Anton Barba-Kay

2 months ago | commonwealmagazine.org | Miles Doyle |Dominic Preziosi |Anton Barba-Kay |Max Foley-Keene

Article Gross Pay The extraordinary work of inmate firefighters in Los Angeles has called attention to the plight of incarcerated workers across the country. Article A Serious Man There is reason to think that Cardinal Robert McElroy might serve as a moral counterexample to the new Trump administration. Article The Attention Trap The idealized image of attention as control is not so much a virtue as a phantom or mirage of one.

Nov 7, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Anton Barba-Kay

We have a deficit. It’s scattered and short-spanned. We are unable to pay it. Attention is scarce. When it comes to commentary on this shortage, however, we face an embarrassment of riches. Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus states that we are being robbed of it by corporations and other invasive “forces.” Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism recommends that we take matters into our own hands: a digital declutter for one month.

Nov 1, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Anton Barba-Kay

A lot of frantic energy has gone into understanding undecided voters in this election, as in elections past. Whether they’re persuadable or irregular. Whether they’re ambivalent or indifferent. Whether they swing, miss, or go to third. Whether they’re complete zeros or practicing “sagacious delay.” Whether they’re really undecided or just Trump voters in sheep’s clothing.

Oct 23, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Anton Barba-Kay |Dominic Preziosi |Alexander Stern

It is regrettable, though perhaps not entirely surprising, that the Black artist Elizabeth Catlett is not better known: unsurprising because Catlett came of age in a time when women of color were marginalized as a matter of course, regrettable because of the power of her work, in which theme and medium are so closely aligned as to suggest destiny.

May 5, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Anton Barba-Kay

The pandemic transformed multiple aspects of K-12 education into political gasoline. Since 2021, books have been banned by the thousands from school libraries. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a former teacher, burnished his national profile by capitalizing on his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, which limited what teachers could say in class about sexual identity. Glenn Youngkin unexpectedly won the governorship of Virginia by promising parents more control over what children get taught.