The City of Boston is investing $40 million to create and preserve 718 units of affordable housing in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, Chinatown, Hyde Park, and Roxbury, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday. “[It’s] a huge number that we’re really excited to see make a difference,” Wu said in an interview with Spare Change News. The funded…
Arts & Culture
13 Ways of Looking At Death
1. I drive down Highway 80 and gaze at the landmarks you enjoyed when you were still alive. 2. The farm outside of St David, with grazing, tufted llamas behind a chain-link fence. 3. The roadside yucca tree that declined with each passing. It began lopsided, as if slightly drunk, but slumped more each month,…
13 Ways of Looking At Death
1. I drive down Highway 80 and gaze at the landmarks you enjoyed when you were still alive. 2. The farm outside of St David, with grazing, tufted llamas behind a chain-link fence. 3. The roadside yucca tree that declined with each passing. It began lopsided, as if slightly drunk, but slumped more each month,…
Champion of the Underdog: An Interview With Dolly Parton
“As a writer, I have to leave my heart open,” Dolly Parton begins. “That’s why I have always said I never could harden my heart, even against hurt or anything. Because as a writer, if you harden your heart, you’re not going to feel all that emotion you need to feel, and you won’t be…
‘Friends’ Star Inspired to Action by Friend’s Homelessness
David Schwimmer, former star of “Friends,” turned his artistic talent to telling stories that highlight the struggle of homeless people after discovering that his friend had been living on Skid Row, hiding his homelessness even from those who knew him best. Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “I had a friend who was homeless for two…
The Business of Fancy Dancing by Sherman Alexie: A Movie Review
“I’ve had sex with one Indian woman, 112 white boys, sixteen Black men, seven Asian men, three dudes of ambiguous ethnic identity, one really homely guy, and zero Native American men.” — Seymour Polatkin, poet. I just finished watching “The Business of Fancy Dancing” again and I feel as if this is one of the…
Columns
New Beginnings (Al Action Loves You)
Hello Family, It’s a new year with a new beginning. Happy Black History Month. Every day should be Black History Day. This country was built upon the backs of people of color due to the ingenious idea of slavery. In this country the color of my skin should not be a crime. So where…
Bizarre Boston: Raising Hell at Harvard
When I think about college students raising hell, I picture kegs of beer, red plastic Solo cups and loud music. Oh, and maybe a beer funnel or two. In my mind, the phrase “raising hell” is just a metaphor for having a wild time. However, maybe it’s not always just a metaphor. For some Harvard…
Uncertainties and Impermanence
My wonderful wife, Mary Esther, and I just returned from a visit with the surgeon who will be operating on her back. It’s much more involved than we thought it would be, and we are meditating every day just to help us cope. We’re trying to keep it in the day, but we can’t help…
LAST WORD: Christina Sukghian Houle
About a month ago, an artist called Christina Sukhgian Houle dropped into the Spare Change News’ headquarters to meet with some of the vendors. Christina has joined forces with the newspaper’s co-founder, James Shearer, with the goal of making a documentary on homelessness in the Boston area. Christina is a relatively recent transplant to Greater…
New Beginnings (Al Action Loves You)
Hello Family, It’s a new year with a new beginning. Happy Black History Month. Every day should be Black History Day. This country was built upon the backs of people of color due to the ingenious idea of slavery. In this country the color of my skin should not be a crime. So where…
New Beginnings (Al Action Loves You)
Hello Family, It’s a new year with a new beginning. Happy Black History Month. Every day should be Black History Day. This country was built upon the backs of people of color due to the ingenious idea of slavery. In this country the color of my skin should not be a crime. So where…
The Avoidable Crisis
Stanley Forman: 40 Years After the Soiling of Old Glory
The photo was chilling. Before a crowd of onlookers, a white man appears to be attempting to stab a black man with the tip of a flagpole. “It really showed racism,” said photographer Stanley Forman 40 years after he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning snapshot of an anti-busing protest that had turned violent. “It was whites…