After converting a 30-year-old Chevy G20 van into the Twenty Stories bookmobile in 2017, Alexa Trembly and Emory Harkins drove around Los Angeles sweltering through summer highs, some days struggling to sell as many as three books. While relocating in 2018 to Rhode Island, where Harkins grew up, their van broke down in the desert […]
During October 1918, the Providence Public Library closed for three weeks on account of the influenza pandemic, known as the Spanish flu. That year, the outbreak claimed the lives of 941 Providence residents, and another 1,365 people across Rhode Island. In The Providence Journal, the city’s health superintendent suggested: “Keep at arm’s length from everybody,” […]
The 34 poems in I Gotta Tell You Something are the result of a three-year-long creative writing workshop run by award winning writer, B Lucy Stevens. The workshop, which consisted of 13 participants between the ages of 18 and 60, met weekly. The participants didn’t have much writing experience, so Stevens got their creativity and […]
When Elizabeth Rush arrived in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2008, she dwelled on the former capital’s colonial buildings. For nearly a century, the British Empire claimed and governed the city as Rangoon and its greater territory as British Burma. The independent union, federating more than 100 distinct ethnic groups and languages into seven states, fell with […]
Around the world, shared-reading programs bring communities together to experience a single work of literature. Canada’s public broadcaster sponsors a nationwide Canada Reads campaign. In Dublin, Ireland, One City, One Book welcomes readers into a narrative tied to the city. As Ocean State residents begin a new year by collectively opening Rising: Dispatches from a […]
It’s winter in New England. Plan a local getaway to take in some books with a side of beers. After you read our feature (motifri.com/riffraffturns2) and Q&A (motifri.com/ramadanroberge) on PVD favorite Riffraff, give some thought as to whether you’d prefer to pair your poetry with a pilsner or a porter at these spots: Elements: Books […]
On December 7, Riffraff bookstore and bar (60 Valley St. #107A, PVD) celebrated its second anniversary (see story motifri.com/riffraffturns2. Sean Carlson interviewed cofounders Emma Ramadan and Tom Roberge for Motif. Sean Carlson (Motif): What duos or tag-teams have you admired? Any parallels you see in yourselves? Emma Ramadan: I greatly admire husband-wife translator teams, such […]
Note: Read a Q&A with Rifffraff cofounders Emma Ramadan and Tom Roberge at motifri.com/ramadanroberge In 1773, well before Olneyville became a Providence neighborhood, Christopher Olney established a place for paper production along the Woonasquatucket River. The Brown George Paper Mill passed to his sons, only to sell at public auction due to financial distress. In […]
When Poindexter Coffee opened off the lobby of the Graduate Providence hotel (formerly the Biltmore, 11 Dorrance St, PVD) in May 2019, its interior included literature as part of its aesthetic. Vintage hardcovers crisscross both sides of the fireplace, leaving guests a chance to thumb a classic edition of This Side of Paradise by F. […]
Bethany White hated the holidays, although she pretended to love them. She was, despite her name, the daughter of two Long Island conservative Jews. When the first Christmas carols hit the airwaves after Thanksgiving, she snarled through gritted teeth, but smiled. Her humbuggery only became an issue after college, when she moved to Rhode Island. […]