Seeking a Politics of Solidarity in Putin’s Russia

In a Country Where Nothing Changes, a 23-Year-Old Finds Hope Outside the Electoral System

In 2013, when I was 13, one of the oldest comedy TV programs in Russia released a sketch in which a group of musicians performed a version of Queen’s “I Want to Break Free” satirizing the country.

The lyrics went: “The roads in this country are like cars in this country. Like the salaries, the football, the communal services, and, of course, the cinema …” When Freddie Mercury sang “God knows,” it was twisted to sound like the Russian equivalent of “shit.”

As the audience laughed, another actor approached the band to …

More In: Chronicles

Sky Song

 

Sky’s lit today. it’s
    all moody and shit
heavy with a pregnant
  tint. we’re curved under the clouds
       in the verge of moisture

    nervous behind its refusal

On the Campaign Trail With a Russian Antiwar Candidate

Thousands of People Came Out to Support Boris Nadezhdin’s Presidential Run. They Refuse to Lose Hope

In December 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. It had long been clear that he had plans to aim for his fifth …

Untitled

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this is a pileated wooden ball
dropped in a wooden bowl
this is a woodchip guitarpick
lost down the sound hole

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plumber has him
his own ideas
about beauty
eyes worked …

Fractured Hero’s Journey

 

We went on a 12-sparrow walk

so I could teach my soul to speak.
    (Jim Harrison said this
          is the language of poetry.)

(Few things scare me as much as …

A kite with the image of a cartoon dragon flies across the blue sky.

faddoms

Read and listen to the poem in Shetlandic Scottish below. Scroll down to read the modern English translation.

 

faddom du dis fur me
da lies o da feddir​​​
maunna makk​​​​
da …