newyorker--2020-11-23--The Long Awakening of Adrienne Rich

The Long Awakening of Adrienne Rich

Years later , looking back on this time , Rich would characterize herself as “ sleepwalking.
” Most days , she was up at dawn with a child before turning to endless domestic tasks : cooking , cleaning , supervising the kids .
She had little time to write and even less motivation .
“ When I receive a letter soliciting mss.
, or someone alludes to my ‘ career , ’ I have a strong sense of wanting to deny all responsibility for and interest in that person who writes—or who wrote , ” she recorded in her journal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her former self—the prodigy who had delighted her domineering father and stunned teachers at her high school , the Radcliffe undergraduate who had won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets ’ Prize , the Guggenheim Fellow who had infiltrated the all-male Merton College at Oxford .
Suddenly , like many educated women of her generation , she was a wife and a mother , who spent her days doing “ repetitious cycles of laundry ” and her evenings attending “ ludicrous dinner parties ” in and around Boston .
As Rich wrote in an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experience of motherhood was eventually to radicalize me.
” The woman who wrote that essay bore little resemblance to the sleepwalker of the fifties .
Since her near- “ spiritual death , ” Rich had published a dozen books of poetry ; taught at Swarthmore College and Columbia University ; and won—and , on occasion , refused—glamorous prizes , including the National Book Award for Poetry .
She had separated from her husband in 1970 , shortly after she found feminism , and was now in a long-term relationship with a woman , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social movements proliferated across the country , Rich criticized beloved institutions ( Harvard ) and old friends ( Lowell ) , and renounced familiar aesthetics ( formal poetry ) .
To some , she was unrecognizable ; to others , she was an inspiration .
Which of these women was the real Rich ?
The dutiful daughter , the star undergrad , the excellent cook ?
Or the political poet who used every platform she had—and she had many—to criticize violence in all its forms ?
This is the question that the scholar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Power of Adrienne Rich , ” the first biography of the poet and , one hopes , not the last .
“ Who was she ?
Who was she really ?
” Holladay asks near the end of the book .
Her question recalls a claim she makes in the preface , where she argues that Rich never felt she had a “ definitive identity , ” and that “ the absence of a fully knowable self ” —a “ wound , ” in Holladay ’ s words—spurred her on , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Holladay , the only secure identity Rich ever found was in her art .
“ That is who and what she is , ” Holladay concludes .
The search for the real Adrienne Rich is a tempting biographical task .
But it suggests a curious conception of the self , as something prior to and apart from the social conditions that produce it .
The ways one is raised and educated , the language one learns , the stories to which one has access : all these create and constrict the self @ @ @ @ @ @ @ myself perceived by the world simply as a pregnant woman , and it seemed easier .
.
.
to perceive myself so , ” she wrote in “ Of Woman Born , ” her 1976 study of motherhood as an “ institution ” —and she knew , too , that any project of self-discovery was necessarily a project of social and political critique .
This is not to diminish Rich ’ s particularity , nor is it to say that she was simply “ of her time.
” The woman that emerges in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not just brilliant but hard-minded and unsparing .
She was a skilled , prolific writer , eager to experiment and brave enough to break with the poetic style that first earned her acclaim .
As a political thinker , she was always one step ahead : concerned early on with the whiteness of women ’ s liberation , sex-positive at the height of the anti-pornography movement , anti-capitalist before that was in vogue .
Watching American feminism unfold , she stood by with the next , necessary critique , often implicating herself in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she was sometimes disappointed with people who lacked her introspection , who couldn ’ t or wouldn ’ t keep up .
She lost friends she ’ d wanted to keep ; she was alone more often than she would have liked .
If anything , the problem—and the power—of Adrienne Rich was not too little self but too much .
But Rich ’ s wasn ’ t a happy childhood , or at least not entirely .
Though she enjoyed her father ’ s praise—Holladay identifies this as Rich ’ s primary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t help but notice how unhappy her mother was , living under her husband ’ s thumb .
It was assumed that Helen would give up her concert career after she married .
When she moved in with Arnold , he presented her with a modest , long-sleeved black dress , of his own design , which she was to wear every day of her wedded life .
( The couple called it her uniform . )
Rich intuited her mother ’ s sadness and her father ’ s desperate need for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plagued by eczema , facial tics , hay fever .
She didn ’ t play very much or have many friends .
She was happier after she was enrolled in an all-girls high school in her upscale Baltimore neighborhood , and after she gave up the piano , at sixteen , in order to commit herself fully to poetry .
But the prospect of Arnold ’ s disapproval always loomed .
Rich entered Radcliffe in 1947 , and described Cambridge as “ heaven.
” She made close friends , found a serious boyfriend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and became acquainted with Robert Frost .
She wrote poetry daily , for an hour after breakfast .
During her undergraduate career , she had poems accepted by Harper ’ s and the Virginia Quarterly Review .
Her greatest triumph came in 1951 , during her senior year , when her first book of poems , “ A Change of World ” —the manuscript that won the Yale Prize—was published .
W. H. Auden , the prize judge , wrote the foreword , in which he praised Rich for writing poems that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speak quietly but do not mumble , respect their elders but are not cowed by them , and do not tell fibs.
” Paternalism aside , the description is a fair gloss on Rich ’ s early work .
The poems in “ A Change of World ” show a deference to the male masters : Frost , Yeats , even Auden himself .
( “ The most that we can do for one another / Is let our blunders and our blind mischances / Argue a certain brusque abrupt compassion ” calls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 , 1939 , ” in which he puts it more simply : “ We must love one another or die.
” ) Some of the verse emerges from personal experience—the “ you ” of the emotionally complex poem “ Stepping Backward ” is a female college friend and , Holladay argues , an early love interest—but it is deliberately detached , rarely using feminine pronouns .
In the early fifties , Rich recalled in 1984 , “ a notion of male experience as universal prevailed which made the feminine pronoun suspect or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a poem that would be included in her second collection , “ The Diamond Cutters ” ( 1955 ) , Rich transformed the figure of the tourist—a stand-in for herself—into a man .
At the time , Rich was intent on being two seemingly incompatible things : the ideal fifties woman , beautiful , feminine , with a successful husband and adorable children , and a world-historically important poet , the kind who would , in her father ’ s words , “ leave things behind .
.
.
that will blaze their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you ’ re gone.
” Her life would be perfectly ordered , even if it required uncommon discipline .
During her years at Radcliffe , she wrote that she “ pitied old maids , damned sterile feminism , saw in marriage the frame for my whole conception of life , ” even while she was enjoying a string of dazzling achievements .
Rich began to question the importance of marriage when she broke off an engagement and won a Guggenheim to fund her studies at Oxford .
But then she met Alfred Conrad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student in economics at Harvard , was an intelligent , “ virile ” Jewish man with a dark past , by the standards of mid-century America .
He ’ d married a dancer and choreographer who had suffered from mental illness and been institutionalized .
Rich went abroad to study soon after their meeting , but the couple corresponded regularly .
Arnold Rich did not approve .
In “ For Ethel Rosenberg , ” a long poem from the eighties about family strife , Rich writes of receiving , during her time in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ / finely inscribed harangues ” from her father .
Their relationship never healed ; for the first time , Rich decided to disregard his desires and follow her own .
She and Conrad were married on June 26 , 1953 , shortly after her return .
One could see Rich ’ s decision to marry Conrad as her first rebellion against the patriarchy .
But leaving one man for another is hardly an emancipation .
Conrad respected his wife ’ s intelligence and creative potential , and Rich recalled him as “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and who .
.
.
was willing to ‘ help.
’ ” Nevertheless , “ it was clearly understood that this ‘ help ’ was an act of generosity ; that his work , his professional life , was the real work in the family.
” The couple followed his job prospects , moving first to Evanston , Illinois , where Conrad took a job at Northwestern ; then returning to Cambridge when Harvard offered him a position ; then , in 1966 , moving to New York , where Conrad , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took a tenured position at City University .
During these years , Rich was responsible for raising their three children , often with some household help but otherwise alone , since Conrad tended to travel for research .
She struggled , and she felt ashamed for struggling .
When a young , ambitious poet named Sylvia Plath visited her , she advised Plath not to have children .
( After giving birth to her third child , Rich had her tubes tied .
“ Had yourself spayed , did you ?
” a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surgery . )
Rich found she could write only late at night , after the children were in bed , often with vodka to help her wind down from the day .
“ The Diamond Cutters ” was the only book she produced during the first nine years of her marriage .
Later , she said that she regretted publishing it at all .
But out of that era ’ s challenges came some of Rich ’ s most potent poetry .
“ Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law , ” the title poem from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ domestic life to show how they might be used for—and transcended in—art .
The poem begins with housework : a “ nervy , glowering ” woman , washing the dishes , deliberately scalds herself with the dishwater .
She thinks of her mother , whose mind is now “ mouldering like wedding-cake , ” and resolves that she will be “ another way.
” This means escaping from oppressive masculinity , figured here as a “ beak that grips , ” as well as overcoming the burdens of traditional femininity : “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the terrible breasts.
” The poem is full of cages of all kinds : a “ commodious steamer-trunk , ” a pantry , a birdcage , a vault .
The way to escape such enclosures , Rich suggests , is to be an artist : not a woman who sings the words of men but one who composes her own song .

