“For Kane, as for James Brown, Hendrix, Coltrane, Beethoven (Black, caucasianized for the record), and other new music makers, here the future of music (dope) meets Black life's particularly present-day dick­-downs (dog food).”

“The scene now is one of club kids who don't even have a 'fuck the rules' men­tality — they don't know any rules to fuck. They manage to combine a youthful, energetic wholesomeness with a jaded sense of decadence, as typified by their major domo, 22-year-old Michael Alig”

“At his best, Joseph Campbell was merely one of the greatest popu­lar writers on mythology who ever lived.”

“Verta maintains that the Gullah, who originally spoke a language they called Ngulla, were from Angola and that in prehistory — you know, when the continents were all at­tached — what is now South Carolina was joined to what is now Angola”

“People who don't know any better think Gullah people talk funny. Those in the know realize that Gullah is a bona fide dialect and are confident in the scholarly thesis that 'Gullah' is a contrac­tion of 'Angola.'”

“Hughes was the first black American writer many of us ever read... and his career re­mains an inspiring model for black writers determined to make a living solely from their work.”

“For nearly two weeks the Singer-Swapps — a family of fundamentalist Mormons — barricaded themselves in their cabin and, armed with an arsenal of handguns, ri­fles, and sawed-off shotguns, held off an army of county deputies and federal agents. On the 13th day, the standoff erupted into a gun battle that left one officer dead.”

“After 50 years on the fringes, the Ukraine famine debate is finally front and center.”

“Rakim's persona is that of a sagacious gangster, like Miles Da­vis's ... We're talking about that school of self-confirmed bad-assed-ness, where you don't need spectators to know you're looking sugarshit sharp. Drop Miles or Rakim on the moon, they'd still be chilly-most”

“It’s time to judge him for who he is and what he is doing, rather than forever anticipating what he may become. This is the story of one test of Mario Cuomo’s government: its ethics”