District Court …
Plants and the City
A new vegan restaurant’s place on College Hill
Approach the new pedestrian bridge on the Providence River on a weekend night and you might quickly be distracted by crowds, …
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Seeing Korean and American in neither Korea nor America
“Each member of this shadowy network resented the others, who were irritating reminders that nothing was more American, whatever that means, …
iWork, uWork, WeWork
How the coworking industry is failing freelancers
I was one of 500,000 coworking Americans in 2017 when I had a summer job at a small coworking space in …
Rhode Island is Where the Wild Things Are
Coyote culture in New England sparks fear of infestation
Before announcing its plans to close all its US locations, Shiru Café severely limited its free options. This fact has nothing …
Eat, Play, Sing
The Highlander Center and the practice of cultural organizing
Woke up this morning with my mind, set on freedom Woke up this morning with my mind, set on freedom Woke …
Not For Sale
Beyond Greenland's media moment
“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal.” In the middle of August, the world was witness to yet another media circus …
Week in Civic Engagement
I ONLY SEE ONE RACE: THE HUMAN RACE To understand Woonsocket’s City Council meeting on Monday, September 16, we can begin …
Body Talk
On wounds and the loneliest form of memory
content warning:depictions of blood and wounds When faced with a missing person or examining an unnamed or unclaimed body, the police …
Treading Water
Can the ProJo stay afloat in the Ocean State?
Before ad revenue dried up, and before the financial crisis, and Facebook, and the smartphone, and Craigslist, the Providence Journal was …
On Desire & Being Desired
King Princess, Hayley Kiyoko, and queer representation in pop music
I easily lose myself listening to Mikaela Straus’s (a.k.a. King Princess) “Pussy is God.” Beyond its lyrics (which I know by …
The Year of Yeehaw
Cowboys making space in music
A John Wayne movie may obscure the history, but the cowboy began from a Spanish imperialist practice: Spanish colonialists forced Indigenous …
A Common Cold War
The political history of phage therapy
Mount Sinai Hospital in Brooklyn has a fungus problem. In May of 2018, a patient was admitted for abdominal surgery. He …
Our House? Not Quite.
A look into Bolsonaro's policies and the Amazon
On August 19, São Paulo, Brazil went dark at 4 PM. Drivers in Brazil’s most populous city were forced to turn …
Week in Veneers
LOOKING PRESI-DENTAL The 2020 presidential race has opened with such an oversaturated field of candidates that sometimes distinguishing between them all …
Catering Contract Concerns
An open letter on catering workers’ contract negotiations
Since September 2018, Brown University catering service employees have been negotiating their contract with the University in an attempt to unionize. …
Disney To Dust
Cultural nostalgia and cynicism in live action remakes
In 2019, the Walt Disney Company became the very first studio to release five films that each grossed over one billion …
Seeing Through Supplements
How the vitamin industry sells health
Whenever I have a problem, my parents believe vitamins are the solution: “Feeling tired from classwork? “There must be an iron …
Collecting Sediments
Cappadocia and carving out homes
My mom’s name is Petra. Short for Petronella, it shares the Greek root “petros” with petrified, Peter, and petrol. Petros means …
From Decrim To Recrim
Ten years of recriminalized indoor sex work in Rhode Island
Every Wednesday night, Bella Robinson parks her tangerine Nissan Rogue inside the faded lines of the lot by the McDonalds and …
Two Poems
Cathy I hate missing sock mistake I hate rat raisin fluorescent forget and death and a plastic clothing hanger wet paper …
The Fourth of July Girl
She emerges from the port-a-potty dripping wet. The blue plastic door swings a full one hundred and eighty degrees, shuddering the …