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Reflections On The Contingency of Language
Read more: Reflections On The Contingency of LanguageCigarette smoke drifts over the surface of the desk—the picture of [Pilate’s] wife when she still had her looks, the onyx box from Caesar, the clay plaque with the imprint of his first son’s hand on it, made while he was still a child in nursery school. Pilate squints at the man through the smoke…
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Original Fiction: Excerpt from “Sitting On The Knees of Gods”
Read more: Original Fiction: Excerpt from “Sitting On The Knees of Gods”Preface and Part 1 can be found here. II. “The guy you all are doing this party for is a writer.” Freddie opened the door of the stairwell of the apartment building for me. “Sterling Johnson’s his name. He’s set to have a novel come out this spring.” We entered the hallway from the…
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Episode 1 : Corinna Nicolaou of “One None Gets Some”
Read more: Episode 1 : Corinna Nicolaou of “One None Gets Some”Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of The Two Cities Podcast. It’s our hope that the podcast will be a place where any one listening can find something that will challenge or stimulate their thinking. As with the written portion of the site, we do think that your involvement as a reader can prove…
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The Two Cities Podcast Episode 1 Preview
Read more: The Two Cities Podcast Episode 1 PreviewMake sure you check out The Two Cities Friday October 11th to catch our interview with writer and thinker Corinna Nicolaou. Her project One None Gets Some has been garnering a lot of attention lately and in this episode of the podcast, we discuss, among other things, how the project came to be, how she deals with…
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The Illusion of Exceptionalism
Read more: The Illusion of ExceptionalismWe have been conditioned by society to think that we are exceptional people. By exceptional here, I mean that we believe we are the exceptions to the rule; that we are the diamond in the rough, the hero of a story in which the camera is always centered upon us. In essence, this means that…
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Original Fiction: Excerpt from “Sitting On The Knees of Gods”
Read more: Original Fiction: Excerpt from “Sitting On The Knees of Gods”“We are the people who leap in the dark, we are the people on the knees of the gods. In our very flesh, (r)evolution works out the clash of cultures. It makes us crazy constantly, but if the center holds, we’ve made some kind of evolutionary step forward.” …
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The Demands of Justice
Read more: The Demands of Justice“What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best, power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what…
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Fear Itself
Read more: Fear ItselfThis is a story about the stories we tell ourselves every time we turn on the television, and every time we leave our homes. They’re the stories we tell whenever we see someone and assume we know who they are, what they’re about, before we’ve met them, before we’ve heard the actual stories that make them who…
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Cheerios and the Case for a More Constructive Rhetoric
Read more: Cheerios and the Case for a More Constructive RhetoricLet me begin with a bit of full disclosure. I’m black. My wife is white. And we’re going to have our first child this summer. This commercial obviously hits close to home. That being said, the following post about the Cheerios commercial is, surprisingly, not going to be about race or the ensuing “shitstorm” it’s…
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Why 42 isn’t about race
Read more: Why 42 isn’t about raceNote: This review was written before professional basketball player Jason Collins came out as gay today in Sports Illustrated. I saw the movie 42 tonight, and I have to say, I kind of enjoyed it. Yes, I know it was extremely sentimental at some points. During certain scenes I could have sworn I was going…