Vol. 35 Issue 5
Oct 20, 2017
From the Editors
When I told a friend about my new job as a queer archivist this week, she noted that archives seem to be a Hot New Queer Thing. Perhaps this title is a depressing oxymoron which dooms the practice, but it’s undeniable that archives are IN. She’s not wrong, but despite my shamefully trendy aspirations I actually am more a librarian than an archivist. As such, my days are now spent largely skimming dusty boxes of queer novels double my age, professionally ‘judging by covers.’
These boxes contain overwhelming, gooey, sloppy, restorative camp: an epic about an alternate universe ruled by lesbian forest elves where dance is currency; tales of the undying demigod sons of Aphrodite who walk the streets of the ’70s village cruising… for prey; a story of a gay detective who teams up with his archeologist boyfriend to bust a pollution conspiracy lead by an alien CEO. There is much to be said of the value of queer camp, and after one month on the job I am not qualified to say much of it. Still, even for those of us who haven’t read Sontag or Isherwood, the radical and healing potential of not taking ourselves seriously will quickly become apparent after an hour in the company of some trans cyborgs and a queer serial killer or two.
– ZKArts
After Warhol
Expanding curating practices at the RISD Museum
In contemporary depictions of museum, galleries are often conceived of as very sterile spaces. Manicured white walls like those at New …
Ephemera
Features
Sound and then Fury
The azaan in the Islamophobic West
In a video posted on Twitter on September 13, White Woman A stares wide-eyed into her selfie-cam. The azaan plays loudly …
El Pueblo Unido
Lessons from the Chilean student movement
content warning: police brutality Santiago de Chile, 2013. I clearly remember the first time I was arrested: it was a day …
Literary
Reading Comprehension
Inspired by Arundhati Roy content warning: sexual harassment A Note to a Safety Presentation by a Commissariat de Police de Paris …
Metabolics
Spaghetti Masala
Learning (from) recipes
I’m planning to make a batch of dal this weekend. The fall weather in Providence makes me want to stir something …
Metro
Unidos por Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican efforts in Rhode Island after Hurricane Maria
Belen Florez’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing last Tuesday. Nearly every five minutes, the screen of the cordless phone of JP Foley …
Mt. Hope is Pokanoket
TheIndependentreceived this joint statement by Students and Alumni for Po Metacom Camp (SAPMC) and the Providence chapter of the Progressive Student …
News
Week in Bittersweet Bites
A Star Dies in “Holy Wood” Hugh Hefner is dead. He died of chronic old age on September 27 at the …
Emerging Borders
Independence struggles in Kurdistan and Catalonia
In the weeks leading up to the October 1 Catalonian vote on the region’s independence, tens of thousands of people flooded …
Science & Technology
Treat with Respect
Paths towards recovery in Rhode Island's opioid epidemic
content warning: drug-related death, addiction Say you’re locked in a room with a glass of water. The water has a small …