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As the Trump administration hobbles and flails in the vague direction of Day 100 – 96 down, just 1,364 to go as of this writing – it’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day incompetence and surreal ineptitude of The Donald and his Legion of Doom: e.g.  Sean Spicer on Hitler ; e.g.  Jeff Sessions on Hawaii , e.g. the taxpayer tab for all those weekend jaunts to Mar-a-Lago ; e.g.  Trump’s historically low approval ratings ; e.g. Trump’s oratory prowess and display of patriotism during the recent Easter Egg Roll. But focusing on things like our Commander and Chief reviewing policy briefs in the Oval Office with Kid Rock and Ted “ Wang Dang Sweet Poontang ” Nugent , would be to lose sight of what Donald Trump’s presidency has really been: a full-scale assault on America’s most threatened populations. From his bumbling attempt to strip 24 millions Americans of their health insurance to rescinding protections for transgender students to proposing a budget that cuts...

Chapter One I’ve always wondered about anniversaries. Birthdays, weddings, death anniversaries. But birthdays, most especially. Maybe that’s because I never celebrated one, or because it took a very, very long time before I even knew what a birthday was. Either way, I wasn’t terribly awed with the idea of commemorating something that had happened years … Continue reading The Other Side of Brightness → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2qhtoDy

For some people that still hear the ring, They walk with lethargy sewn into their bones, For those who still feel the need, To fight societal walls, till they quench their inner groans, For some people who still believe, and are climbing craggy hills. The thinness between struggle and desperation is Them. Bunch of Them. … Continue reading Climbing Hills → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2qhoab1

Come rain, Come sun. You’ll find them Coming out of their den Praying to their creator for favor Among we that labor Old and young, beautiful and ugly Tall and short, clean and filthy I see them everyday,even in my dreams…. I guess it’s how life seems Helpless poor souls The sun burns their skins … Continue reading The Helpless Souls → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2polzyI

I’m cold she says………And so my journey began…. In medussa’s lair I fought fair Serpents and scorpions I marched through In dragons nest I conquered fear Armies and warlords surrounding you The stars behind me, the moon beneath me The sun inside me I played with death The gods they watched me eating my last … Continue reading Fatal Fate → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2qhkpSR

“ Rose Gold ,” an exhibition of photographs and a film by Sara Cwynar, is at Foxy Production through May 14. Cwynar, who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, took the title of her show from Apple’s most coveted iPhone color , introduced in 2015. In the film at the center of the show, also called  Rose Gold ,  two voices, one male and one female, offer observations about consumer desire, at once pointed and disaffected: “I keep finding watch advertisements where all the clocks are set to 8:20 … what time was it really? I go to check what time the Apple Watch is set to and end up wanting one … Several male artists have told me that I’m having a moment, as if the moment will pass soon .  Rose Gold is having a moment, too … What is the right way to talk about something? People understand  more if you communicate through things bought and sold.”  Cwynar also examines Melamine, a brand of luridly colored plastic kitchenware from the fifties—the plastic was...

Ibidun was just like every woman, she wanted to be the first to use the best or something new. So, it wasn’t a wonder when she scurried about to look for something to break that hard-as-stone maggi that refused to break. But the idiot wouldn’t bulge and she couldn’t use stone to break it, so … Continue reading The Sweetest Maggi → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2oxH00O

They questioned some of the scholarship kids first, boys with cheap-cut shirts and shabby jackets—the ones who tied their neckties as if they meant it, not with the shrug of boys who’d been born with a tailor in the next room. This was at a boarding school in Pennsylvania, high on a hill overlooking a factory town where shoes were sold with metal tips, so if you dropped your hammer you wouldn’t break your toes. Next they questioned the rougher kids, the ones who’d give the gym coach the finger while he was watching, ones who laughed in chapel and smirked during grace.  There’d been a series of thefts. No one knew if it was while we were all in class or at meals or sports or when the hell it was. Someone had gone into the seniors’ rooms and one by one pilfered cartridges from turntables. They didn’t bother questioning the janitor or the groundkeepers. These were older, foreign men who listened to baseball on the radio or the Make Believe Ballroom. They weren’t likely to have ster...

A hypochondriac’s guide to rare diseases.   I recently made a wrong turn out of the parking lot of the Danbury Fair Mall, where I’d indulged in a bag of Auntie Anne’s pretzel nuggets and a pair of cheap earrings at Claire’s. Bemoaning my love for this soulless crap—and not paying attention to my route—I found myself at the entrance to NORD , the National Organization of Rare Disorders.  I’m a hypochondriac. I’ve also been a state-licensed EMT for nineteen years. EMTs are taught not to diagnose, but in my case these are wasted words. I keep my “findings” to myself, but my vast body of knowledge, gleaned from TV shows like House and the national tabloids, is far reaching. NORD was founded in 1983. It exists for people whose doctors say, “I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know how to treat it.” It’s a serious organization for people lost in the uncharted waters of pharmaceuticals and clueless MDs. There are some seven thousand diseases that the medical establishment has...