It was the summer of 1958—the end of “the tranquilized Fifties,” in the words of Robert Lowell—and the poet Adrienne Rich was desperate. Her body was rebelling. The first signs of rheumatoid arthritis had appeared seven years earlier, when she was twenty-two. She had two young children, and while pregnant with the first she had developed a rash, later diagnosed as an allergic reaction to the pregnancy itself. And now, despite her contraception, she was pregnant again, to her dismay.
Years later, looking back on this time, Rich would characterize herself as “sleepwalking.” Most days, she was up at dawn with a child before turning to endless domestic tasks: cooking, cleaning, supervising the kids. She had little time to write and even less motivation. “When I receive a letter soliciting mss., or someone alludes to my ‘career,’ I have a strong sense of wanting to deny all responsibility for and interest in that person who writes—or who wrote,” she recorded in her journal in 1956. She was alienated from her former self—the prodigy who had delighted her domineering father and stunned teachers at her high school, the Radcliffe undergraduate who had won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets’ Prize, the Guggenheim Fellow who had infiltrated the all-male Merton College at Oxford. Suddenly, like many educated women of her generation, she was a wife and a mother, who spent her days doing “repetitious cycles of laundry” and her evenings attending “ludicrous dinner parties” in and around Boston.
As Rich wrote in an autobiographical essay in 1982, “The experience of motherhood was eventually to radicalize me.” The woman who wrote that essay bore little resemblance to the sleepwalker of the fifties. Since her near-“spiritual death,” Rich had published a dozen books of poetry; taught at Swarthmore College and Columbia University; and won—and, on occasion, refused—glamorous prizes, including the National Book Award for Poetry. She had separated from her husband in 1970, shortly after she found feminism, and was now in a long-term relationship with a woman, the Jamaican-American writer Michelle Cliff. As social movements proliferated across the country, Rich criticized beloved institutions (Harvard) and old friends (Lowell), and renounced familiar aesthetics (formal poetry). To some, she was unrecognizable; to others, she was an inspiration.
Which of these women was the real Rich? The dutiful daughter, the star undergrad, the excellent cook? Or the political poet who used every platform she had—and she had many—to criticize violence in all its forms? This is the question that the scholar and writer Hilary Holladay poses in “The Power of Adrienne Rich,” the first biography of the poet and, one hopes, not the last. “Who was she? Who was she really?” Holladay asks near the end of the book. Her question recalls a claim she makes in the preface, where she argues that Rich never felt she had a “definitive identity,” and that “the absence of a fully knowable self”—a “wound,” in Holladay’s words—spurred her on, to both self-discovery and creative success. According to Holladay, the only secure identity Rich ever found was in her art. “That is who and what she is,” Holladay concludes.
The search for the real Adrienne Rich is a tempting biographical task. But it suggests a curious conception of the self, as something prior to and apart from the social conditions that produce it. The ways one is raised and educated, the language one learns, the stories to which one has access: all these create and constrict the self. Rich knew this—“I felt myself perceived by the world simply as a pregnant woman, and it seemed easier . . . to perceive myself so,” she wrote in “Of Woman Born,” her 1976 study of motherhood as an “institution”—and she knew, too, that any project of self-discovery was necessarily a project of social and political critique.
This is not to diminish Rich’s particularity, nor is it to say that she was simply “of her time.” The woman that emerges in Holladay’s biography is singular: not just brilliant but hard-minded and unsparing. She was a skilled, prolific writer, eager to experiment and brave enough to break with the poetic style that first earned her acclaim. As a political thinker, she was always one step ahead: concerned early on with the whiteness of women’s liberation, sex-positive at the height of the anti-pornography movement, anti-capitalist before that was in vogue. Watching American feminism unfold, she stood by with the next, necessary critique, often implicating herself in the process. As a result, she was sometimes disappointed with people who lacked her introspection, who couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up. She lost friends she’d wanted to keep; she was alone more often than she would have liked. If anything, the problem—and the power—of Adrienne Rich was not too little self but too much.
Born in Baltimore in May, 1929, Adrienne Cecile Rich was supposed to be a boy. Her parents had planned to name her after her father, Arnold Rich, a Jewish pathologist from Alabama, who had earned a research-and-teaching position at Johns Hopkins University. Arnold decided early that his daughter would be a genius. He tutored her in his off-hours, while her mother, Helen, a former concert pianist, homeschooled the child and gave her music lessons. Rich learned to read and write by four. At six, she wrote her first book of poetry; the next year, she produced a fifty-page play about the Trojan War. (Classics played an integral role in the Rich household: when Adrienne was small, she sat on a volume of Plutarch’s “Lives” in order to reach the piano.) Helen wrote in a notebook, “This is the child we needed and deserved.”
But Rich’s wasn’t a happy childhood, or at least not entirely. Though she enjoyed her father’s praise—Holladay identifies this as Rich’s primary goal up through her young adulthood—she couldn’t help but notice how unhappy her mother was, living under her husband’s thumb. It was assumed that Helen would give up her concert career after she married. When she moved in with Arnold, he presented her with a modest, long-sleeved black dress, of his own design, which she was to wear every day of her wedded life. (The couple called it her uniform.) Rich intuited her mother’s sadness and her father’s desperate need for his daughter to succeed. She was plagued by eczema, facial tics, hay fever. She didn’t play very much or have many friends. She was happier after she was enrolled in an all-girls high school in her upscale Baltimore neighborhood, and after she gave up the piano, at sixteen, in order to commit herself fully to poetry. But the prospect of Arnold’s disapproval always loomed.
Rich entered Radcliffe in 1947, and described Cambridge as “heaven.” She made close friends, found a serious boyfriend, took courses with F. O. Matthiessen, and became acquainted with Robert Frost. She wrote poetry daily, for an hour after breakfast. During her undergraduate career, she had poems accepted by Harper’s and the Virginia Quarterly Review. Her greatest triumph came in 1951, during her senior year, when her first book of poems, “A Change of World”—the manuscript that won the Yale Prize—was published. W. H. Auden, the prize judge, wrote the foreword, in which he praised Rich for writing poems that were “neatly and modestly dressed, speak quietly but do not mumble, respect their elders but are not cowed by them, and do not tell fibs.”
Paternalism aside, the description is a fair gloss on Rich’s early work. The poems in “A Change of World” show a deference to the male masters: Frost, Yeats, even Auden himself. (“The most that we can do for one another / Is let our blunders and our blind mischances / Argue a certain brusque abrupt compassion” calls to mind Auden’s “September 1, 1939,” in which he puts it more simply: “We must love one another or die.”) Some of the verse emerges from personal experience—the “you” of the emotionally complex poem “Stepping Backward” is a female college friend and, Holladay argues, an early love interest—but it is deliberately detached, rarely using feminine pronouns. In the early fifties, Rich recalled in 1984, “a notion of male experience as universal prevailed which made the feminine pronoun suspect or merely ‘personal.’ ” Working on a poem that would be included in her second collection, “The Diamond Cutters” (1955), Rich transformed the figure of the tourist—a stand-in for herself—into a man.
At the time, Rich was intent on being two seemingly incompatible things: the ideal fifties woman, beautiful, feminine, with a successful husband and adorable children, and a world-historically important poet, the kind who would, in her father’s words, “leave things behind . . . that will blaze their way into the minds of men after you’re gone.” Her life would be perfectly ordered, even if it required uncommon discipline. During her years at Radcliffe, she wrote that she “pitied old maids, damned sterile feminism, saw in marriage the frame for my whole conception of life,” even while she was enjoying a string of dazzling achievements.
Rich began to question the importance of marriage when she broke off an engagement and won a Guggenheim to fund her studies at Oxford. But then she met Alfred Conrad. “Alf,” a graduate student in economics at Harvard, was an intelligent, “virile” Jewish man with a dark past, by the standards of mid-century America. He’d married a dancer and choreographer who had suffered from mental illness and been institutionalized. Rich went abroad to study soon after their meeting, but the couple corresponded regularly. Arnold Rich did not approve. In “For Ethel Rosenberg,” a long poem from the eighties about family strife, Rich writes of receiving, during her time in England, “letters of seventeen pages / finely inscribed harangues” from her father. Their relationship never healed; for the first time, Rich decided to disregard his desires and follow her own. She and Conrad were married on June 26, 1953, shortly after her return.


