Writer and illustrator Ricardo Cortés presents a series of drawings referencing sugar, the slave labor central to its historic manufacture and the blue delft iconography of its early distributors.  More

On the anniversary of massive protests in Moscow ahead of Vladimir Putin’s third presidential inauguration, the writer and labor activist Kirill Medvedev shares a poem whose title derives from a nickname he was given by Russia’s secret police agency, the FSB.  More

Poet Tracy K. Smith responds to a historic photograph of Jamaican sugar plantation workers, on the occasion of Kara Walker’s A Subtlety…, presented by Creative Time at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory.  More

To accompany artist Kara Walker’s first large-scale public project, A Subtlety…, presented by Creative Time at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory from May 10 to July 6, novelist Edwidge Danticat explores labor conditions on contemporary sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic.  More

In the wake of the collapsed U.S.-led talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, comedian Negin Farsad asks why Americans accept the idea of a Jewish state but object to a Muslim state.  More