Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Alice Rothchild: Boston's Dr. Peace
Alice Rothchild’s work bears witness to life in Israel and Palestine. Through her regularly updated blog, her book (Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience), and forthcoming documentary film (Voices Across the Divide), Rothchild offers an alternative to the biased portrayals of the Holy Land presented in the mainstream media.…
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Women & Poverty in Bangladesh
Kalpana Rani Pal’s pottery business is modest by any yardstick, but it is small enterprises like these that are helping reduce poverty levels in Bangladesh. “I earn about Bangladeshi taka 6,000 ($72) a month from selling the earthenware I make,” said Kalpana, 34, who is glad she enrolled for a three-month pottery-making course run…
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Minimum Wage Forum in Boston
Raising the minimum wage isn’t for the purpose of helping workers to afford luxuries, it’s for the necessities, said acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris during a town-hall style discussion with low-wage workers on Feb. 28 at a family service center in Boston. “It’s not go-to-the movies money,” Harris told the two dozen…
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Super PACs and Female Candidates
The landmark Supreme Court case: Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission established that government cannot restrict independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. While this strongly impacts all candidates for congress, women campaigning for public office have felt the blunt end of the 2010 court decision. Three of the nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices are…
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Breaking the Silence of Extreme Poverty
The Center for Social Policy at UMass, the International Fourth World Foundation, Project Serve, and UMass Boston’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion cosponsored a conference at UMass on March 12. The conference featured several co-authors of a recently published book, Not Meant to Live Like This: Weathering the Storm of Our Lives in New Orleans.…
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Brother Blue Honored at Cambridge Public Library
A familiar sight in Cambridge for decades, Brother Blue is gone now but not forgotten. Before his death in 2009, the local storyteller, who was the Official Storyteller of both Cambridge and Boston, could be spotted all around Cambridge in his trademark blue beret and clothing, always adorned with butterfly pins and pendants. On March…
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RIP Boston Phoenix
When this issue of SCN hits the streets, it will also be the same week for the last issue of the Phoenix. I think I nearly lost my breath when I found out that after 47 years, one of my favorite papers would be closing its doors. I started reading the Phoenix when I first…
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Spring Funding Appeal
The recent demise of the Boston Phoenix has left many Bostonians wondering what will be the fate of progressive independent journalism in the Greater Boston area. Spare Change News is here to stay. The Homeless Empowerment Project has been publishing Spare Change News, the country’s longest continuously running street paper, for 21 years with the…
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Playing the Feminist Card
A cat token voted into the game of Monopoly is very cool—but Parker Bros. still got trumped, because the hottest deal in game design now is the newly minted Feminist Playing Cards. These decks are portable, playable art collections, encompassing both illustrative and musical adventures. A discussion of Missy Elliott’s efforts on behalf of strays,…
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Jose Mateo's "How Do I Love Thee" Reviewed
I went to the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre on a Saturday night, February 23rd, and was really taken back not only by the performance, but also by the complementary atmosphere of the theatre. I personally have never been to a ballet before, aside from some of my sisters’ small recitals I involuntarily attended as a…
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