Inside Orleans Parish Prison—one of the worst jails in the country—an English class takes place, not to help inmates fulfill GED requirements, but simply to facilitate their study of literature and books. In this three-part series, Room 220‘s Ari Braverman explores the parts of the program that make it work—and make it worthwhile—from the founder … OPP ENGLISH, Part II: “When I left, my mind was buzzing.”
Join Room 220 for a Happy Hour Salon featuring readings by three exciting and celebrated novelists—Rachel Kushner, Nathaniel Rich, and Zachary Lazar—from 6 – 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, at the Press Street HQ (3718 St. Claude Ave.). Kushner, who will be visiting from Los Angeles, and New Orleans-based Rich both have new novels … HAPPY HOUR SALON: Rachel Kushner, Nathaniel Rich, and Zachary Lazar Live at the Press Street HQ
Pick up the new issue of The Baffler—the quasi-legendary journal of contrarian politics and art co-founded in 1988 by Thomas Frank—to check out a new poem by Room 220 friend and contributor Kristina Robinson. “Diaspora: Breakfast with Mahmoud Darwish,” which Robinson read last summer at a MelaNated Writer’s Literary Jook Joint that featured Baffler poetry … Contributor Hype: Kristina Robinson in THE BAFFLER
Inside Orleans Parish Prison—one of the worst jails in the country—an English class takes place, not to help inmates fulfill GED requirements, but simply to facilitate their study of literature and books. In this three-part series, Room 220‘s Ari Braverman explores the parts of the program that make it work—and make it worthwhile—from the founder … OPP ENGLISH, Part I: The Instigator
By John Sebastian Athanasius Kircher, a seventeenth-century German Jesuit and self-styled “master of a hundred arts,” is credited with inventing the megaphone, a pre-cursor to the computer, and (perhaps) a cat piano. His intense curiosity about the world around him motivated him to pursue studies in fields as disparate as magnetism and magic, optics and acoustics, … Confounding or Stimulating a Lot of Great Minds: John Glassie on Athanasius Kircher at Loyola April 22
New Orleans’ resident airport scholar Christopher Schaberg, author of The Textual Life of Airports: Reading the Culture of Flight and co-editor of Airplane Reading, will present his book at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, at the Bayou St. John branch of Maple Street Books (3122 Ponce de Leon St.). By Nathan C. Martin Thanks in … Christopher Schaberg: Making Meaning at the A=I=R=P=O=R=T
Loyola University New Orleans will host Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, in Roussel Hall (corner of St. Charles Ave. and Calhoun St.) on the university’s main campus. The Shallows chronicles the history of intellectual technologies, beginning with maps and … The Shallows: Nicholas Carr at Loyola April 17
Ottessa Moshfegh, winner of the 2013 Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction, will read along with Carlus Henderson at a Happy Hour Salon from 6 – 8 p.m. on Friday, April 5, at the Press Street HQ (3718 St. Claude Ave.). Ottessa Moshfegh is less than forthcoming about her life and practice as a fiction … She taught me subtlety, and how to be an actress through voice and harmony
By Nathan C. Martin Someone quipped at last weekend’s Tennessee Williams Festival that Nathaniel Rich’s new novel, Odds Against Tomorrow, was the best Katrina book set in New York City. This observation conceals a degree of truth beneath its corniness, since Rich—a New York native—began his novel about a hurricane hitting New York City six … None of the bad news is made up: An interview with Nathaniel Rich
SIFT presents its second-annual Edible Book Festival–which is part of a nationwide effort to make “books” one can eat–from 1 – 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, at the Alvar Library (913 Alvar St.). Participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented for the international edible book archive, judged for fabulous prizes, and then eaten by attendees. … SIFT’s second-annual Edible Book Festival – April 6
