Category: Monthly Review Press Blog

The Devil’s Milk Trilogy: Theater from Akron’s New World Performance Laboratory

The Devil’s Milk Trilogy: Theater from Akron’s New World Performance Laboratory

I never knew is a common refrain New World Performance Laboratory theater artists are hearing from Akron audience members after open rehearsals of Death of a Man, a new play that brings to life the mutilations and massacres that occurred in the early 1900s during the mad search for rubber in the jungles of the Amazon.

The one-man show, which is still in development, is conceived and performed by Colombian actor Jairo Cuesta, co-artistic director of NWPL. It is the first part of the company’s The Devil’s Milk Trilogy, a long-term project funded by a $15,000 Knight Foundation grant that explores Akron’s relationship with rubber….

In the Baltimore/DC area? Come hear Gerald Horne at Red Emma’s, Sankofa Bookstores, April 15 & 16

In the Baltimore/DC area? Come hear Gerald Horne at Red Emma’s, Sankofa Bookstores, April 15 & 16

Baltimore, April 15, 7:30 pm: Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse (30 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201)
Washington, DC, April 16, 3:00 pm: Sankofa Video Books & Cafe (2714 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001)
Monthly Review Press author Gerald Horne will discuss and sign his book, Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic

Imperialism in the 21st Century reviewed in the UK’s Weekly Worker

Imperialism in the 21st Century reviewed in the UK’s Weekly Worker

Has imperialism changed since Lenin wrote his seminal work, Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, exactly 100 years ago? Two new books on imperialism by British Marxists help us to answer that question. The first, by Tony Norfield (The City – London and the global power of finance published by Verso Books), looks at the ‘centre’ of imperialism in the major financial hubs of mature capitalist economies. He analyses the ‘superstructure’ of modern imperialism, if you like. In the second, John Smith (Imperialism in the 21st century, published by Monthly Review Press) looks at the foundations of exploitation under modern imperialism in the ‘periphery’. These books thus complement each other and offer new insights into the economic nature of imperialism that bring Lenin’s work up to date.

Harvesting celery = 8 hours football practice …… Lettuce Wars reviewed in Science & Society

Harvesting celery = 8 hours football practice …… Lettuce Wars reviewed in Science & Society

In Lettuce Wars, Bruce Neuburger tells the story of his experience as a volunteer farm labor organizer with the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) in Salinas, California, during a ten-year period beginning in the spring of 1971. Lettuce Wars is a memoir, but the author’s fascinating personal story never overshadows the history of the farmworkers movement that it also documents.