We entered 2020 with a renewed commitment to the Hard Crackers project. The year has shaped up to be one that none of us could have imagined, not even in our wildest dreams. We’d like to take this moment and revisit some of the ways we contributed to documenting daily life in the midst of a militant rebellion against police violence and a global pandemic while remaining optimistic about ordinary people’s capacity to turn this mess around. With the exception of “On the Outside Agitators Question,” which was a collective statement by the editorial board on the George Floyd rebellion, the posts that follow are all authored by our editors, regular contributors, and readers. While 2020 will soon be behind us, the events of this past year have unveiled sharp contradictions in American life that cannot so easily be swept under the rug. And who better to help us understand our present moment and where we might be headed than our dear readers. Thus, we invite you to contribute to our blog and upcoming print journal and we look forward to sharing your experiences and stories of everyday life.
Tanzeem Ajmiri, Coronavirus and Conspiracy
Boyda Johnstone, Teaching in the Time of COVID
Ronald “Cornbread” Owens, When Your Home Turns into a Prison
David Campbell, Stick-up on Rikers Island
John Garvey & Mike Morgan, Advertising in the Virus Age
Jenny Morgan, On the TB Ward: A Few Stories of Lungs
Hard Crackers, PSA Without Guitars: On the Outside Agitators Question
Bill Smith, “I Don’t Think Tyson’s Gives Two Shits About Their Workers”
James Stephens & JJ McAfee, In the Streets of Philadelphia
Hard Crackers, Preserving Our Capacity to Act: An Interview with Kristian Williams
Chad Manburg, Schools Are an Extension of Police
James Stephens, Running Towards a New World
Mike Morgan, The Mighty Sparrow Turns 85
Fran, JF & Lane, In the Eye of the Storm: A Report from Kenosha
Christian Alexander, Dispatches From Our Own Angry Red Planet
Chad Manburg, Returning to Lovecraft
Hard Crackers, John Brown: An Interview with His Descendant, Marty Brown
Jarrod Shanahan, Thankful for President Trump: Thanksgiving with Stop the Steal
Zhandarka Kurti, “The Last Stand of Freedom in America”
A.M. Gittlitz, Middle Class War: A Visit to Staten Island’s Autonomous Zone