newyorker--2020-11-23--The Heavy Toll of the Black Belt’s Wastewater Crisis

Soon after Flowers met Holcombe , she got in touch with Peter J. Hotez , the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine , at Baylor College of Medicine .
As Flowers described the situation in the Black Belt , he began to suspect that residents had intestinal worms .
“ Most of the world ’ s global health threats are in the G-20 nations , paradoxically , ” Hotez , who develops vaccines for neglected tropical diseases , told me .
In places that think of themselves as rich , it ’ s easy to ignore problems of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s the poor living among the wealthy that now account for most of the world ’ s leprosy , tuberculosis , dengue—and the list goes on.
” Hotez sent Rojelio Mejia , an infectious-disease specialist who has worked in Latin America and East Africa , to start collecting soil and waste samples in Lowndes County .
“ I never thought that we had this degree of parasites in America , ” Mejia said .
In the years around the Second World War , hookworm was documented all over Alabama , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nineteen-eighties .
Hookworm enters the body through the skin , often through the hands or the soles of bare feet , and makes its way to the small intestine , where it feeds on blood .
It can persist for several years , causing anemia , weight loss , fatigue , and impaired mental function , particularly in young people .
Other worms found in the region ’ s soil can damage the lungs and may encourage asthma .
“ When children get infected multiple times with parasites , they suffer long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They have decreased growth rates and decreased cognitive abilities.
” In the fall of 2017 , the Baylor researchers announced that they had tested a group of Lowndes residents who lived with poor sanitation and discovered hookworm in more than a third of them , including Holcombe ’ s husband and son .
Yet there was no meaningful intervention by the state or the federal government .
“ I was able to help mobilize hundreds of millions of dollars over the years from U.S.A.I.D .
to address neglected tropical diseases in Africa and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hotez said .
“ But when you talk about neglected infections of the poor in America the lights go out.
” At least a tenth of Alabama residents are uninsured .
Like many states in the Deep South , Alabama has refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act , which would allow more than two hundred thousand Alabamians to gain health insurance .
When Governor Kay Ivey was asked whether she would consider expanding Medicaid to help her constituents during the pandemic , she replied that it would be “ irresponsible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effect on the state budget—even though federal funds would cover most of the cost .
Thomas ’ s clinic focusses on primary-care services ; patients who require more sophisticated tests or procedures are referred to doctors in Montgomery or in Birmingham , a two-hour drive away .
The county pays nineteen thousand dollars a month for an ambulance to take residents to emergency rooms in cities .
But , when it is in use , patients have to make their own arrangements or stay home .
Thomas is soft-spoken , with a head @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a blue surgical mask kept slipping down his nose .
He is from North Carolina , but , during medical school at Howard University , he agreed to work for several years in a community health center in the Black Belt , in exchange for reduced tuition .
( The government program that sponsored him , the National Health Service Corps , has since suffered deep cuts to its funding . )
Many of his patients contend with high blood pressure and diabetes .
“ There is a genetic factor there , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aggravates it is the poverty , the inability to get healthy food , the inability to get to the doctor when you need to .
Sometimes , it seems like the medicine is easy—it ’ s just the social problems.
” Flowers had told me about meeting people who took medications every other day , to delay the expense of a refill .
Thomas said that his prescriptions sometimes weren ’ t filled at all—and that patients who didn ’ t have the money to keep up appointments often just disappeared .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even if your high blood pressure could be doing damage to your kidneys and to your eyes , right now you have to survive , ” he went on .
“ The emergency of life takes precedence over the slow erosion of chronic disease.
” When the Baylor researchers released their findings , Alabama ’ s department of health posted a notice online , denying that hookworm was present in Lowndes County .
“ The health department said , They don ’ t know what they ’ re talking about , ” Rojelio @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Alabama ’ s state health officer , Scott Harris , noted that the Baylor study was based on just sixty-seven people , and that the researchers had used a newer , more sensitive test , which Harris said could produce false positives .
So far , he added , state reviews had not shown that children in Lowndes County suffered gastrointestinal ailments at a significantly higher rate than those in the rest of the state .
He acknowledged that the county , like others in the Black Belt , has “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( In the nineteen-twenties , the state health department created a waste-management division specifically to address widespread hookworm infections . )
But , he went on , “ the issue is not hookworm as much as it is continuing poverty that just hasn ’ t been addressed for generations .
There are very clear examples of structural racism that have made it difficult to make progress , and our state is not invested in a consistent , sustained way in trying to fix those problems.
” The University of Alabama at Birmingham School @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Black Belt .
Claudette Poole , a specialist in pediatric infectious disease who is the study ’ s principal investigator , credited Flowers with helping to provide funding : in 2018 , after Baylor released its study , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded Poole $ 1.2 million to investigate soil-transmitted parasites in children in Alabama .
Poole told me , “ Our data gathering on hookworm specifically is too early to say anything definitive.
” But , she added , “ poor sanitation is a proxy for poverty , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole host of poor health outcomes.
” At the very least , the presence of raw sewage would contribute to infections from pathogens linked to vomiting , diarrhea , and potentially fatal sepsis .
“ Ultimately , the issue is about sanitation , ” Poole said .
“ Whether the hookworm is there or not doesn ’ t change that.
” So far , the researchers have tested two hundred and eighty-three children , of whom twenty per cent said their homes use straight-piping .
Only twelve per cent live in homes connected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is really dire , ” Poole said .
There has been some progress .
Senator Doug Jones and Representative Terri Sewell , both of Alabama , have sponsored grants to assist residents in connecting to the sewer grid or installing septic tanks .
Jones told me that Flowers had given him a tour soon after he took office .
“ I was just stunned , ” he said .
“ The abject poverty in these areas is really something you can ’ t get your arms around unless you see it.
” He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and others to “ at least get some federal monies down there to help.
” The Lowndes County government has been slow to make improvements , though .
Jacquelyn Thomas , the county administrator , told me that a sewer line was being installed in the town of White Hall .
The work , funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture , has taken more than five years and has cost more than a million dollars—for a line that will serve seventy residents , in a town of roughly a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ low tax base , Thomas suggested , installing sewers that reached more households would be prohibitively expensive .
Recently , the state health department stepped in to address the problem in Lowndes—an unusual move for a regulatory agency .
It launched a pilot program , funded by a $ 2.3-million matching grant from the U.S.D.A.
, that is intended to provide septic systems for a hundred homes .
Sherry Bradley , who is administering the program , told me that residents will pay an affordable monthly fee for systems that are better engineered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too , thinks that places like Lowndes County need a different solution .
“ Alabama needs to deal with the fact that the technology doesn ’ t work , ” she said .
She plans to use some of the money from her MacArthur award—six hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars , over five years—to investigate alternatives .
She is helping lead a Columbia University initiative to develop sewage-treatment methods that don ’ t rely on a public line .
Her co-director , an environmental engineer named Kartik Chandran , told me that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be monitored and repaired remotely , and others that encourage feces to break down more easily .
“ With any utility infrastructure—communications , water , sewer—we talk about trillions of dollars in spending , but all of that is devoted to people who are on the networks , ” Chandran said .
“ What happens to the twenty per cent of this country ’ s population who are not on a network ?
It ’ s like they don ’ t exist.
” The problem is not just in Alabama , Flowers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rural Alaska , where installing a single septic system can cost more than a hundred thousand dollars , people rely on outhouses and “ honey buckets ” —pails lined with garbage bags .
In Centreville , Illinois , where the city has done little to repair worn-out sewage infrastructure , untreated waste accumulates on neighborhood streets .
In Florida ’ s Miami-Dade County , according to a recent study , rising sea levels may threaten two-thirds of residential septic systems by 2040 .
As Flowers became involved in the sanitation crisis beyond Alabama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice , which works to influence policy in neglected communities .
“ If it weren ’ t for the people in Lowndes County , we would not be talking about this as a national issue , ” she said .
“ But we need to find a solution that ’ s going to benefit everybody.
” During the past several years , Flowers told me , she and her staff have helped a dozen families move into safer homes .
But finding a spokesperson for the issue was tricky @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understandably wary of letting strangers and cameras into their homes .
Rush , however , spoke willingly to the media and to politicians .
She began consulting for Flowers ’ s center , sharing her story and conducting surveys in the community .
Rush ’ s car was unreliable , so Flowers ’ s colleague Stephanie N. Wallace sometimes drove her and her daughter to doctors ’ appointments in Birmingham .
On the way , Rush talked about how her activism had changed her life .
“ As she began to speak about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evolve into a totally different person , ” Wallace recalled .
“ She ’ d be , like , ‘ There ’ re a lot of folks who told me I shouldn ’ t talk about what I ’ m going through .
But I did it to help my kids.
’ ” During a recent ride , Rush told Wallace how excited she was about her new home , and how grateful she felt to get donations from people who didn ’ t even know her .
She asked if they could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said to wait ; she and Flowers wanted it to be a surprise .

