genre: essay
The Box
downloadFrequent Drum contributor Steven Brykman strikes a serious tone in his essay "The Box" about a childhood visit to his older brother's residence in a home for people with autism. Brykman tells a dramatic story of his long-ago encounter with a frightening element of his brother's life, and muses on the nature of shared experience, isolation, and love.
Sling and Stone
downloadJonathan Starke's "Sling and Stone" looks at Michelangelo's David with the eyes of a bodybuilder--and finds poignant mortality in the timeless statue.
Assailing Otherness
downloadIn "Assailing Otherness," Katrina Grigg-Saito confronts the ultimate food taboo and survives to tell the tale. Grigg-Saito's essay explores the limits different cultures draw around what's approved and what's beyond the pale. Her experience of learning to cook in Laos begins with the desire to get to the heart of a culture and ends with a discovery about her own assumptions and willingness to set them aside.
LOUNGE LIT: TRANSGRESSIONS
If you missed the July 19 Transgressions event with The Drum, the Boston Book Festival, and WBUR, don't worry! We've got local writers Chris Abouzeid, Chris Castellani, Holly LeCraw, Ethan Gilsdorf, and Drum founding editor Henriette Lazaridis Power recorded from the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge, MA. Hear them read their short essays and stories about transgression, introduced and hosted by WBUR's Adam Ragusea. Law-breaking, rule-bending, convention-busting, paradigm-shifting. It's all here.
Green Card
downloadAine Greaney's essay "Green Card" recounts a trip to renew the eponymous card in Lawrence, MA. As her GPS tries to lead her to the INS office, Greaney meditates on the obstacles and miscommunications of the immigrant's experience. She thinks over her years in the United States, her departure from Ireland, and her sense of belonging to those who don't belong. Greaney's essay offers a thoughtful meditation on cultural and personal identity.
Fried Locusts
downloadKamela Jordan's "Fried Locusts" evokes a childhood spent in Thailand and a child's world of discovery, rivalrly, and allegiance. Jordan's essay hints at the ways in which the distinction between the exotic and the familiar blurs and shifts. Through a tale of children catching locusts to eat, she raises interesting questions about the nature of home.
