Arab-Americans Head for the Ballot Box

Express

On a cold morning in early April, six immigrant women in puffer coats, denim jackets, and headscarves gathered for a citizenship class at a center for Arab Americans in Bay Ridge.

The Brooklyn Young Mother’s Collective Counters Stereotypes About Teen Parenthood

Local

When Benita Miller, the 37 year-old founder of the Brooklyn Young Mother’s Collective, was growing up in Detroit, she didn’t know anyone who’d spent time in foster care. “People just took kids in,” she says.

The Man at the Office

Fiction

Looking in the mirror, she wondered if she could still even attract a man. Furrows made indentations between her eyebrows, and she knew that when she was tired it almost looked as if her face were in sections. When you married someone, these things weren’t supposed to matter. You were supposed to be able to grow old together. She remembered a story she once heard about one of her uncles.

The Art of Countering Despair: Naomi Wallace

Theater

Wallace: I think there is a misperception that I write solely about the Middle East. The majority of my work deals with other subjects, from the plague in 1665 England (One Flea Spare) to Communism in 1930s Alabama (Things of Dry Hours). The U.S. is warring and pillaging on various fronts all over the Middle East, and has been for many years.

Tom Doyle with Phong Bui

Art

On a sunny Saturday late morning this Spring, Rail Publisher Phong Bui paid a visit to the sculptor Tom Doyle’s home/studio in Roxbury, Conneticut, where he has lived with his wife Jane since 1992.

It Tolls for…

On the last Friday morning in April, upon hearing the verdict in the Sean Bell case, I had the worst of all possible reactions. Instead of outrage, I felt utter resignation. I even found myself saying things like, “the cops could shoot unarmed people 500 times and they still would not get convicted.”

Simon Frost with John Yau

Art

On the occasion of Simon Frost’s recent exhibit, Nimbus, at Peter Blum SoHo, which will be on view till May 10, 2008, the artist welcomed Rail Art Editor John Yau on-site to view his new body of work.

Richard Shiff with Katy Siegel

Art

Shiff: The Doubt project was first a set of lectures at the University of Cork (Ireland) and the publication includes a seminar discussion among faculty that followed there. Most of the participants characterized me as a phenomenologist, which is alright with me, because, after all, phenomenology is not about concepts—it’s about how things feel.