In the fall of 2017, the Baylor researchers announced that they had tested a group of Lowndes residents who lived with poor sanitation and discovered hookworm in more than a third of them, including Holcombe’s husband and son. Yet there was no meaningful intervention by the state or the federal government. “I was able to help mobilize hundreds of millions of dollars over the years from U.S.A.I.D. to address neglected tropical diseases in Africa and in poor areas of Asia,” Hotez said. “But when you talk about neglected infections of the poor in America the lights go out.”
At the Hayneville Family Health Center, a bright clinic across from the Dollar General on Tuskeena Street, George G. Thomas had seen his last patients of the morning and was getting ready for lunch when I arrived to talk with him. For most of the past thirty years, Thomas has been the only practicing doctor in Lowndes County—which, like six other counties in Alabama, doesn’t have a hospital. He and a nurse practitioner serve a population of nearly ten thousand. In the evenings, he works at another center, in Montgomery.
At least a tenth of Alabama residents are uninsured. Like many states in the Deep South, Alabama has refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which would allow more than two hundred thousand Alabamians to gain health insurance. When Governor Kay Ivey was asked whether she would consider expanding Medicaid to help her constituents during the pandemic, she replied that it would be “irresponsible” to do so without considering the effect on the state budget—even though federal funds would cover most of the cost.
“We need to talk.” Cartoon by Amy Hwang Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop
Thomas’s clinic focusses on primary-care services; patients who require more sophisticated tests or procedures are referred to doctors in Montgomery or in Birmingham, a two-hour drive away. The county pays nineteen thousand dollars a month for an ambulance to take residents to emergency rooms in cities. But, when it is in use, patients have to make their own arrangements or stay home.
Thomas is soft-spoken, with a head of gray hair. As we talked, a blue surgical mask kept slipping down his nose. He is from North Carolina, but, during medical school at Howard University, he agreed to work for several years in a community health center in the Black Belt, in exchange for reduced tuition. (The government program that sponsored him, the National Health Service Corps, has since suffered deep cuts to its funding.) Many of his patients contend with high blood pressure and diabetes. “There is a genetic factor there,” Thomas said. “But what aggravates it is the poverty, the inability to get healthy food, the inability to get to the doctor when you need to. Sometimes, it seems like the medicine is easy—it’s just the social problems.”
Flowers had told me about meeting people who took medications every other day, to delay the expense of a refill. Thomas said that his prescriptions sometimes weren’t filled at all—and that patients who didn’t have the money to keep up appointments often just disappeared. “If your rent’s due, even if your high blood pressure could be doing damage to your kidneys and to your eyes, right now you have to survive,” he went on. “The emergency of life takes precedence over the slow erosion of chronic disease.”
In September, 2018, Earthjustice, a nonprofit that specializes in environmental law, filed a federal Civil Rights Act complaint against the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department. The complaint alleges that the agencies’ failure to improve wastewater treatment has had a “disproportionate and adverse effect” on the Black community. Anna Sewell, a staff attorney with Earthjustice, told me, “It’s the long-standing ignoring of the problem that led us to file the complaint. The primarily Black residents of Lowndes County continue to suffer the effects of the health departments’ failure.” Sewell first visited Lowndes with the U.N. special rapporteur. “I remember being struck by seeing children’s toys near raw sewage on the ground,” she said. “It was just appalling.” Two years later, federal authorities were still conducting an initial review—an “unconscionable delay,” Sewell said.
When the Baylor researchers released their findings, Alabama’s department of health posted a notice online, denying that hookworm was present in Lowndes County. “The health department said, They don’t know what they’re talking about,” Rojelio Mejia, the researcher, told me.
Alabama’s state health officer, Scott Harris, noted that the Baylor study was based on just sixty-seven people, and that the researchers had used a newer, more sensitive test, which Harris said could produce false positives. So far, he added, state reviews had not shown that children in Lowndes County suffered gastrointestinal ailments at a significantly higher rate than those in the rest of the state. He acknowledged that the county, like others in the Black Belt, has “a long history of problems with water.” (In the nineteen-twenties, the state health department created a waste-management division specifically to address widespread hookworm infections.) But, he went on, “the issue is not hookworm as much as it is continuing poverty that just hasn’t been addressed for generations. There are very clear examples of structural racism that have made it difficult to make progress, and our state is not invested in a consistent, sustained way in trying to fix those problems.”
The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine recently began researching parasites in the Black Belt. Claudette Poole, a specialist in pediatric infectious disease who is the study’s principal investigator, credited Flowers with helping to provide funding: in 2018, after Baylor released its study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded Poole $1.2 million to investigate soil-transmitted parasites in children in Alabama.
Poole told me, “Our data gathering on hookworm specifically is too early to say anything definitive.” But, she added, “poor sanitation is a proxy for poverty, and poverty itself is linked to a whole host of poor health outcomes.” At the very least, the presence of raw sewage would contribute to infections from pathogens linked to vomiting, diarrhea, and potentially fatal sepsis. “Ultimately, the issue is about sanitation,” Poole said. “Whether the hookworm is there or not doesn’t change that.” So far, the researchers have tested two hundred and eighty-three children, of whom twenty per cent said their homes use straight-piping. Only twelve per cent live in homes connected to municipal sewers. “The sanitation is really dire,” Poole said.
There has been some progress. Senator Doug Jones and Representative Terri Sewell, both of Alabama, have sponsored grants to assist residents in connecting to the sewer grid or installing septic tanks. Jones told me that Flowers had given him a tour soon after he took office. “I was just stunned,” he said. “The abject poverty in these areas is really something you can’t get your arms around unless you see it.” He began working with Sewell, Booker, and others to “at least get some federal monies down there to help.”
The Lowndes County government has been slow to make improvements, though. Jacquelyn Thomas, the county administrator, told me that a sewer line was being installed in the town of White Hall. The work, funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture, has taken more than five years and has cost more than a million dollars—for a line that will serve seventy residents, in a town of roughly a thousand. For a county with a low tax base, Thomas suggested, installing sewers that reached more households would be prohibitively expensive.
Recently, the state health department stepped in to address the problem in Lowndes—an unusual move for a regulatory agency. It launched a pilot program, funded by a $2.3-million matching grant from the U.S.D.A., that is intended to provide septic systems for a hundred homes. Sherry Bradley, who is administering the program, told me that residents will pay an affordable monthly fee for systems that are better engineered for the local soil.
Flowers, too, thinks that places like Lowndes County need a different solution. “Alabama needs to deal with the fact that the technology doesn’t work,” she said. She plans to use some of the money from her MacArthur award—six hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, over five years—to investigate alternatives. She is helping lead a Columbia University initiative to develop sewage-treatment methods that don’t rely on a public line. Her co-director, an environmental engineer named Kartik Chandran, told me that he is working on household treatment systems that can be monitored and repaired remotely, and others that encourage feces to break down more easily. “With any utility infrastructure—communications, water, sewer—we talk about trillions of dollars in spending, but all of that is devoted to people who are on the networks,” Chandran said. “What happens to the twenty per cent of this country’s population who are not on a network? It’s like they don’t exist.”
The problem is not just in Alabama, Flowers points out. In some parts of rural Alaska, where installing a single septic system can cost more than a hundred thousand dollars, people rely on outhouses and “honey buckets”—pails lined with garbage bags. In Centreville, Illinois, where the city has done little to repair worn-out sewage infrastructure, untreated waste accumulates on neighborhood streets. In Florida’s Miami-Dade County, according to a recent study, rising sea levels may threaten two-thirds of residential septic systems by 2040. As Flowers became involved in the sanitation crisis beyond Alabama, ACRE evolved into the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, which works to influence policy in neglected communities. “If it weren’t for the people in Lowndes County, we would not be talking about this as a national issue,” she said. “But we need to find a solution that’s going to benefit everybody.”
A United Nations rapporteur on extreme poverty, visiting the Black Belt in 2017, said that the sanitation problem was unlike anything else he had encountered in the developed world: “This is not a sight that one normally sees.” Photograph by Devin Lunsford for The New Yorker
Last fall, Flowers called Pamela Rush, to say that their prayers had been answered. Flowers’s organization had secured a donation from Kat Taylor, the wife of the billionaire former Democratic Presidential candidate Tom Steyer. The money would allow them to buy Rush and her kids a new trailer—an energy-efficient double-wide with a working septic tank. “Thank you, Jesus!” Rush shouted. The women cried together.
During the past several years, Flowers told me, she and her staff have helped a dozen families move into safer homes. But finding a spokesperson for the issue was tricky. Most people with sewage problems were understandably wary of letting strangers and cameras into their homes. Rush, however, spoke willingly to the media and to politicians. She began consulting for Flowers’s center, sharing her story and conducting surveys in the community.
Rush’s car was unreliable, so Flowers’s colleague Stephanie N. Wallace sometimes drove her and her daughter to doctors’ appointments in Birmingham. On the way, Rush talked about how her activism had changed her life. “As she began to speak about her living conditions, she began to evolve into a totally different person,” Wallace recalled. “She’d be, like, ‘There’re a lot of folks who told me I shouldn’t talk about what I’m going through. But I did it to help my kids.’ ” During a recent ride, Rush told Wallace how excited she was about her new home, and how grateful she felt to get donations from people who didn’t even know her. She asked if they could stop by the mobile-home lot. Wallace said to wait; she and Flowers wanted it to be a surprise.