Two days ago, we covered an important conversation that had started on Facebook in reaction to Ikhide Ikheloa’s essay in which he described Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s 2015 Etisalat Prize-winning debut novel Tram 83 as misogynist and poverty porn. It was a truly continental conversation that drew in a host of thinkers: South Africa’s feminist novelist […] from Brittle Paper http://ift.tt/2oMIaSb

CHAPTER TWELVE A young man opened the gate, “Evening, can I help you?” “Yes, is Edidiong home? I am Uwa.” “Uwa? Bro. Onuwawagbe?” his expression changed to an excited one. “Yes,” he smiled back. “I am Imabong, Didi’s immediate younger brother.” “Ah! The banker, we spoke on phone a couple of times.” “Yes. Bros how … Continue reading B.f.f: Best Friends Forever 12 → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2q6tNta

Men in power have always tried to insulate themselves from criticism and punishment.  Doree Shafrir’s   Startup is a sharp-witted debut novel that peels back the layers of those structures, revealing those in power who grasp to maintain their privilege at all costs. The title signals an ordinariness that acts as a preview of what’s to come, a wink and a nod from a friend who asks if we see this, too. At its core, it’s a book about average men doing bad things and the women who take control of the narrative from them. Startup’s prose channels the youthful energy of a new tech company from the start. We quickly meet Mack McAllister, founder of the fictional startup TakeOff. McAllister serves as an all-purpose stand-in for startup culture’s best and worst elements, and he’s on the verge of securing millions in funding for his business. The book doesn’t hold many surprises, and it’s clear from the onset that his hubris will bring him down. Mack — who compares himself to Steve ...

Once a decade, Granta publishes a special “ Best of Young American Novelists ” issue featuring work from American fiction writers under the age of forty. The latest list includes Millions staffer and City on Fire author Garth Risk Hallberg , as well as Lauren Groff , Yaa Gyasi , Ottessa Moshfegh , and Claire Vaye Watkins , to name just a few. The issue will hit shelves on May 4th. The post Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2pleq1Y

On the streets of Lagos, a boy searches for himself in mirrors. — Romeo Oriogun. Saturday, 01 April, 2017 Dear Nkali,   I still don’t know why I’ve always not wanted to, not felt like telling you this. And as I look at the wall before me, I see that I have forgotten much of […] from Brittle Paper http://ift.tt/2q5BkIO

Canova’s nude Washington.   Go on, take a peek at my search history. You’ll see a lot of this: “Nude presidents.” “Nude dead presidents.” “George Washington naked.” “Presidential peen.” “Free naked U.S. American founding fathers pixxx.” “Portrait of signing of Declaration of Independence where all signers are nude.” It has been a long road, for me. I am not often delighted by what Google brings to me. But now Antonio Canova’s nineteenth-century sculpture of a totally nude George Washington—presidente numero uno, 100 percent in the raw, not even any powdered wig—is coming to the Frick. It’s a big deal, a time to rejoice, for, as James Barron writes, we are not accustomed to exposed  presidential flesh: “ The first president had been dead for seventeen years by the time Canova went to work . Canova had done a nude Napoleon as the god Mars about ten years earlier. But when it came to Washington, clothes made the man—and the statue—because his appearance matter...

CODE have made a call for submissions to its 2017 Burt Award for African Young Adult Literature. The award replaces the Burt Award for African Literature, which comprised four separate prizes in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. The new award will be awarded to “an outstanding work of English-language, young adult literature by an Ethiopian, Ghanaian, […] from Brittle Paper http://ift.tt/2oLMNvP

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Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s second novel, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, has been featured in The New Yorker‘s “Briefly Noted” section, which means that we should expect a review of the novel from them. Published in 2016 by Cassava Republic Press, the poetically-titled novel became the first by an African to be […] from Brittle Paper http://ift.tt/2q4KAwC

Michael B. Jordan was tapped to play Montag in HBO’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 . The project, which will also star Michael Shannon as Beatty, is currently under development. ( Bonus: Tanjil Rashid on “ Bradbury’s Middle East Connection “) The post Fire It Up appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2oIYtPg

Whether introducing a charming essay or slim monograph , a witty epigram or stately sonnet , on is the most accommodating of words: the eternal handmaiden, the chivalrous cicisbeo, the dutiful emcee welcoming the main topic on stage. Though it plays this obliging, some might say servile role impeccably, it is high time that on emerge from the syntactical shadows to bask in the light of its lapidary splendor. To be on is to be alive, energetic, aflame, to display one’s best self. Similarly, on is language’s best self, demonstrating how much can be done with so little. Compact, suggestive, manifold, on is the preposition that launched a thousand idioms. Derived from the Proto-Germanic ana , on conjures up Iron Age images of unruly beards and makeshift encampments: the terse utterance of a culture hardened by the elements. These rude forbears, emerging from their mist-shrouded forests to rampage across Europe, were not prone to reflection. No Teutonic Hazlitt composed his luci...