Oct 21, 2021On Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer”: Picking The Low-Hanging Fruitby Max S. Gordon “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptors, poets, musicians. As far as I’m concerned, it’s their choice. But I choose to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself. That to me is my…Dave Chappelle27 min read
Jul 19, 2021Witnessing the Blues: The Black Body In Perpetual Motionby Max S. Gordon (This essay originally appeared in “Imagining: A Gibney Journal, #5”, published by the Gibney Company Community Center on May 5, 2021.) I got the key to the highway, Billed out and bound to go I’m gonna leave here running Because walking is most too slow…” — Sonny Terry and Brownie…Dance9 min read
Published in Human Parts·Feb 15, 2021Approach This World With Wonder: A Black Son Remembers His FatherI could tell you he was a bully, but that wouldn’t be the whole story — “Friends depart, and memory takes them to her caverns, pure and deep.” — Thomas Haynes Bayly 1 The last time I visited my father, I said goodbye to him at the airport in the town where he lived. …This Is Us26 min read
Jan 18, 2021Aftermath: Surviving As A Nation After Donald J. TrumpBy Max S. Gordon Look down, look down that lonesome road, Before you travel on. –That Lonesome Road, Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915–1973) This is America. — Childish Gambino 1 I suppose it was inevitable that one day it would come to this, that racism would meet itself traveling down that lonesome road. Witnessing it has…Donald Trump19 min read
Published in Human Parts·Oct 9, 2020How We’ll Get Over: Going to the Upper Room With Donald J. TrumpWhite America may be meeting Donald Trump for the first time, but Black people have known him for centuries — “Wade in the water, wade in the water, Children. God’s gonna trouble the water.” — Traditional “My soul looks back and wonders, how I got over.” — Mahalia Jackson 1 Months ago, I turned on the TV and saw a white mom at a protest in Portland dragged across the pavement…Donald Trump19 min read
Published in Human Parts·Jul 20, 2020The Eroticism of BrutalityOn Mary Trump’s ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man’ — 1.Several years ago, after a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, I took a walk in Central Park with a woman I’d met only a few weeks before. We were mourning a mutual friend who had recently died of alcoholism. She and Alan had been friends since childhood; I’d only known him…Donald Trump28 min read
Feb 15, 2020On Mayor Bloomberg and The Republican National ConventionBy Max S. Gordon (This essay was originally published on September 10, 2004 as “An Open Letter to Paul Wellstone”. It was written in response to the arrests made during the Republican National Convention in New York City) 1 Senator Wellstone: I will not go on about the curious timing…Max S Gordon15 min read
Dec 22, 2019Dear Kim and Kanye, Stop F**king With Us: On Cultural Appropriation and the Commodification of Black Painby Max S. Gordon Messin’ round with the best of them Digressing with the rest of them, He’s a stranger. But his mama still knows his name. “Sylvester”, Sly & The Family Stone 1 The day after it was announced that the president of the United States had been impeached, I awoke to an image…Music26 min read
Published in LEVEL·Dec 8, 2019This Boy Wonder: On Race, Homosexuality, and the Buttigieg DilemmaAs a gay man, I can appreciate what it means for an out gay man to be a real Democratic contender — but as a black man, things are much more complicated. — This essay contains spoilers from James Baldwin’s 1962 novel, Another Country. 1. For months I’ve hesitated to write about Pete Buttigieg because I wasn’t sure how to articulate exactly what I felt. My ambivalence toward him is based on my own racial and sexual identities. I asked myself at one…Pete Buttigieg33 min read
Nov 14, 2019Where We’re Going, Where We Are: On Harriet Tubman, Wal-Mart and The North Starby Max S. Gordon (The piece premiered at the First Person Plural Reading Series: What Just Happened? Writers Respond to Our American Crises — 2019 Edition, Harlem, New York, November 10, 2019.) FOR AN AUDIO VERSION OF THIS ESSAY, CLICK HERE: 1 Before you can decide where you are going…Racism14 min read