The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “culture”

Healing the Heart of Democracy: Parker Palmer on Holding the Tension of Our Differences in a Creative Way
Healing the Heart of Democracy: Parker Palmer on Holding the Tension of Our Differences in a Creative Way

“Full engagement in the movement called democracy requires no less of us than full engagement in the living of our own lives.”

read article

Nobel Laureate André Gide on the Freedom of Expression and the Vital Role of Art as Both Insurgency and Acceptance
Nobel Laureate André Gide on the Freedom of Expression and the Vital Role of Art as Both Insurgency and Acceptance

“The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.”

read article

Young Barack Obama on Identity, the Search for a Coherent Self, and How We Fragment Our Wholeness with Polarizing Identity Politics
Young Barack Obama on Identity, the Search for a Coherent Self, and How We Fragment Our Wholeness with Polarizing Identity Politics

“Without power for the group, a group larger, even, than an extended family, our success always threatened to leave others behind.”

read article

Multivocality, Polyphony, Gumbo Yaya: Elizabeth Alexander, Barack Obama’s Inaugural Poet, on the Power of Poetry in Moments of Powerlessness
Multivocality, Polyphony, Gumbo Yaya: Elizabeth Alexander, Barack Obama’s Inaugural Poet, on the Power of Poetry in Moments of Powerlessness

“We just have to really, really, really dust ourselves off and do our work. That’s all there is to it — love each other, do your work.”

read article

Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on the Courage and the Necessity of Crises
Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on the Courage and the Necessity of Crises

“Courage is what love looks like when tested by the simple everyday necessities of being alive.”

read article

In the Company of Women: Wisdom and Advice on the Creative Life from Beloved Women Artists, Makers, and Entrepreneurs
In the Company of Women: Wisdom and Advice on the Creative Life from Beloved Women Artists, Makers, and Entrepreneurs

Neko Case, Nikki Giovani, Tavi Gevinson, Maira Kalman, Debbie Millman, Carrie Brownstein, and more.

read article

Patti Smith on Listening to the Creative Impulse and the Crucial Difference Between Writing Poetry and Songwriting
Patti Smith on Listening to the Creative Impulse and the Crucial Difference Between Writing Poetry and Songwriting

“In times of strife, we have our imagination, we have our creative impulse, which are things that are more important than material things. They are the things that we should magnify.”

read article

Maya Angelou on How a Library Saved Her Life
Maya Angelou on How a Library Saved Her Life

“A library is a rainbow in the clouds.”

read article

Chinua Achebe on How Storytelling Helps Us Survive History’s Rough Patches
Chinua Achebe on How Storytelling Helps Us Survive History’s Rough Patches

“There is no one way to anything.”

read article

No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear: Toni Morrison on the Artist’s Task in Troubled Times
No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear: Toni Morrison on the Artist’s Task in Troubled Times

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)