The industry is against me; they’re only about sales and regurgitating the same garbage! It’s not recycling if it’s still trash!
Archive
The Art of Lies
It helps to know what is true and the truth is a slippery fish. What is truth exactly and how do we know it when we see it? Is there a core area somewhere in the center of an idea in which the truth resides? Or is it spread thin like a pancake, a layer wrapped around detritus and filling, the clutter of living? Can anyone have it?
Caught in the Grey Area
When my mom complained he’d just take his pack of Marlboro Reds into the garage. But this didn’t keep us away. My dad barely spent any time home and when he did we were determined to follow him everywhere. Besides, he was usually doing something interesting that we didn’t want to miss like scaling a fish or gutting a freshly caught squid.
A Bubbling Conundrum
“Better appreciate it while you can!” said the old man while he added salt to his popcorn.
The friendly stranger was referring to the massive 32 oz. cup I was filling to the brim with Coca-Cola. My date and I were about to watch a three-hour long epic movie and it was decided that an epic amount of snacks were needed to go along with it. We had bought the large soda/large popcorn combo to share.
“Uhg, I know it,” I said. I shook my head disapprovingly, emphasizing my exasperation at the situation. The old man put down the extra sodium with a slight shake in his hands and flashed me a big yellow toothy grin.
Distractions
Brownface was a term altogether unfamiliar to me. I grappled for comprehension. The closest term I had available to use as a reference was Blackface. But that couldn’t be true, right? Yes, Governor Mitt Romney was appearing on a staple Latin-American television network, Univison. And yes, at first glance, the hue of his face appeared to be darker. But did Governor Romney really use make up to appear relatable to a Latino audience?
Subway Ladybug
The subway stop at 181st Street was an odd place to see a ladybug. She boarded the train and flew directly to perch on the edge of my upended book. I stayed very still, staring at the shiny red and black of her wings, while she rested there. After a few minutes I gently moved the book into a flat position on my lap, and she obliged me by crawling over the lip and onto the surface. I put my hand in front of her for protection against any jostling that might shake her.
“You confused evasion and artistic tact”
Then in intermittent peeks, needled through the brick enclave saturated, as a stop-motion cartoon i saw him, my Uncle puffy like wild, overgrown mushrooms bruised magenta bloc sleepless caverns, now filled lined the bridge of […]
Beneath A Broken Bridge
Under a bridge,
Kicking rocks at battered walls,
We smoked a few Winston’s,
Not for the thrill
But out of habit.
The sun dropped below the earth,
And the cloudy waters
Rose to our bare ankles,
You told me tragic tales of your life,
And I shared a few of my own.
Téa Obreht: How We Make Meaning, Makes Us
An Excerpt from the 12th Street Interview
In this excerpt from the 12th Street interview, Téa Obreht talks backstory, process and the questions we’d love to ask our own work with Online Managing Editor, Kate Cox.
Letter from The Editor
In preparation for our Issue 5 launch event this Wednesday, May 9th, here are some final reflections from our Editor-in-Chief. Writing and Democracy. As students in the Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy, we talk […]
Dear Reader: I Am Here Because of You
community |kəˈmyoōnitē| noun ( pl. -ties) 1 a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership. Dear Reader, True story: I am here because of you. Really, I am. Though, […]
A Conversation with Elissa Schappell
An Excerpt from the 12th Street Interview
In this excerpt from the 12th Street interview, Elissa Schappell discusses womanhood from era to era with Charlotte Slivka. Elissa Schappell is the author of Use Me, a collection of linked short stories and finalist […]
12th Street Issue # 5 Launch and Reading
About the Event: POLITICS AND LETTERS COME TOGETHER FOR AN EVENING OF READINGS BY ELISSA SCHAPPELL, TÉA OBREHT, AND STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS TO 12TH STREET ISSUE 5, PUBLISHED BY THE NEW SCHOOL WRITING PROGRAM. Date and time: Wednesday, May 9th, […]
Sarah Schulman: An American Witness
Part 2: Occupy Student Debt, and the Beauty of Being Uncomfortable
For many activists Sarah Schulman is an important source of meaningful and effective lessons in social change. For more than ten years, her and her long time collaborator Jim Hubbard have been interviewing members of ACT UP, for their ACT UP Oral History Project, ensuring the experience of the seminal AIDS activist group are lost in history. Earlier this year, The New York Times published Schulman’s deftly researched op-ed, “Pinkwashing” and Israel’s Use of Gays as a Messaging Tool to frenzied response. Later this year a slate of films, books and creative projects about the early days of AIDS, including United in Anger, a film produced by Schulman, and directed by Hubbard, will be released. Schulman’s influence cannot be understated.
Writers in the World, Messages in the Street
By Ted Kerr, Managing Editor, 12th Street “In the beginning, sometimes I left messages in the street,” starts David Markson’s Wigginstien’s Mistress, a novel about a woman wandering the globe thinking she may be the […]
The Past, the Present and the Process: Patrick McGrath
Patrick McGrath is the author of two short story collections, Blood and Water and Other Tales and Ghost Town, and seven previous novels including Asylum, Martha Peake, Dr. Haggard’s Disease and Port Mungo. His novel, […]
Sarah Schulman: An American Witness
Part 1: Gentrification, Trauma, & Sex
Sarah Schulman is one of America’s most profound witnesses. As a writer, activist and caretaker she has seen HIV/AIDS from the beginning. She was an early member of ACT UP, the seminal social action AIDS […]
H.O.M.E.S.
H.
Water finds ways
to communicate
to look inside the unspoken door of history.
Listen during a North-Eastern wind
and the waves and commotions of the molecules
will rumble like a chorus
12th Street Online Launch
Join us to celebrate 12th Street Online’s launch with an evening of readings by Patrick McGrath, Leigh Stein, Sarah Schulman and student editors and contributors. Hosted by Robert Polito.
Reading Egypt: from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park
If the news is anything to be believed: Egypt is a nation in a state of more or less constant political and social strife; Egyptians are nearly all Islamists, coercing the few and far between […]