
Mississippi Goddamn, by Nina Simone [Annotated Readings]
In yet another year of state violence against minorities…
Hagoth favors essays that can trace their lineage back to Michel de Montaigne; whether narrative, analytical, or devotional, these essays lean ruminative, conversational, meandering, impressionistic, and are reluctant to wax didactic. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find the occasional poem or piece of fiction here as well.

In yet another year of state violence against minorities…

On how one of the most iconic jams of the Civil Rights era–which topped the charts directly after MLK’s murder–first featured on a Christmas album.

Also on Radiohead’s 2+2=5 and current events.
Of Alma 62:41 and the new year.

Everybody’s falling on me and I’m as dead as a Christmas tree.
I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on the Christmas tree…
It’s Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza/And your presence is my gift this year.

You don’t have to try so hard to find the Utah allusions in this one.
Recalling how the very first Simpsons episode was a Christmas special about a blue-collar man who can’t afford gifts for his family…
And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon/The parents they cried and the miners they moaned…
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