Created by author Noah Hawley, Fargo is a television series inspired by the Coen Brothers’ film of the same name. Each season features a new cast and story, which all follow a group of peculiar characters who get embroiled in crime and murder around the general Minnesota area.
With a fourth season on the way, Hawley is revealing some behind-the-scenes secrets in the form of a new book. Entertainment Weekly reported that Fargo: This Is A True Story will give fans an inside look at some of the show’s lore.
Image Via Amazon
Among the stuff included in the book are script excerpts, cast interviews and exclusive pictures related to each season. There are also some reference to various mysteries from the show that were never solved when the seasons concluded.
Image Via Entertainment Weekly
Fargo: This Is A True Story released October 8th. Season four of Fargo begins production later this year.
For the non-poetry reader, finding ways to celebrate National Poetry Month can be hard. We’re making it easier for you to find your next favorite book while also celebrating the beautiful art of poetry!
After the death of her father, Layken moves away from sunny Texas to snow-ridden Michigan with her brother and mother. She immediately finds love in their neighbor, Will Cooper. Will introduces Layken to the wonderful world of slam poetry through an open mic night at a local club. Though their relationship gets more and more complicated, their love for poetry remains true through the book and its sequels.
Sixteen-year-old Bri dreams of becoming a rapper and ultimately making it out of her neighborhood. Before his death, her father was “an underground rap legend” leaving Bri with some big shoes to fill. The book is filled with fresh rhymes written by Angie Thomas herself, leaving readers inspired and with a renewed love of music.
Published after his death, the book chronicles the poetry Shakur wrote from the time he was a teenager. Each poem is filled with the most intimate of thoughts and emotions. These poems will speak to each of his fans and fill them with the Shakur’s spirit, energy, and hope for a better future.
Hopkins has a unique way of telling her story, using lines of poetry instead of prose to convey the narration. The book chronicles the disturbing relationship between Kristina and her monster. Kristina is inspired by Hopkins’ own daughter, while the monster is crystal meth or ‘crank’. Kristina is introduced to the drug after a visit with her father. Under the influence, she turns into her “sexy alter-ego ‘Bree’.” The book is sure to provoke an emotional response and inspire a love of poetry.
After her debut Speak, which touched upon the very serious effects of sexual assault, not much has changed. Shout is her response to the continued fight to end sexual assault. These poems are thought-provoking, personal anecdotes by Anderson. If Speak didn’t make you angry, Shout is sure to have you screaming. The book is filled with “reflections, rants, and calls to action” all written in free-verse to inspire the activist in you.
Do you have a favorite poetry book not found on this list? Let us know!
Equal rights activists, artists, and married couple Gillie and Marc Schattner are bringing gender-balanced public art to global cities with their new initiative, “Statues for Equality,” which aims to introduce statues of living women to cities that favor statues of male figures (so, most cities). New York will be the first city to display 10 of the artist-couple’s statues, all of which will pay tribute to living women. Authors among these women will include renowned public figures Oprah Winfrey (author of What I Know for Sure) and Jane Goodall (author of In the Shadow of Man).
According to the couple’s website, fewer than 3% of public statues in New York depict women, and even fewer depict historical women who made or are making significant contributions to society—as opposed to children’s book characters. Writers, world leaders, researchers, and more will debut at 1285 Avenue of the Americas on August 26th, 2019.
A statue of Eleanor Roosevelt sits at West 72nd Street and Riverside Park. Image Via Wikipedia Commons.
Gillie and Marc are perhaps best known for their widely popular sculpture The Last Three, a massive work featuring three life-sized northern white rhinos stacked precariously on top of one another that was installed at Astor Place and which was intended to immortalize the three remaining northern white rhinos in the world. (Since the statue’s debut, the last male northern white rhino has died while two females are still alive; all three are depicted in the sculpture.) The statue is now located at the San Antonio Zoo in Texas. According to their website, Gillie and Marc have nicknamed themselves “the world’s most loving artists” due to their tendency to focus on humanitarian causes in their work.
Gillie and Marc’s Astor Place installation ‘The Last Three.’ Image courtesy of Gillie and Marc Schattner.
In addition to Goodall and Winfrey, the summer installation will also feature Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, P!nk, Tererai Trent, Janet Mock, Tracy Dyson, Cheryl Strayed, and Gabby Douglas. You may recognize Harriet Tubman (St. Nicholas Avenue and West 122nd Street) and Joan of Arc (West 93rd Street in Riverside Park) as two of the existing five statues of historical women figures in the city—sculptures depicting fictional figures include Alice from Alice in Wonderlandand Fearless Girl.
