The novelist Russell Banks died on January 7, 2023. We are publishing this appreciation of his work by Beth Henson that first appeared in Race Traitor #10 (Winter, 1999). Beth does a wonderful job describing Russell Banks’s “voyages” through the discontents of people’s daily lives. The Hard Crackers editors are especially thankful to Beth for agreeing […]
Special Treatment
1990’s Chicago was not Thatcher’s Britain of the 1980’s. The music of The Specials, while of a specific context, still contained elements which would resonate quite loudly across the sea of time and space, and allowed kids of the future to vibe with their music and message. I was one of those kids. Terry Hall, […]
Hard Crackers Magazine Issue #9 Release Event
Where: Freddy’s Bar (the Backroom) 627 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Between 17th & 18th Street) When: Saturday Afternoon, January 7, 2023 2 – 4 pm Program: Readings by Hard Crackers writers Songs performed by John Pinamonti Sledgehammer […]
Cosmos!
On October 1, 1977, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a/k/a “Pelé” played his last game as a professional footballer. The game was played at New Jersey’s Giants Stadium, across the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan’s Port Authority Bus Station in New York City, a truly seedy place, but one where soccer fans without cars could drop […]
Nightmares of Christmas Past
What do we appreciate about the work of Charles Dickens? Dickens wrote fantastic, unbelievable stories about everyday urban life and social reality in the Victorian England hellscape. He used the lives of women and children (and their labor) to highlight the horrors he was observing in his time. Many have pointed out that the streets […]
FINIS: THE WORLD CUP STORY – Part IV
The money people, FIFA and the Qatari rulers must have been full of glee after the final on Sunday. It was indeed an exciting match. All of the hype played itself out, the major superstars, Lionel Messi for Argentina and Kylian Mbappé for France, had a hand in or scored all of the key goals. […]