newyorker--2020-11-23--The Sensuality and Brutality of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe”

One way to measure a filmmaker ’ s commitment to his subject is to look at the not so minor details , such as costumes , wigs , and food .
If the paraphernalia of a people doesn ’ t feel forged but , rather , appears to have been lifted unmolested from observation or memory , or both , then the effect is immersion—the melding of reality with the world of the screen .
Black folks haven ’ t often felt that rush .
Looking to support the film industry , over the past century we have excused everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when a story comes along that wants not to extract from you but to support you , you take notice .
In “ Small Axe , ” a collection of five films by Steve McQueen about the British West Indian experience , three of which are reviewed in this column , a kind of revolutionary attention is paid to the physical world of the characters .
Across the interrelated films , recurring sequences—head-wrapped women fussing over a bubbling vat of sunshine-yellow curry goat ; men haggling over cards in true patois—evince the sincerity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is publicly claiming his place in a community , and who wants every aspect in the political tableau to be just so .
McQueen , who is of Trinidadian and Grenadan descent , was born in West London in 1969 .
His parents were members of the Windrush generation—the inaugural group of West Indians to settle in Britain in the mid-century .
McQueen ’ s films have grappled with the struggles of other nations : the 1981 Irish hunger strike , in “ Hunger , ” and the story of a free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was kidnapped and sold into bondage , in “ 12 Years a Slave.
” It took McQueen a while to address home .
Why ?
In a recent interview with the Times , he explained , “ Sometimes , you ’ ve got to have a certain maturity , and I wouldn ’ t have had that ten , fifteen years ago.
” Maturity , here , could mean the spirit of vulnerability and plainspokenness that we feel in the anthology , which is McQueen ’ s small-screen début .
( In 2014 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on his unaired pilot for a scrapped HBO show , “ Codes of Conduct.
” ) The films are neither condescending nor shy about being educations .
The title comes from a proverb , popularized by a Bob Marley song , in which it is sung with portent in the throat : “ If you are the big tree , we are the small axe , ready to cut you down.
” The collection opens with “ Mangrove , ” a feature-length film based on the Mangrove Nine , Black Londoners who , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were put on trial for incitement to riot and affray .
The trial was the government ’ s first , albeit reluctant , admission of racism in the British police force .
When the film premièred in the U.K. , in mid-November , many young Black British people expressed anger that they had not encountered the history in school .
That “ Small Axe ” airs on the BBC , then , is a kind of populist restitution .
( In the U.S. , the series is available on Amazon Prime . )
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Panthers .
Frank Crichlow , the owner of the Mangrove Restaurant , a Trinidadian spot in Notting Hill , was not .
He is the emotional center of McQueen ’ s film .
( Shaun Parkes expertly shoulders the role . )
Crichlow seems largely uninterested in politics , but everywhere politics is happening to him .
Before Notting Hill was gentrified , it was the hub of the West Indian diaspora in London .
The opening shot , of Crichlow strolling through the streets , places him amid construction sites , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When he reaches a lime-green restaurant with a “ Black Ownership ” placard in the window , the viewer understands that she is about to enter a protected place .
Crichlow and his cook , Aunt Betty , joke around .
He sends a boy , Kendrick , to the market to buy flowers for the restaurant .
Kendrick worries that he will look effete .
What if someone sees him ?
Crichlow replies , “ Say yuh in love , go !
” Meanwhile , a political movement is beginning : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feet of C. L. R. James , the Trinidadian theorist .
Crichlow ’ s restaurant becomes a haven for young activists and intellectuals , who are literally inventing the British-Caribbean identity .
The police see the Mangrove as the cradle of an encroachment—a dreaded reverse-colonization , in which the white British way is under threat .
Officers begin raiding the place .
( Crichlow tries to explain , “ We only serve spicy cuisine here !
” ) A police assault turns Kendrick , the boy who had been bashful about flowers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In one lingering shot , the camera is almost level with the kitchen floor , as it traces the chaos of brutality—a colander , knocked off its base , rocking without purchase .
A raid on the home of two activists is more pointed : officers knock books off the shelves , smash the printer .
McQueen wants to vanquish any idea that British racism is somehow more repressed and less violent than the American kind ; he spotlights the myth of the country ’ s politesse in order to do some smashing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hour , the film becomes a legal drama , as Crichlow and eight others go to trial after being arrested at the protest .
The courtroom is a stage , and the judge has planned for the play to be a prim farce .
( “ Take that ridiculous hat off , ” he barks at a defendant , but whose head is the one covered by a ridiculous wig ? )
Two defendants , Darcus Howe and Altheia Jones-LeCointe ( Malachi Kirby and Letitia Wright ) , wrest control of the proceedings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technical sense , themselves .
The Mangrove Nine beat the rioting charges , but McQueen is careful not to write the conclusion as a win .
As the rulings are read , the camera focusses on Crichlow , who had wanted to avoid a trial .
It is not only relief that causes the tears to flow and the muscles of his face to twitch .
“ Red , White and Blue ” is the melancholic complement to “ Mangrove.
” It is also based on a true story , that of Leroy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ British-Jamaican who , in the eighties , left his research-science job to join the Metropolitan Police .
The film opens with Leroy as a boy , in his school uniform , carting a musical instrument and waiting to be picked up after class .
He is approached by the police , who claim that he fits “ the description ” of a robber .
His father , Ken ( Steve Toussaint ) , pulls up , outraged .
On the way home , he warns Leroy not to be a roughneck , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We think that we are watching the beginning of a familiar tragedy , in which the light of a boy ’ s life is doused before it can begin to thrive .
That both is and isn ’ t what happens .
It is Ken who is later beaten by the police .
The assault intensifies Leroy ’ s desire to be part of the force—to fix the institution ’ s relationship with the Black community from the inside .
There is a roteness to the depiction of Leroy ’ s initiation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to reveal the message “ dirty nigger , ” in graffiti , is merely affecting .
He should have expected this treatment from his colleagues .
The film is best when it explores why he did not .
In their scenes together , Toussaint and Boyega are often metres away , representing the distance between the immigrant and the subsequent generation .
Their relationship speaks to the paradoxes of West Indian child rearing .
Ken drilled down on the importance of exceptionalism ; is it a surprise that his son is fixated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us more British than the British !
” Leroy yells at his father .
The soundtrack vitalizes “ Small Axe.
” Reggae classics do not overlay these dramas but , rather , melt into them .
McQueen ’ s cast are dancers , too .
The film “ Lovers Rock , ” named for the romantic subgenre of reggae that flourished in seventies-era London , borrows from music-video aesthetics , raising them to the divine .
In the piece , which is set during a fictionalized houseparty , the camera loiters on pairs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waists while they dance , lost in the rapture of a slow wine .
Young men take out their frustration with the state on the baseboards , stomping and curling and flailing to “ Kunta Kinte ” by the Revolutionaries .
The film is an anomaly : a plotless fresco , tracking a party into the morning .
But it moved me more than anything else in the collection .
You can ’ t help but experience a somatic response to the surfeit of beauty and omen and ecstasy in McQueen ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climax is timed to the high-note climax of Janet Kay ’ s track “ Silly Games.
” Mind you , there is danger in the story—racist and sexual threats abound .
But McQueen doesn ’ t pathologize or dwell on these bursts of ugliness ; he lets them pass over us like waves , as they might in life .
For much of “ Small Axe , ” the viewer is a student , processing the post-colonial horrors that were wreaked on Black Londoners .
“ Lovers Rock , ” though , gives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This is the Caribbean way of doing things .
The revolutions were set to drums .
♦

