Jarrod Shanahan

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. -T.S. […]

It’s a truism, but nevertheless may be worth repeating: that music and literature of a radical bent can encapsulate the possibilities of their social moment in a way that manifestos and movement histories, no matter how subversive their authors’ politics, are sometimes just unable to match. Yesterday’s dreams of a new tomorrow can live on, […]

During college and for a couple years after, I worked at a Manhattan restaurant as a valet car parker. There is not a lot of valet car parking in Manhattan, but they had it at the Water Club, where we dubbed ourselves “New York’s First Valet Corps,” in no small part because there weren’t many/any […]

Late last year, Chicago’s beloved queer nightspot Berlin closed its doors amid a controversial union drive. I was first drawn to this editorial in the Chicago Tribune by a prominent photo of my friend Marten Katze looking characteristically cool as hell. (See: above.) Dismayed to find, however, that this powerful image image was appended to […]

The following essay is based on a talk that Noel Ignatiev delivered in March 2004 at the Massachusetts College of Arts. Despite being nearly 20 years old, this text is nonetheless absolutely relevant because it provides a historical context for understanding Israel’s 75 year occupation of Palestine, one that is missing from most mainstream media […]

“Keep going down Atlantic, then hang a left at Bedford,” advised the lot attendant, a white guy in his 60s, as my pal Patrick and I dropped off a U-Haul truck at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic. “But be careful, Fellas. You’ll be driving through God’s country.” It was a white guy’s way of […]