Something Is Happening Here

Something Is Happening Here is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind, offering scenes from a pandemic—a series of dispatches from Kopkind’s far-flung network of participants, advisers, guests, and friends. Edited by Nation contributor and Kopkind program director JoAnn Wypijewski, it will appear weekly on thenation.com and kopkind.org.

Kopkind is a living memorial to radical journalist Andrew Kopkind, who from 1982–94 was the magazine’s chief political writer and analyst. For 20 years, the project, administered by Andy’s life partner, John Scagliotti, has held summer seminar/retreats to support and spark the work of political journalists, activists and, with the Center for Independent Documentary, filmmakers. “Only connect,” Andy liked to say, an idea that Kopkind fosters among groups that are diverse in identity and area of work but for whom dynamics of power and liberation, in their many forms, are always central.

‘Why Tell Me That We’re Safer Here?’

‘Why Tell Me That We’re Safer Here?’ ‘Why Tell Me That We’re Safer Here?’

Understanding community cultural perceptions of risk—the stories people tell themselves—is critical to understanding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Oct 28, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / Molly Bolick

Labor, Land, and Legacy: What New Might We Grow in the Shell of the Old?

Labor, Land, and Legacy: What New Might We Grow in the Shell of the Old? Labor, Land, and Legacy: What New Might We Grow in the Shell of the Old?

An immigrant family went from running a small restaurant to becoming small landlords. Amid pandemic uncertainty, their daughter wonders, What’s my place?

Oct 21, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / Nadia Maria Mohamed

A Woman’s Life

A Woman’s Life A Woman’s Life

Some 60,000 nursing home residents have died of the virus. How did they live?

Oct 14, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / JoAnn Wypijewski

Matthew Gossage with his new baby.

On the Road During a Pandemic, From Austin, Texas, to Metro D.C. On the Road During a Pandemic, From Austin, Texas, to Metro D.C.

You have a new baby, a 4-year-old, no child care, and family far away. How do you move cross-country without going inside anywhere?

Oct 7, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / Matthew Gossage

‘My People Are Being Hunted’

‘My People Are Being Hunted’ ‘My People Are Being Hunted’

Latinos, Covid, and the rising brown tide driving Arizona’s blue wave.

Sep 30, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / James E. Garcia

New Orleans mutual aid

‘Nobody Gets Left Behind’ ‘Nobody Gets Left Behind’

Mutual aid in practice, on both sides of the screen: a word collage.

Sep 23, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / A New Orleans Plague Pod

Mural

‘We Are Civilization’s Anchor. We Are the Compass for Humanity and Conscience.’ ‘We Are Civilization’s Anchor. We Are the Compass for Humanity and Conscience.’

In the midst of death, thinking about life, art, the water’s edge, and Paul Robeson.

Sep 16, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / Aja Beech

The Wrong Lesson

The Wrong Lesson The Wrong Lesson

Returning to “business as usual” on US campuses is not only a medical danger but also poor pedagogy.

Sep 9, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / Nathan Schneider

Covid Country Diary

Covid Country Diary Covid Country Diary

We left Manhattan for the Catskills in March; two months into the city’s lockdown, this rural county had the highest per capita number of new cases in the state.

Sep 2, 2020 / Something Is Happening Here / Laura Flanders

Letter From Seoul

Letter From Seoul Letter From Seoul

“South Korea is not looking to the US to show the way anymore.”

Aug 26, 2020 / no-paywall / Kristin R. Pak

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