One way to measure a filmmaker’s commitment to his subject is to look at the not so minor details, such as costumes, wigs, and food. If the paraphernalia of a people doesn’t feel forged but, rather, appears to have been lifted unmolested from observation or memory, or both, then the effect is immersion—the melding of reality with the world of the screen. Black folks haven’t often felt that rush. Looking to support the film industry, over the past century we have excused everything from minstrelsy to bad drag. So when a story comes along that wants not to extract from you but to support you, you take notice. In “Small Axe,” a collection of five films by Steve McQueen about the British West Indian experience, three of which are reviewed in this column, a kind of revolutionary attention is paid to the physical world of the characters. Across the interrelated films, recurring sequences—head-wrapped women fussing over a bubbling vat of sunshine-yellow curry goat; men haggling over cards in true patois—evince the sincerity of the project’s creator, who is publicly claiming his place in a community, and who wants every aspect in the political tableau to be just so.
McQueen, who is of Trinidadian and Grenadan descent, was born in West London in 1969. His parents were members of the Windrush generation—the inaugural group of West Indians to settle in Britain in the mid-century. McQueen’s films have grappled with the struggles of other nations: the 1981 Irish hunger strike, in “Hunger,” and the story of a free African-American man who, in 1841, was kidnapped and sold into bondage, in “12 Years a Slave.” It took McQueen a while to address home. Why? In a recent interview with the Times, he explained, “Sometimes, you’ve got to have a certain maturity, and I wouldn’t have had that ten, fifteen years ago.” Maturity, here, could mean the spirit of vulnerability and plainspokenness that we feel in the anthology, which is McQueen’s small-screen début. (In 2014, I worked as a Haitian-Creole-language consultant on his unaired pilot for a scrapped HBO show, “Codes of Conduct.”) The films are neither condescending nor shy about being educations. The title comes from a proverb, popularized by a Bob Marley song, in which it is sung with portent in the throat: “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down.”
The collection opens with “Mangrove,” a feature-length film based on the Mangrove Nine, Black Londoners who, in 1971, following a protest, were put on trial for incitement to riot and affray. The trial was the government’s first, albeit reluctant, admission of racism in the British police force. When the film premièred in the U.K., in mid-November, many young Black British people expressed anger that they had not encountered the history in school. That “Small Axe” airs on the BBC, then, is a kind of populist restitution. (In the U.S., the series is available on Amazon Prime.)
Some of the Mangrove Nine were British Black Panthers. Frank Crichlow, the owner of the Mangrove Restaurant, a Trinidadian spot in Notting Hill, was not. He is the emotional center of McQueen’s film. (Shaun Parkes expertly shoulders the role.) Crichlow seems largely uninterested in politics, but everywhere politics is happening to him. Before Notting Hill was gentrified, it was the hub of the West Indian diaspora in London. The opening shot, of Crichlow strolling through the streets, places him amid construction sites, a sign of the upheaval to come. When he reaches a lime-green restaurant with a “Black Ownership” placard in the window, the viewer understands that she is about to enter a protected place. Crichlow and his cook, Aunt Betty, joke around. He sends a boy, Kendrick, to the market to buy flowers for the restaurant. Kendrick worries that he will look effete. What if someone sees him? Crichlow replies, “Say yuh in love, go!”
Meanwhile, a political movement is beginning: a scene shows campaigners huddled at the feet of C. L. R. James, the Trinidadian theorist. Crichlow’s restaurant becomes a haven for young activists and intellectuals, who are literally inventing the British-Caribbean identity. The police see the Mangrove as the cradle of an encroachment—a dreaded reverse-colonization, in which the white British way is under threat. Officers begin raiding the place. (Crichlow tries to explain, “We only serve spicy cuisine here!”) A police assault turns Kendrick, the boy who had been bashful about flowers, the color of a bruised tulip. In one lingering shot, the camera is almost level with the kitchen floor, as it traces the chaos of brutality—a colander, knocked off its base, rocking without purchase. A raid on the home of two activists is more pointed: officers knock books off the shelves, smash the printer. McQueen wants to vanquish any idea that British racism is somehow more repressed and less violent than the American kind; he spotlights the myth of the country’s politesse in order to do some smashing of his own.
In its second hour, the film becomes a legal drama, as Crichlow and eight others go to trial after being arrested at the protest. The courtroom is a stage, and the judge has planned for the play to be a prim farce. (“Take that ridiculous hat off,” he barks at a defendant, but whose head is the one covered by a ridiculous wig?) Two defendants, Darcus Howe and Altheia Jones-LeCointe (Malachi Kirby and Letitia Wright), wrest control of the proceedings by representing, in more than the technical sense, themselves. The Mangrove Nine beat the rioting charges, but McQueen is careful not to write the conclusion as a win. As the rulings are read, the camera focusses on Crichlow, who had wanted to avoid a trial. It is not only relief that causes the tears to flow and the muscles of his face to twitch.
“Red, White and Blue” is the melancholic complement to “Mangrove.” It is also based on a true story, that of Leroy Logan (John Boyega), a British-Jamaican who, in the eighties, left his research-science job to join the Metropolitan Police. The film opens with Leroy as a boy, in his school uniform, carting a musical instrument and waiting to be picked up after class. He is approached by the police, who claim that he fits “the description” of a robber. His father, Ken (Steve Toussaint), pulls up, outraged. On the way home, he warns Leroy not to be a roughneck, to never bring the police to his yard. We think that we are watching the beginning of a familiar tragedy, in which the light of a boy’s life is doused before it can begin to thrive.
That both is and isn’t what happens. It is Ken who is later beaten by the police. The assault intensifies Leroy’s desire to be part of the force—to fix the institution’s relationship with the Black community from the inside. There is a roteness to the depiction of Leroy’s initiation; the swing of a locker door, to reveal the message “dirty nigger,” in graffiti, is merely affecting. He should have expected this treatment from his colleagues. The film is best when it explores why he did not.
In their scenes together, Toussaint and Boyega are often metres away, representing the distance between the immigrant and the subsequent generation. Their relationship speaks to the paradoxes of West Indian child rearing. Ken drilled down on the importance of exceptionalism; is it a surprise that his son is fixated on taming Blackness? “You wanted us more British than the British!” Leroy yells at his father.
The soundtrack vitalizes “Small Axe.” Reggae classics do not overlay these dramas but, rather, melt into them. McQueen’s cast are dancers, too. The film “Lovers Rock,” named for the romantic subgenre of reggae that flourished in seventies-era London, borrows from music-video aesthetics, raising them to the divine. In the piece, which is set during a fictionalized houseparty, the camera loiters on pairs of lovers discovering each other’s waists while they dance, lost in the rapture of a slow wine. Young men take out their frustration with the state on the baseboards, stomping and curling and flailing to “Kunta Kinte” by the Revolutionaries. The film is an anomaly: a plotless fresco, tracking a party into the morning. But it moved me more than anything else in the collection. You can’t help but experience a somatic response to the surfeit of beauty and omen and ecstasy in McQueen’s living painting.
The film’s climax is timed to the high-note climax of Janet Kay’s track “Silly Games.” Mind you, there is danger in the story—racist and sexual threats abound. But McQueen doesn’t pathologize or dwell on these bursts of ugliness; he lets them pass over us like waves, as they might in life. For much of “Small Axe,” the viewer is a student, processing the post-colonial horrors that were wreaked on Black Londoners. “Lovers Rock,” though, gives viewers an opportunity to feel abandon. This is the Caribbean way of doing things. The revolutions were set to drums. ♦


