Harvard revokes parkland shooting survivors acceptance over racial slurs

It’s sure to go down as one of the iconic images in our history: first-generation Cuban-American Emma González, brown-skinned and bald-pated and queer, standing silent and tearful, mournful and proud, bringing the March for Our Lives in D.C. to a hush at first puzzling, then immeasurably profound. For the liberal-minded among us, González – along with her compatriots, and the marchers in at least 450 other places – blew in like an early shot of political spring, opening a sunny crack in the chill gray clouds that have hovered and threatened and darkened everything since November 8th, 2016. Sure, this break in the gloom only lasted about five minutes (or six minutes and 20 seconds ). The spell was dashed as soon as Stormy Daniels began responding to Anderson Cooper’s gentle questions on 60 Minutes . But the bracing honesty and irreverent optimism of the movement spawned by González’s fellow survivors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gave us the first shot of hope in a … [Read more...] about The Lame Blowback to March For Our Lives

Two Broadway superpowers teamed for a new charity single Monday as Hamilton ‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Dear Evan Hansen ‘s Ben Platt unveiled the video for “Found/Tonight,” a mash-up of Hamilton ‘s “The Story of Tonight” and Dear Evan Hansen ‘s “You Will Be Found.” The video finds Miranda and Platt – a “Musical Theater Marvel/DC crossover,” with Platt as Superman, as the Hamilton creator tweeted – combining their respective ballads in the studio. Proceeds from the download of “Found/Tonight” will benefit March for Our Lives , which is leading the rally on Washington, D.C. on March 24th to protest the government’s inactivity on gun control. “In the wake of Parkland, I was awestruck by the strength and leadership of the students and their ability to speak truth to power,” Miranda said in a statement. “In the midst of their grief, they mobilized the youth of our nation and created a movement. This is their moment. Not just for themselves, but for all of us. This … [Read more...] about Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt Release New Song for March for Our Lives

At an empty beach bar in Corozal, a shaggy town of a few thousand people just minutes from where northern Belize meets Mexico’s share of the Yucatan Peninsula, waves crash into a jagged, rocky breakwater. It’s 9 p.m., the kitchenis about to close, and the only people left are some young, very loud, and very sober American missionaries. Another languid Caribbean day is winding down, but my dinner companion, Moses Michael Levi “ Shyne ” Barrow, has no desire to linger over a meal and conversation. He’s shoveling in his fried fish, rice, and beans faster than an escaped hostage, and brushing off my questions about his remarkable life — from Brooklyn-raised rapper to convicted felon to Orthodox Jewish convert to prominent politician here in the country of his birth — with blunt rejoinders. “I want you to be more specific, rather than just sitting here having a therapy session,” he grumbles, raising his hand to make a drink order. Folks come to Corozal to fish, visit … [Read more...] about Guns, Rhymes, God, and Politics: Shyne’s Epic Fall and Rise

B ackstage at the Rolling Thunder Revue , Allen Ginsberg (who has just dedicated his book of First Blues to “Minstrel Guruji Bob Dylan “) asks the convener of these revels, these winds of the old days, “Are you getting any pleasure out of this, Bob?” The convener, who can use words as if they were fun-house mirrors when he’s pressed, fingers his gray cowboy hat and looks at the poet. The first he had ever heard of Allen Ginsberg and the kind of people he hung out with was in Time around 1958 while he was still a kid in Minnesota. (“I’m Allen Ginsberg and I’m crazy.” “My name is Peter Orlovsky and I’m crazy as a daisy.” “My name is Gregory Corso and I’m not crazy at all.” That had broken up the kid in Minnesota.) Now, here on the road with this hooting, rocking carnival of time present and time past, both perhaps present in time future, is Allen, who has survived serene and curious, in a business suit. “Pleasure?” Dylan finds the word without taste, without … [Read more...] about On the Road With Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Rolling Thunder Revue