As the government’s attempts to control and punish US universities and the media are conjuring up memories of McCarthyism, the New York Historical is hosting an exhibit, on view until October 19, that revisits the time when the House Un-American Activities Committee took aim at the entertainment industry.
Read more »
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on As McCarthyism Returns, New York Remembers the Hollywood Blacklist
The graphic novelist Paco Roca was honored this summer with an exhibit at the Instituto Cervantes. His latest book tells the true story of a woman who goes in search of the remains of her father who was executed by the Franco regime and buried in a mass grave.
Read more »
Posted in Features, Interviews | Comments Off on “As a Documentary Genre, the Graphic Novel Offers Huge Advantages”–Paco Roca
The Jewish Museum in New York City is presenting the first U.S. retrospective in nearly half a century dedicated to social realist artist and activist Ben Shahn (1898-1969). Curator Laura Katzman reflects on Shahn’s social justice work as it relates to the antifascist struggles of his day.
Read more »
Posted in Features, Interviews | Comments Off on “Fascism Was Ben Shahn’s Greatest Fear”–Laura Katzman on the Timeliness of Antifascist Art
From June 12 to 29, Brooklyn’s MITU580 will premiere At the Barricades, a new play by James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain set among the international Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Directed by Federica Borlenghi and supported by script supervisor Skye Pallo Ross, the project was developed through a residency at NYU's Espacio...
Read more »
Posted in Interviews, News | Comments Off on International Brigades Play to Premiere in Brooklyn
The Barcelona-born muralist Roc Blackblock, who started painting walls 25 years ago, takes his inspiration from photography to put the spotlight on historical struggles against fascism, for democracy, and for human rights as a way of intervening in the political present. “Having a good photograph to work from makes a huge difference.”
Read more »
Posted in Features, Interviews | Comments Off on “It Took Me Years to Understand My Work as Part of a Cultural Battle.” Roc Blackblock, Catalan Muralist
The way we think about George Orwell today was profoundly shaped by the Cold War—and by the groundbreaking work of Peter Stansky, who started writing about him shortly after his death. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in the summer of 1936, Peter Stansky was four years old—and although he lived in Brooklyn,...
Read more »
Posted in Features, Interviews | Comments Off on Peter Stansky, Historian: “George Orwell Was Politically Naïve.”
As SNL is preparing for its 50th anniversary, Tyler Goldberger speaks with Chevy Chase about his legendary gag on Franco’s death.
Read more »
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead—Fifty Years Later
The roots of fascism lay right here in the United States. In fact, anti-Blackness is a persistent feature of fascism in all its forms. But there is a long lineage of Black antifascists that still have things to teach us. When the House Un-American Activities Committee was first created, in May 1938, its chair,...
Read more »
Posted in Features, Interviews | Comments Off on “Recovering the Black Antifascist Tradition Means Recovering the Best Features of the Left in US History.” —Jeanelle Hope and Bill Mullen
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway’s sprawling Spanish Civil War novel first published in October 1940, is still among his most widely read books. It is also widely misunderstood, says Hemingway scholar Alex Vernon. Vernon teaches at Hendrix College (Arkansas), is the author of Hemingway’s Second War and two army memoirs, and has...
Read more »
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on “For Whom the Bell Tolls Is a Very Strange Book”—Alex Vernon, Hemingway Scholar
Earlier this year, we received an unexpected email from Karen Nussbaum, the legendary labor activist, asking to be put on the mailing list for the Volunteer. She explained that she’d read the magazine during a visit to her father, the actor Mike Nussbaum, a longtime ALBA supporter. One thing led to the other, and...
Read more »
Posted in Features, Interviews | Comments Off on Karen Nussbaum: “Good Organizing Means That You Don’t Tell People They’re Wrong.”