Halloween was a war against the dark, the dead, and the deities. In Celtic Ireland, where the tradition began, many people were druidic. They focused their worship on the spirits and gods of the natural world that they believed held their fate. In a world where their entire religion was based on nature and appeasing […]
Painters: Francisco Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Edvard Munch. Musicians: Ludwig van Beethoven, Chris Cornell, Ian Curtis, Chester Charles Bennington, Kurt Cobain. Writers: Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Hunter S. Thompson, David Foster Wallace, Anthony Bourdain, Sylvia Plath. All are artists who suffered emotional disorders, neurosis and breakdowns, and, in […]
Is there any more iconic imagery associated with October and Halloween than the classic witch sailing through the skies atop a broom, beneath a bright full moon? Despite its tragic past and condemnation from puritanical pilgrims of the past, we are fascinated by witchery. For this piece, I sought a well-versed soul on the topic […]
1. HER WEB It looks like a wheel of diamonds you said. My eyes moved to the corner of the porch where you had noticed the spider, bigger than any I’d ever seen, finishing a hoop of her web. A barn spider, an orb weaver, you said. Harmless to us, despite the look of her, […]
The following is a sequel to the author’s piece, Bruja, from the last issue. I first bonded with my mysterious neighbor, Flor, over our communal care for local stray cats. The decrepit garage we kept them in became a shared point of contact and a sacred space where we would cross paths at feeding times […]
OPEN A new, family-owned restaurant, Cielito Mexican Kitchen, opened last month. A friend and I (Motif assistant editor Mara Hagen) accidentally stumbled upon this little corner spot late one night, hungry, and looking for something other than Fellinis. We discovered Cielito at 186 Union St, PVD. We easily devoured their delicious guacamole and a quesadilla, […]
There are not many who can claim to have fought for and saved lives in both medicine and the arts. Dr. Joseph A. Chazan was a rare individual, whose dedication in both the fields of art and medical science left an indelible mark on the lives he touched and the communities he nurtured. After his […]
Whether observing All Hallows’ Day, Yom Kippur, or el Día de Muertos, we have many cultural traditions associated with honoring the recently departed. Ants too, meticulously care for each other and safeguard against infection within their nests, cleaning each other and removing the dead to prevent contagion. The evolution of social immunity and its ties […]
Founded as a beacon of “hope,” Providence Plantations provided refuge from religious persecution, establishing a colony where settlers could worship freely, independent from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Today, Providence remains a city where history and the supernatural intertwine, from the gravesite of famed horror writer HP Lovecraft to ghostly sightings at centuries-old institutions. Whether you’re […]
“You see that train down there?” My brother Derek said. His face was pressed against the window. “It’s a trainyard. There are tons of trains down there.” I replied, refusing to look up from my book. I had a mountain of homework to do and did not have time for his nonsense. “No, no! It’s […]