Travel

Jo Freeman writes: I went to that party after writing this story in a tent sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which has comfortable couches and free drinks. The AAM is an alliance of the National Association of Manufacturers and several unions, including the United Auto Workers, of which I am a member (via Local 1981 — the National Writers Union). Their slogan is KEEP IT MADE IN AMERICA. The Donald might agree with that. more »

"Political conventions attract strange bedfellows. Over the weekend preceding the Republican Convention, two other conventions met to talk about issues that were almost polar opposites to those of the Republicans. Both were held in black Baptist churches. The traditional Sunday protest march was small and peaceful."    more »

Regarded as one of Brazil's most accomplished contemporary artists, Varejão often references cultural and historic research through an intense investigation into anthropology, colonial trade, demography, and racial identity. She is especially influenced by theories of mestizaje (a term for the mixing of ancestries) and cultural anthropophagy — as proposed by the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade. more »

Sonya Zalubowski writes: Seafood, seafood, seafood. As if you'd need another reason to want to visit Martha's Vineyard, the small, picturesque island off Massachusetts' Cape Cod. It is nearly inundated by tourists come summer with a population that swells by more than six times to over 100,000. I had the good fortune to visit in mid-May, right before the crowds, to tour the awakening island with chef Christopher Gianfreda who had returned for his seventh season of cooking here. more »