There are no plans for the statues to remain permanently at 1285 Avenue of the Americas after the exhibition closes, but the team’s website emphasizes that Statues for Equality is a global initiative, and the sculptures will likely travel. Gillie and Marc will expand their initiative to other cities after the New York launch and are still accepting nominations from the public for future statues.
Healing, like creativity, is a process; there is no on/off switch. It flows like a river, sporadically obstructed by nature and chance. Shit happens—emotionally, spiritually, physically, we get hurt and we turn to various outlets to heal. People exercise, meditate, cleanse, float in some sort of sensory reduction tank (because apparently, that’s a thing), and others create. Regarding books, I do not mean to exclude the reader from this act of creation. There’s a well-known quote by Samuel Johnson circling our illustrious world wide web that says: “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
Look at that face, that’s a solid blue steel. Image Via Wikipedia
The reader fills in all the blanks—I know this because of all the literary theory classes those college people made me take…Reading allows the human mind to escape the limitations our so-called realities place upon it. Creating is the same. In the moment, your creation feels like all that matters. But it’s still about more than just you.
A local news station in Cleveland recently did a piece on a homeless man who enjoys drawing as a means to cope with his own limitations. Eugene Sopher draws pages for a coloring book that, due to Sopher’s precarious financial situation, may never be published. To Sopher, that doesn’t matter.
“I do this drawing, and it’s medicine, baby,” said Sopher. “I’m in the zone. Not trying to mix it with drugs, but it’s the best high I’ve ever had.”
His lack of finances and exposure have led to some unconventional PR methods: he relies on strangers to make copies for him so that he may share is art with the world. The wide variety of pages he has created contain lessons for young and old alike. Some of his pictures warn about the dangers of gang violence or meeting strangers online, and others aim to simply put a smile on your face. Sopher, who suffers from depression and bipolar disorder, has not had an easy life. He has felt the weight of the world and the resulting discombobulation. At forty-four years young, he spends a good amount of time drawing uncolored pages so that he can escape any personal grimness and help his readers.
“I can do something because if they’re reading that, they can say, ‘You know what? That happened to me. Oh, you what know, I went through that,” said Sopher. “A lot of the reason I keep my cartoons in black and white is it gives you a chance to put color to them.”
Sopher’s story and art remind us that creativity is not some sort of commodity purchased in the restricted section of society. It’s not exclusively available to those deemed ‘intellectual.’ It’s part of all of us, a silver lining that bridges the gap between reality and perception, body and soul. Regardless of one’s age, race, or gender—whether it be the lawyer who journals in her free time or the homeless man who lives to doodle—we are all connected by imagination and our ability to create.
Following the huge success of the movie IT and the excitement for the upcoming Pet Semetary, Stephen King’s The Stand is being adapted as a TV mini-series. The Stand will include approximately ten episodes and will be available on CBS all access.
Image Via Highlight Hollywood
The Stand will be directed by Josh Boone, who is huge fan of King.. When asked about the work in progress he stated:
“I wrote King a cameo as himself in my first film and have been working to bring The Stand to the screen for five years. I’ve found incredible partners in CBS All Access and Ben Cavell.”
Ben Cavell who is working with Boone will be executive producing and writing the script. Boone goes onto describe a touching moment from his childhood, after his parents had burned his copy of the The Stand.
“I read The Stand under my bed when I was twelve, and my Baptist parents burned it in our fireplace upon discovery. Incensed, I stole my Dad’s FedEx account number and mailed King a letter professing my love for his work. Several weeks later, I came home to find a box had arrived from Maine, and inside were several books, each inscribed with a beautiful note from God Himself, who encouraged me in my writing and thanked me for being a fan. My parents, genuinely moved by King’s kindness and generosity, lifted the ban on his books that very day.”
The Stand is set during the apocalypse, when a super-virus that leaked from a lab wipes out most of the population, leaving the survivors to decide between what is good and what is evil, plunging them into not only a battle for survival, but also a battle of morals.
Image Via La Boucle
King expressed his own excitement for the new series:
“I’m excited and so very pleased that The Stand is going to have a new life on this exciting new platform. The people involved are men and women who know exactly what they’re doing; the scripts are dynamite. The result bids to be something memorable and thrilling. I believe it will take viewers away to a world they hope will never happen.”
King’s spine-chilling work always delivers and we will be looking out for this one!