The Mail

Nicholas Lemann ’ s illuminating piece on where Republicans will go after Donald Trump leaves office proposed three possible paths forward for the G.O.P .
( “ The After-Party , ” November 2nd ) .
Lemann refers to the Reversal scenario , in which “ Republicans would replace the Democrats as the party of the people , ” as “ perhaps the least plausible.
” There is , in fact , some historical precedent for Reversalism in the U.S. For several decades , Black Americans have overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party—an allegiance that few could have foreseen when the Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans—who , in the mid-nineteenth century , favored abolishing slavery and extending the franchise to Black men—were frequently at odds with the segregationist wing of the Democratic Party .
As the two parties ’ priorities changed over time , Black Americans shifted their loyalties .
It is not inconceivable that working-class whites , once the bedrock of the Democratic base , will follow a similar but opposite trajectory .
Whereas the Republican Party appears to be undergoing a reversal of sorts , it is unclear whether Democrats will take this opportunity to revisit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more likely that the parties will continue to differ less and less on major questions of governance and public policy—but , ironically , partisan animus seems only to be increasing .
Lemann is right to observe that both parties face an ideological reckoning after this election .
Although his piece was sensibly focussed on possible transformations of the Republican Party , I was surprised that he did not mention the rise of populism within the Democratic Party .
Bernie Sanders , who ran a broad-based grassroots campaign for the Democratic nomination , raised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his rivals , had far more individual donors , and boasted a more enthusiastic and youthful base .
Early polls showed that the populist Sanders was the only Democrat with favorable odds of beating Trump .
Even so , the Democratic establishment feared and resisted both of Sanders ’ s Presidential campaigns .
Although Joe Biden won the Presidency this year , his disappointing showing was a tragedy foretold .
By alienating progressives , the Democrats have now twice damaged their prospects for expanding the Party ’ s reach and pushing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it appears that Republicans grew their base in this election , making small but significant inroads among some Black and Latino voters . )
This saga suggests that the future of both parties hinges on the struggle between the Democratic National Committee and populists like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar , who speak to the experiences of working people in America , and who grasp the urgency of the ecological crisis .
Lemann helpfully proposes three plausible scenarios for the Republican Party ’ s future , but he takes for granted the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political parties in the U.S .
It is worth remembering that the Republican Party was formed , in the early eighteen-fifties , in part by disaffected Whigs .
Influential Never Trumpers itching to reclaim their party from Trumpism , or other conservative forces keen on building a platform around principles rather than around an individual , could gain enough power to create their own political base .
Should a viable third party emerge , we could be looking at yearslong Democratic hegemony or , for the first time in U.S. history , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should be sent with the writer ’ s name , address , and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail @ newyorker.com .
Letters may be edited for length and clarity , and may be published in any medium .
We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we can not reply to every letter .

The Future of Trumpism
Nicholas Lemann’s illuminating piece on where Republicans will go after Donald Trump leaves office proposed three possible paths forward for the G.O.P. (“The After-Party,” November 2nd). Lemann refers to the Reversal scenario, in which “Republicans would replace the Democrats as the party of the people,” as “perhaps the least plausible.” There is, in fact, some historical precedent for Reversalism in the U.S. For several decades, Black Americans have overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party—an allegiance that few could have foreseen when the Republican Party was founded, in 1854. Republicans—who, in the mid-nineteenth century, favored abolishing slavery and extending the franchise to Black men—were frequently at odds with the segregationist wing of the Democratic Party. As the two parties’ priorities changed over time, Black Americans shifted their loyalties. It is not inconceivable that working-class whites, once the bedrock of the Democratic base, will follow a similar but opposite trajectory. Whereas the Republican Party appears to be undergoing a reversal of sorts, it is unclear whether Democrats will take this opportunity to revisit their core policy positions. It looks more likely that the parties will continue to differ less and less on major questions of governance and public policy—but, ironically, partisan animus seems only to be increasing.
Jason Schlabach
Cincinnati, Ohio
Lemann is right to observe that both parties face an ideological reckoning after this election. Although his piece was sensibly focussed on possible transformations of the Republican Party, I was surprised that he did not mention the rise of populism within the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders, who ran a broad-based grassroots campaign for the Democratic nomination, raised far more money this year than most of his rivals, had far more individual donors, and boasted a more enthusiastic and youthful base. Early polls showed that the populist Sanders was the only Democrat with favorable odds of beating Trump. Even so, the Democratic establishment feared and resisted both of Sanders’s Presidential campaigns. Although Joe Biden won the Presidency this year, his disappointing showing was a tragedy foretold. By alienating progressives, the Democrats have now twice damaged their prospects for expanding the Party’s reach and pushing the nation leftward. (In fact, it appears that Republicans grew their base in this election, making small but significant inroads among some Black and Latino voters.) This saga suggests that the future of both parties hinges on the struggle between the Democratic National Committee and populists like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, who speak to the experiences of working people in America, and who grasp the urgency of the ecological crisis.
John Sanbonmatsu
Worcester, Mass.
Lemann helpfully proposes three plausible scenarios for the Republican Party’s future, but he takes for granted the fact that there are only two major political parties in the U.S. It is worth remembering that the Republican Party was formed, in the early eighteen-fifties, in part by disaffected Whigs. Influential Never Trumpers itching to reclaim their party from Trumpism, or other conservative forces keen on building a platform around principles rather than around an individual, could gain enough power to create their own political base. Should a viable third party emerge, we could be looking at yearslong Democratic hegemony or, for the first time in U.S. history, at the prospect of coalition government.
David Morse
Stavern, Norway
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newyorker--2020-11-23--Faces of a Fast-Food Nation

Faces of a Fast-Food Nation

Since 2009 , the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $ 7.25 an hour , an amount that bears only the sketchiest relationship to the cost of living in many parts of the country .
Twenty-nine states have set their own , higher minimum wage , somewhere between $ 8.65 and $ 13.50 .
On November 3rd , Florida voters approved raising the state ’ s baseline to fifteen dollars an hour .
( This rate is the goal , and the namesake , of the grassroots movement the Fight for Fifteen ; seven other states are phasing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D.C. , has mandated one already . )
Fast-food workers—for whom the federal minimum wage is often both floor and ceiling—are among the Americans who have been deemed essential in the pandemic .
Especially in places where indoor dining is not permitted , drive-throughs have been providing quick sustenance to everyone from doctors and nurses to Zooming workers weary of cooking .
But , for most fast-food employees , wages haven ’ t budged since COVID-19 made going to work a daily risk .
Alana Ganoe , a twenty-six-year-old who works at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , in order to earn enough to care for herself and her two young children , she has to clock at least fifty hours a week—many of them at night , because her kindergartner is in school remotely .
“ I ’ m not asking for , like , twenty dollars an hour , because I do get a decent paycheck , and my boyfriend is a tremendous help , ” she says .
“ But , if I were to work less , I wouldn ’ t have the money for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
”

Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour, an amount that bears only the sketchiest relationship to the cost of living in many parts of the country. Twenty-nine states have set their own, higher minimum wage, somewhere between $8.65 and $13.50. On November 3rd, Florida voters approved raising the state’s baseline to fifteen dollars an hour. (This rate is the goal, and the namesake, of the grassroots movement the Fight for Fifteen; seven other states are phasing in such an increase, and Washington, D.C., has mandated one already.) Fast-food workers—for whom the federal minimum wage is often both floor and ceiling—are among the Americans who have been deemed essential in the pandemic. Especially in places where indoor dining is not permitted, drive-throughs have been providing quick sustenance to everyone from doctors and nurses to Zooming workers weary of cooking. But, for most fast-food employees, wages haven’t budged since COVID-19 made going to work a daily risk. Alana Ganoe, a twenty-six-year-old who works at a Bojangles in Winchester, Virginia, says that, in order to earn enough to care for herself and her two young children, she has to clock at least fifty hours a week—many of them at night, because her kindergartner is in school remotely. “I’m not asking for, like, twenty dollars an hour, because I do get a decent paycheck, and my boyfriend is a tremendous help,” she says. “But, if I were to work less, I wouldn’t have the money for the rent, the lights, food.”


