Sea and city: Beirut 2004. By Amira Pierce. In a city with few public parks, the Corniche Beirut is a perfect gathering place, a seaside promenade open to everyone. It’s where big luxury hotels meet everyday Lebanese, on broad walkways and dark rocks along the lapping Mediterranean. Today, as the sun sinks toward the water,...
“Midge was, as all Mattel’s toys and books and marketing materials identified her, ‘Barbie’s Best Friend’— not simply herself. She never even had an essay written especially for her till now.” Spend some time palling around with Midge, Barbie’s best friend, and Barbie fan/scholar Susann Cokal. Besides being a literary critic, novelist, teacher, and Broad Street‘s editorial...
By Abby Otte. When people attempt to sum me up for a stranger, it usually goes something like this: “Abby is tall and blonde.” My parents like to say that when I was born I came out all limbs. My arms and legs stretched from my body like taffy. As I aged I used them...
The third issue of Broad Street has been out for a year, filled with tales of troubles, vexations, irritations and curses. “Bedeviled” features essays and assorted musings by D. J. Lee, Alan Cheuse, Carol Moldaw, Ramsey Hootman, and Glenn H. Shepard, Jr.; poetry from Lisa Allen Ortiz, Richard Peabody, and Lea Marshall; photography by John Moser, James Prochnik, and Chad...
For this weekend’s read, we’re in a throwback mood and recommending John Jeremiah Sullivan’s 2012 piece for the New York Times Magazine, “My Multiday Massage-a-thon.” In the piece, Sullivan, the author of the 2011 essay collection Pulphead and contributor to publications such as The Paris Review and GQ, first declares himself something of a massage...