CJ LeBlanc is a journalist who writes primarily about issues related to criminal justice in the Deep South and seeks opportunities to amplify marginalized voices. In this short piece, CJ LeBlanc shares with us the communiques of incarcerated men inside Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a former plantation and the country’s largest and most notorious […]
On Organizing the Grunts: COVID-19, the Sailors and Some Other World History
I don’t mean to sound old school here. When General Giap, a commander of the Vietnam Peoples’ Army, wrote in his memoir about the conditions that allowed a victory over the almighty US armed forces in his country, he gave a lot of reasons. A singularly important one for us was the resistance to the […]
Teaching in the Time of COVID
Like thousands of professors around the country and the globe, I suddenly find myself conducting all my personal and professional affairs through my computer screen. Stationed on my couch as my classroom, office, and Kanopy ‘n Chill station, surrounded by potato chip crumbs, with my cat wondering why his underlords are crowding out his space, […]
“We Need to Change the Way We Live”: An ICU Nurse Speaks Out
Today we caught up with Sam, a nurse working in a cardiac ICU unit at a medium-sized private hospital in Newark NJ. In Sam’s workplace, a nurse was recently suspended for organizing a gofundme page to raise money for more PPE equipment. Sam’s co-workers believe that she was targeted because management believed that she was agitating […]
Tiger King: Quarantine Royalty
Zhana: Netflix’s Tiger King has become essential quarantine viewing. I was first made aware of the docuseries by my students. Like many schools around the nation, we have transitioned to online learning. For our first zoom session, I thought my students would want to share their anxieties and fears about the coronavirus and how this […]
“An Incredible Catch-22”: An Emergency Nurse Discusses the COVID-19 Crisis
HC: Tell us what you do for work. I am an emergency department nurse in Oregon. HC: What was your workplace like before the Coronavirus? Nursing in an emergency department is partly mental health for people who are neglected in every other way. Although we don’t really have resources to help people who are dealing […]