by Camila Perez ’26 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz I cried the first time I read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and you will too. Through the use of colorful, Dominican Spanglish and profound historical insight, Junot Díaz invites us into the vibrant lives of Oscar, Lola, and their…
Category: Criticism
DOWN Reads
By Kaity Chandrika Babel by R.F. Kuang I like books that live up to what the back cover promises—this is absolutely one of them. It’s a new-age dark academia tour-de-force (560 pages, but worth it) that focuses its commentary on the conquest of languages. R.F. Kuang’s Yale PhD research in East Asian Studies beautifully informs…
unauthorized syllabi: seven
a bi-weekly column by michelle ampofo ‘25 managing editor ✶✶✶ ALL THINGS MUST GO This column is mostly recommendations this week because I’ve abandoned thought, though not consideration. But first, a word. We’re so close to the end of the school year. SO close. But I feel increasingly contained and uninspired. So I want to…
DOWN Reads
This week features recommendations from Chidima Anekwe ’24, our wonderful Co-Editor-in-Chief. Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur If you’ve given up on appealing to moral sense…One of the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists,” Assata Shakur writes of her personal history and her rise as a political activist with ties to the Black Panther Party and the…
Fighting The Climate Crisis Requires Dismantling Capitalism
By Sebastian Ward ’26 “Our world is dying,” or any variation of the phrase, perfectly characterizes the reformist nature of the current climate change movement, and can also offer insight as to why it has been unsuccessful. Our world is not dying, our world is being killed. The people with the blood on their hands…