Contributing writer
Olivia G. Oldham
Latest Content
Poorly Drawn Noses
Comics are defined by rules: sequence, the presence of panels, cartoonish drawing. The comics that I like best are those that kaleidoscope the form — distorting it, playing with it, and breaking it.
Awnit Marta
His first name alone — Awnit — reflects his family’s history: “My name is spelled with a ‘W’ ... [and] in Dutch, the W is pronounced as a V. So in British English or American English, it would be written with a V — that in itself speaks to who I am.”
A Clean Start?
The structure of Harvard’s pre-orientation programs, some students argue, divides those who can forgo a paycheck from those who cannot.
Breaking and Entering
The ladder was decades old and rusted over. It clung to the side of the building; I had nowhere to fall except the neighbor’s backyard, five stories below.
Migratory Language
Yiddish belongs to many, exists all over, and yet, as Feldman notes, “Students can’t go study abroad in a Yiddish land.” It is now considered a language of migration and marginality.
Harvard’s Free University
Free schools were cropping up across the country, promising the kind of free-access, progressive education conventional institutions seemed to lack.
When ‘He’ Isn’t God Anymore
It’s 1971 at the Harvard Divinity School and someone has just referred to God as a man. In response, several dozen students pick party noisemakers off their desks and blow. They fill the room with high-pitched, fart-like squawks.
Notes from the Underground Bells
The bell ringers remain patient, awaiting the day they can return to their perch in Lowell. Until then, they are content with their humble practice set and the memory of their former glory.