Ask an average group of twenty-somethings about the Ames music scene, and you’ll get a profusion of blank stares, followed by a long silence. Given a little more prompting, they might talk about our dearth of musical venues, the scarcity of all-ages shows, or the well-documented reluctance of promoters to book local bands. But if [...]

[Read more →]

In the final week of August 2004 in New York City, thousands gathered in Union Square to protest the Republican National Convention – the site of George W. Bush’s re-nomination – and their discontent over the president’s war in Iraq. The decidedly less-than-warm welcome resulted in the arrests of 1,806 people, a number unparalleled in [...]

[Read more →]

The House of Freaks was quite a letdown, let me tell you. The exterior was a big mural featuring all sorts of fantastical freaks, like a bearded lady who looked to weigh about 400 pounds and a lizard-headed man lifting a giant barbell with his forked tongue. The other three walls were unpainted plywood, held [...]

[Read more →]

The terms for the 2008 presidential election have been set: Barack Obama sets the agenda, determines the themes and introduces the vocabulary and John McCain responds by awkwardly and disingenuously parroting Obama’s agenda, themes and vocabulary. The most obvious and desperate example of this is the McCain campaign’s adoption of the “change” theme in the [...]

[Read more →]

Ryan Gerdes’ essay was originally published in issue 2.6. Read it here.
The Israeli-Palestinian war is a strange conflict: it inspires people to assume positions of impassioned and often radical advocacy, to make strident accusations and judgments, in spite of colossal ignorance. While defying most of the familiar paradigms of conflict and oppression, it is nonetheless [...]

[Read more →]

[Editor's note: Revised and updated for the Web.]
Since the twin towers collapsed in flames on the 11th of September, 2001, a state of fear and unease has inundated America’s psyche as the nation has turned its ear to Washington’s power players and the national news media for the latest on the fight against terror, tragically [...]

[Read more →]

Nick Lindsley, senior in Architecture at Iowa State University, sent Noam Chomsky an e-mail asking for a short interview. Chomsky replied and said that he was too busy at that time, but he encouraged Nick to write back to him in a year. Lindsley did just that; he waited a year to the day and [...]

[Read more →]

In the small town of Jena, Louisiana (population 3,000) a complicated civil rights debate has erupted. The story originated in September 2006, when a black student requested permission from school officials to sit under a tree in his schoolyard that was typically understood as being reserved for white students. Rightfully, he was told to sit [...]

[Read more →]

A boycott started by over 150 immigrant organizations across the country has targeted the money transfer giant Western Union. The boycott has criticized Western Union for charging immigrants excessive fees and non-standard exchange rates for money they send home. “We aim to get justice for immigrants and allow them to build the wealth that [...]

[Read more →]

I.
Here heavy, this ground. To be used
or called dirt. Call the dirt
whatever it grows. If nothing,
call it dirt. I am ready to be called
what I am. This undergrowth
will spread itself perversely-reach
out with sad avarice. Be ready to be
ready to pluck me. Be ready to be
unprepared-to see me act out my
obstinacy.
These reaches are always
reaching farther-through
thinning arms.
The [...]

[Read more →]