Monday Reading is my weekly recommendation of something I’ve found thought-provoking or fascinating. Sometimes it is about something I have read. Sometimes it is about television or food or music or projects I care about supporting. Sometimes I do not send it on Monday. Please share with anyone who might like the vibes!
I am not doing a lot of writing these days, but there are a couple of things to share with you!
My friend Ted invited me to do a couple of short sidebars for Smithsonian Magazine, which were really fun to write, and both happened to be about organized labor.
“A City Within a Factory” is a sidebar for Luke Savage’s feature on the Flint general strike of 1937. (Scroll down or ctrl+f or whatever.) I got to do a dip into the social experience of the G.M. strike: the parallel society that strikers built within the factories, complete with rollerskating, service on a “kangaroo court” daily jury, and nightly concerts by workers’ orchestras.
For the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the US, I did a little piece about organized labor victories. It’s not online yet, but I just got my contributor copy, so here you go!
And in December, I published an essay on the history of Louisiana’s traveling electric chair, commissioned by the Historic New Orleans Collection (by Terri, who works there!). I learned so much about it while I was researching the essay that became “Jail on Wheels” that I wanted to write more about it.
"Jail on Wheels" is here!
In a collaboration with Half Letter Press and Mariame Kaba, with funding from the Rauschenberg Foundation, I have a new pamphlet with an essay about Jail on Wheels, a midcentury juvenile crime prevention program run by a New Haven County Sheriff who sent buses loaded with police gear and model electric chairs around the country, where they were seen by …
Thanks for reading. I think a lot about how much “more” I should be “doing” over here, not least because your paid subscriptions make a difference in my life. I’m working on it.
See you soon!