Slavery
Underground Railroad Reenactments
A feature on reenactments of the Underground Railroad and their unusual history, including how they inspired one of the first computer games about slavery. (The New Yorker)Underground Railroad Reenactments
Dread Scott’s Rebellion
A profile of the performance artist as he prepared to stage a reenactment of North America’s largest-ever slave rebellion. (Vanity Fair)Dread Scott’s Rebellion
Chang and Eng, the “Siamese Twins”
A review of two biographies of the performers—by Yunte Huang and Joseph Andrew Orser—who became slaveholders after their success in the circus. (“The Great Assimilationists,” The New York Review of Books)Chang and Eng, the “Siamese Twins”
Patrick Chamoiseau’s “Slave Old Man”
A review of the Martinican writer’s novel about an elderly runaway. (The New York Times Book Review)Patrick Chamoiseau’s “Slave Old Man”
Curse Narratives in Four African Novels
A review-essay on Jennifer Makumbi’s “Kintu,” Wayétu Moore’s “She Would Be King,” Leonara Miano’s “Season of the Shadow,” and Scholastique Mukasonga’s “Barefoot Woman,” which appeared on the cover of The New York Times Book Review.Curse Narratives in Four African Novels
John Keene’s “Counternarratives”
An essay on the writer’s speculative historical fiction as a queer counterpoint to the family saga. (The New York Times Book Review)John Keene’s “Counternarratives”
Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”
A review of the novel, which considers it alongside previous neo–slave narratives. (The New York Review of Books)Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”