I joined Teach for America in 2010 near the peak of its prestige — ~60,000 applications, some 10% of Harvard's graduating class went into the corps it was hard work for low pay, but it also felt deeply meaningful, paid off a good chunk of my student loans, gave me a huge social network in a brand new city, and then made every single job I've ever had since seem easy in comparison. no research or report or analysis will ever compare to trying to figure out how to get 34 kids at one time up to grade level on reading. I'm grateful for it since then, the prestige of public service has been eroded at both ends. TFA first came under fire from the left for its optics, the idea that kids at elite schools would go teach in low-income classrooms held to be problematic, despite yearly teacher shortages numbering in the tens of thousands. since then, the entire edifice of public service has been in the crosshairs of the right for its ideological commitments all of which makes me think that in the vacuum created by a bad job market, polarization, internet poisoning, etc., making public service cool again seems like a valuable centrist and American project. I don't have a blueprint for how to do this, but I think we could use one

BLR's Weekly Read brings you one outstanding story, poem, or essay from our archive. This week's read—the story "White Space" by @AmandaMcCormick—recalls the chaos and confusion in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Learn more: blreview.org/blog/weekly-rea…

When I was a kid I listened to the constant sound of ⁦@bobdylan⁩ playing in Shane’s room. This would mean the world to him ❤️ Bob Dylan performs The Pogues' 'A Rainy Night in Soho' live in Phoenix | Hotpress hotpress.com/music/bob-dylan…

whenever someone tells me they got a DUI i ask them what song they were listening to & i’ve compiled a playlist with everyone’s song so far

Your password must contain two characters who talk to each other about something other than a man

I like to test doors to see if they’ll open. My policy is that an unlocked door is a policy to enter. Thread of places I’ve been by walking into unlocked rooms:

my hot take is that everyone needs to be friends with people significantly younger and significantly older than themselves. you miss out on a lot of the richness of rewarding human connection by only socialising with people who are approximately the same age as you

a fitted sheet in the dryer with other clothing is the nastiest bitch you’ll ever meet. she can’t wait for you to open up that dryer and see that she’s weighing 100lbs soaked

teenagers should be forced to listen to punk music. no seventeen year old who fucks with the buzzcocks does annoying shit like found a tech startup

Happy birthday Tracy. Hope to see you again sometime.

If NYC ever fully collapses in some kind of apocalypse situation I’m down at the Astor Place subway station on day 1 ripping these tiles out of the wall for my home museum

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon

me & the paragraph the editor wants me to delete

This article title goes extremely hard

Wait she’s NOT??

When you're running for the door in the rain Read the metro section Read the metro section Read the metro section See my name

Nick Drake

The Robert Mapplethorpe photo of Television before Richard Lloyd put it through the colour copier. Courtesy Sheila O’ Keefe Lloyd

women in PHLEGM (poetry, history, language, english literature, ghost stories, music)