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But we shouldn't mistake this rage for self-loathing. Berlatsky is clearly full of affection & good humor for the traditions in which he was raised -- see his wordplay meditation on the nature of the law. He dreams of other ways out of our conditions but bombs & ethnic cleansing.

But classical fascism isn't his only target. As a Jewish man, Berlatsky is filled with rage at the atrocities now being committed in his name.

This bursts forth in the explosively titled "Shoah Bonus Round," a denunciation worthy of a prophet of the misuses of collective memory.

The poems are a mix of satire, elegy, & history. Few worthy targets escape their bite.

In the modernist composer Anton Weber, who had fascist sympathies but was banned by the Nazis, Berlatsky finds a sharp analogy to our own artists-gone-chud. Ironies abound at each line break.

For us, Soudah focuses on the cultural history of this age of starlets, who became famous across the Middle East and whose lives intersected with a crucial moment of its political & economic history.

It treats their origins, their rivalries, their industry, their struggles.

Diski identifies various fundamental problems with the Biden plan for decarbonization and other ecological goals: the paltry scale, the rebound effects, the entrenching & expansion of fossil interests, & above all the subordination of a green transition to "national security."

Despite the dramatic events since November, this is a story with important echoes beyond the USA.

Diski's main subject is the return to industrial policy -- a supposed overcoming of neoliberalism. Europe (& her native UK) took Biden as a model.

She's skeptical. Very skeptical.

You can also find Robertson's essay in print and beautifully laid out in Issue Four of the magazine, available now to print subscribers & in certain bookstores.

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In beautiful & sinuous prose, Robertson paints his own picture of not only Dowdell's itinerant and troubled life but of the whole social world that created him: the Black Bottom neighborhood he grew up in, Depression-era labor unrest & trainhopper camps, unseen 1930s underworlds.

But in his extract for Strange Matters, Robertson tells the tale of an earlier period in Dowdell's life: his origins in Detroit, and his wanderings through the Depression-era USA.

This is a story Robertson pieced together from unpublished manuscripts, interviews, & more.

Dowdell, the artist, enters the story of the book by painting the famous mural at the Shrine of the Black Madonna, which portrays the Virgin Mary and Jesus as Black.

The Shrine, led by the charismatic Albert Cleage, wasn't just a church: it was a hub of utopianism.

Aaron Robertson -- a literary critic, translator, essayist, & journalist -- was recently a judge for the International @thebookerprizes.bsky.social & shortlisted for the @penamerica.bsky.social Translation Award.

His work blends humanism, antifascism, & deep immersion in Black literary traditions.