MinnPost Picks: on a Cornhusker contretemps, the Poor People’s Campaign, and how Kent State gave birth to punk rock

“William Barber Takes on Poverty and Race in the Age of Trump,” The New YorkerJelani Cobb wrote a profile of William Barber and the Poor People's Campaign — an attempt at reviving the campaign the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading when he was killed. It traces Barber's life and work, as well as some of the history of the kind of movement he's attempted to build, first in North Carolina (I first heard of him through the Moral Mondays protests he led there) where his language of "fusion politics" dates back to Reconstruction, and nationally in recent years with the Poor People's Campaign. — Jonathan Stegall, user experience engineer“Accused of making unwanted advances, Lee Trull says he's sorry. Now what?” Dallas Morning NewsThrough the story of Lee Trull, a once-prominent player in the Dallas theater scene who lost his job after accusations of sexual misconduct, this story ponders an important question less addressed in #MeToo talks: What happens next for men like him? "There is no island for disgraced men. They live here, with us, in society. There is no rulebook for what should happen next. No board of appeals for #MeToo. Twitter cannot offer a pardon. However this ends, it's going to happen day by day, person by person, interaction by interaction.” — Greta Kaul, data reporter“My Effing First Amendment,” This American LifeThe latest episode of This American Life (and a print version in the Chronicle of Higher Education) looks at how an isolated incident between a handful of people at the University of Nebraska drew the attention of the Nebraska Legislature and online conservative media. The story fits into the ongoing debate over what viewpoints are or aren't welcome in higher education. It also explores how an organization called Turning Point USA trains students to advocate for conservative views on college campuses and leverage any criticism for maximum media attention. — Tanner Curl, development director“How the Kent State massacre helped give birth to punk rock,” The Washington PostRock critic Tim Sommer in the Washington Post tells the story of how the late '70s music icons Devo and Chrissie Hynde's Pretenders were motivated after witnessing the shootings to create a music movement in Akron, Ohio. “Defined by its resistance to prevailing trends, the Akron scene borrowed from jazz, garage rock, performance art, Dada and the avant-garde to create a novel and influential musical cocktail. And we probably wouldn’t have heard that music had it not been for the calamity at Kent State.” — Peter Callaghan, state government reporter

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MinnPost Picks: on a Cornhusker contretemps, the Poor People’s Campaign, and how Kent State gave birth to punk rock

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MinnPost Picks: on a Cornhusker contretemps, the Poor People’s Campaign, and how Kent State gave birth to punk rock