newyorker--2020-11-23--Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Metazoa , by Peter Godfrey-Smith ( Farrar , Straus & Giroux ) .
Philosophers have long debated the nature of consciousness .
This probing study takes an evolutionary approach , examining “ experience in general ” not only in humans but in much of the animal kingdom .
Animals , it argues , developed consciousness gradually , through such biological innovations as centralized nervous systems and the ability to distinguish one ’ s actions from external forces , which have given rise to “ varieties of subjectivity.
” The author is crisp on a subject notorious for abstraction , dissecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ descriptions of the octopuses , whale sharks , and banded shrimp he observes on scuba dives off the coasts of Australia .
Heinrich Heine , by George Prochnik ( Yale ) .
Cosmopolitanism and nationalism form the backdrop for this life of the great Jewish German poet .
Born in 1797 in Düsseldorf , then under Napoleonic occupation , Heine remained a committed liberal even as Germany turned inward after the Congress of Vienna .
Prochnik provides a jaunty narrative of Heine ’ s schooldays in Bonn and Göttingen , journalistic career in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , detailing his literary feuds , scraps with censors , and unwavering belief in political liberty .
Wondering what “ Heine ’ s revolutionary imagination had left behind that could be used as a weapon , or balm , in the hour of crisis , ” Prochnik singles out his irreverent voice , which became a lodestar for dissidents from Boris Pasternak to Heine ’ s distant cousin Karl Marx .
Aphasia , by Mauro Javier Cárdenas ( Farrar , Straus & Giroux ) .
“ What I don ’ t transcribe I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protagonist of this roving novel , remarks .
A Colombian divorcé living in Los Angeles , he obsessively documents the stories of those he encounters .
He spends nights with women he meets on a sugar-daddy Web site and makes notes of their childhood stories the mornings after .
He records his mother ’ s childhood recollections and the ramblings of his sister , who suffers from schizophrenia , and whose experience of abuse at the hands of their father haunts them both .
The result is a collage-like meditation on the ephemeral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happiness collectively , ” Antonio reflects , “ and it ’ s ridiculous , given that most adult relationships end anyway.
” Alexandria , by Paul Kingsnorth ( Graywolf ) .
This post-climate-apocalypse novel completes a loose trilogy set in the wild reaches of what was once England .
Nine hundred years in the future , a remote tribe lives a primitive life , wary of “ stalkers ” —metahumans with transparent skin who have been sent by a mysterious artificial intelligence .
The stalkers persuade people to forswear their bodies and allow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alexandria , where they will live forever .
Unconventional orthography ( “ hunnerd , ” “ Skito ” ) and mythical style add texture to a story that examines whether the body is essential or merely the mind ’ s cage and whether humans are inherently destructive .
When one stalker has doubts about his mission , his crisis of belief drives the book into unexpected territory .

Metazoa, by Peter Godfrey-Smith (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Philosophers have long debated the nature of consciousness. This probing study takes an evolutionary approach, examining “experience in general” not only in humans but in much of the animal kingdom. Animals, it argues, developed consciousness gradually, through such biological innovations as centralized nervous systems and the ability to distinguish one’s actions from external forces, which have given rise to “varieties of subjectivity.” The author is crisp on a subject notorious for abstraction, dissecting fuzzy philosophical metaphors and weaving in lively descriptions of the octopuses, whale sharks, and banded shrimp he observes on scuba dives off the coasts of Australia.
Heinrich Heine, by George Prochnik (Yale). Cosmopolitanism and nationalism form the backdrop for this life of the great Jewish German poet. Born in 1797 in Düsseldorf, then under Napoleonic occupation, Heine remained a committed liberal even as Germany turned inward after the Congress of Vienna. Prochnik provides a jaunty narrative of Heine’s schooldays in Bonn and Göttingen, journalistic career in Berlin, and twenty-five-year exile in Paris, detailing his literary feuds, scraps with censors, and unwavering belief in political liberty. Wondering what “Heine’s revolutionary imagination had left behind that could be used as a weapon, or balm, in the hour of crisis,” Prochnik singles out his irreverent voice, which became a lodestar for dissidents from Boris Pasternak to Heine’s distant cousin Karl Marx.
Aphasia, by Mauro Javier Cárdenas (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). “What I don’t transcribe I will forget,” Antonio, the protagonist of this roving novel, remarks. A Colombian divorcé living in Los Angeles, he obsessively documents the stories of those he encounters. He spends nights with women he meets on a sugar-daddy Web site and makes notes of their childhood stories the mornings after. He records his mother’s childhood recollections and the ramblings of his sister, who suffers from schizophrenia, and whose experience of abuse at the hands of their father haunts them both. The result is a collage-like meditation on the ephemeral. “I have come to define happiness collectively,” Antonio reflects, “and it’s ridiculous, given that most adult relationships end anyway.”
Alexandria, by Paul Kingsnorth (Graywolf). This post-climate-apocalypse novel completes a loose trilogy set in the wild reaches of what was once England. Nine hundred years in the future, a remote tribe lives a primitive life, wary of “stalkers”—metahumans with transparent skin who have been sent by a mysterious artificial intelligence. The stalkers persuade people to forswear their bodies and allow their minds to “ascend” to Alexandria, where they will live forever. Unconventional orthography (“hunnerd,” “Skito”) and mythical style add texture to a story that examines whether the body is essential or merely the mind’s cage and whether humans are inherently destructive. When one stalker has doubts about his mission, his crisis of belief drives the book into unexpected territory.


newyorker--2020-11-23--Barry Blitt’s “New Traditions”

Barry Blitt’s “New Traditions”

With COVID-19 cases spiking throughout the country , large swatches of the medical community , including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , have advised against travelling for Thanksgiving .
Dinners might be smaller , or strangely Zoomified—though the amount of food , one hopes , will remain the same .
In his latest cover , Barry Blitt portrays a feast in the forests of New England , where the holiday originated .
You grew up in Canada .
Is there an equivalent to Thanksgiving there ?
I 'm reminded of the Onion headline : “ Perky ‘ Canada @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For the record , Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated in October , and it ’ s not quite as huge a deal as its American counterpart—but then , what is ?
I don ’ t remember ever celebrating it growing up , but there are no doubt other Canadians , more patriotic and thankful than I am , for whom it ’ s a big day .
How do you usually celebrate Thanksgiving ?
I usually celebrate by just trying to fit in , doing what everyone around me is doing .
Friends generally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I ’ m always comforted by all the warmth and good will .
For a while , anyway .
Your son is overseas while your and your wife ’ s families are up north .
Is there a regular occasion for family gatherings ?
Well , none of us is doing much travelling these days .
But when we do get together it ’ s not usually tied to traffic-heavy holidays .
Rather , we congregate around family occasions like birthdays and knee replacements , etc .
You live in rural Connecticut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as what you portray here ?
The wildlife is charming as heck up here—we see deer and bears and bobcats , etc .
If there were a bird-watching equivalent involving chipmunks , this would be a major hub .
See below for more Thanksgivings covers :

With COVID-19 cases spiking throughout the country, large swatches of the medical community, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have advised against travelling for Thanksgiving. Dinners might be smaller, or strangely Zoomified—though the amount of food, one hopes, will remain the same. In his latest cover, Barry Blitt portrays a feast in the forests of New England, where the holiday originated.
You grew up in Canada. Is there an equivalent to Thanksgiving there?
I'm reminded of the Onion headline: “Perky ‘Canada’ Has Own Government, Laws.” For the record, Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated in October, and it’s not quite as huge a deal as its American counterpart—but then, what is? I don’t remember ever celebrating it growing up, but there are no doubt other Canadians, more patriotic and thankful than I am, for whom it’s a big day.
How do you usually celebrate Thanksgiving?
I usually celebrate by just trying to fit in, doing what everyone around me is doing. Friends generally invite us to their Thanksgiving dinners, and I’m always comforted by all the warmth and good will. For a while, anyway.
Your son is overseas while your and your wife’s families are up north. Is there a regular occasion for family gatherings?
Well, none of us is doing much travelling these days. But when we do get together it’s not usually tied to traffic-heavy holidays. Rather, we congregate around family occasions like birthdays and knee replacements, etc.
You live in rural Connecticut. Is the wildlife there as charming as what you portray here?
The wildlife is charming as heck up here—we see deer and bears and bobcats, etc. If there were a bird-watching equivalent involving chipmunks, this would be a major hub.
See below for more Thanksgivings covers: