Paper Trail

Tributes to historian and activist Mike Davis; writers around the world respond to the end of Roe v. Wade


Mike Davis. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

On social media, tributes are pouring in for activist, scholar, and historian Mike Davis, who is terminally ill. Davis, the author of more than a dozen books, was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. In 2021, Micah Uetricht wrote for The Nation that “Over the course of a remarkable career, [Davis] has been resolutely clear-eyed about the nightmares we face as a society and a planet, mostly bearish on the prospects for reversing those nightmares, and always prescient.” For Bookforum, Sasha Frere-Jones reviewed Davis’s latest book (cowritten with Jon Weiner) Set the Night On Fire. In his newsletter, Frere-Jones pointed readers looking for a Davis refresher to two interviews: one from 2018 and another from 2009

In Astra magazine, writers from around the world respond to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Katharina Volckmer writes, “Bodies that can give birth don’t own themselves. They are owned. By the structures they are born into. By the laws that surround them. By those men who are scared of what’s inside those bodies.” 

For the Washington Post, Taylor Lorenz profiles Clara Sorrenti, who streams on Twitch as Keffals and has built a substantial following for her political and social commentary. 

At Sports Illustrated, four authors reflect on Title IX’s future as the equal-protection law reaches its fiftieth anniversary.  

For 4Columns, Blair McClendon reviews Claire Denis’s new film, Both Sides of the Blade. McClendon observes that Denis “has been devoted to a form of cinema that generates meaning through a steady amassing of sensuous detail.” For Bookforum, McClendon wrote about Denis’s 2001 film Trouble Every Day; last week he also took part in a conversation with Margo Jefferson for our “Off the Page” video series.