More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Even though death is symbolically very much present in Halloween, it’s also a time to celebrate life. The holiday draws from mixed emotions that resonate even more than usual during the COVID-19 era.
Looking at the ways survivors of past pandemics tried to celebrate the triumph of life amid widespread death can add context to the present-day experience. Consider the Black Death—the mother of all pandemics.
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups—to do my part in the disruption of what has been the acceptable “norm” in the book world for far too long (white, cis, heterosexual, male); and to amplify indie publishers and amazing works by writers who are women, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, APIA/AAPI, international, queer, trans, nonbinary, disabled, fat, immigrant, Muslim, neurodivergent, sex-positive or of other historically marginalized identities—you know, the rest of us.
Make some time to read one or two of these 30 new books, or whatever goes well with your pumpkin spice latte or hot apple cider.
As Halloween draws near, “voodoo” costumes will undoubtedly be on the main menu. But the most popular versions of these costumes meant to scare and entertain the masses are racist depictions of a religion that encompasses African traditions and honors the innate wisdom of Black female practitioners in Louisiana. Few are aware of these issues because either they’ve never lived in Louisiana or have never met a Black woman from Louisiana who practices vodou. But I have the honor of both distinguishing factors.
Women have always been part of history and shaping the world as we know it today—and that means the good, the bad, and the ugly. Enjoy this collection of the four most chilling women you might not have heard of in history class.
On Monday, the Department of Education began public hearings to determine improvements to Title IX enforcement.
“They say they fear a witch-hunt, yet have never been the witches; even as we step forward to accuse them, that burden still falls upon us. … It seems their cries were heard when the Trump administration revised Title IX last year.”
A conversation between PEN award-winning playwright and TV writer Laura Marks and National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado.
Both women have graphic novels from DC Comics out this fall. Women comic book writers are in the minority to begin with, and even more so in the horror genre.
In 1848, the adolescent sisters Kate and Margaret Fox of Hydesville, New York, made quite a commotion when they told people of the strange rapping sounds they heard throughout their house. In the ensuing months, they began to communicate with “Mr. Splitfoot,” the devilish name they gave to the spirit that they said was the source of the knocking.
The archetypal slashers were often bad, sticky mothers who kept their children freakishly attached.
We all know the story: In 1888, in London’s East End, Jack the Ripper killed five sex workers. And in the popular imagination, Jack is the center—and his victims, as sex workers, are dismissed as if they somehow deserved what they got or were asking for it.
The magic-wielding academic queers are at it again in season three of Brujos—and this time, they’re incorporating even more witchy content about sexually non-conforming people of color.
