Faithfall (poem © 2008)

From: The Transcendence, La Salle University Press © 2008 

The Mantle (poem © 2008)

From: The Transcendence, La Salle University Press © 2008 

The Garden (poem © 2008)

From: The Transcendence, La Salle University Press © 2008 

Late Ghost (poem © 2008)

From: The Transcendence, La Salle University Press © 2008

The Search for the Historical Socrates: Was Socrates a Failure? (essay © 2007)

This essay is the fruit of an independent study project I did with Dr. D. Stefan Schindler, a philosophy professor at La Salle University of many specialties and author of the forthcoming article, “The Tao of Socrates” (TBA).  As with “The Search for the Historical Confucius,” my style has gotten a lot better (or so I like to think) since 2007, and I also no longer subscribe to evolutionary historiography.  Both essays were written before I discovered John Wansbrough and the possibility of applying literary theory and criticism to historical research.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed writing them, especially the argumentative sections.  — CS 12.07.2008

The Search for the Historical Confucius: How Knightly was Confucius? (essay © 2007)

This essay is the fruit of an independent study project I did with Dr. Charles Desnoyers, La Salle University’s resident Sinologist and author of A Journey to the East: Li Gui’s A New Account of a Trip Around the Globe (2004). As with “The Search for the Historical Socrates,” my style has gotten a lot better (or so I like to think) since 2007, and I also no longer subscribe to evolutionary historiography. Both essays were written before I discovered John Wansbrough and the possibility of applying literary theory and criticism to historical research.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed writing them, especially the argumentative sections. — CS 12.07.2008

Verbal Tec: The Nat Turner of Hip Hop (interview © 2007)

My interview of Philadelphia’s rising political-underground Hip Hop artist Verbal Tec, which was the cover article for the February 21st, 2007 issue of Play Philly Magazine. Published in print and online here. –CS 14.06.2008

PLAY and Verbal Tec discuss the life, death and future of Hip Hop… Out of the bloody streets of Baltimore, with rhymes that sizzle in spiritual and political fury, comes Verbal Tec, shouting, “I write for those who never had a voice!” A rising prince of Philly underground rap, this cold-eyed Temple University sociology graduate is determined to massacre what he deems as the apathetic consciousnesses of the listening public — or die trying.

An Artist’s Responsibility (interview © 2006)

This is an article that I’m proud to say proved to be very popular among many of Play Philly Magazine’s readers. It’s about artists and their role in gentrification. Published in print and online here. — CS 14.06.2008

It really only takes one entrepreneurial artist opening a studio, a workshop — or as in the case of Aurora Deshauters, librarian and graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, a gallery — before more of their kind begin pouring in. It’s a common American story: starving artists, hungry for cheap housing, move into low-cost, deteriorated or blighted urban neighborhoods, and soon they attract higher-income residents who “rejuvenate” a section of the city hitherto written off as beyond middle-class salvation. It’s so ubiquitous a story that Americans even have a name for it: urban renewal. Yet, most people don’t bother to consider if there might not be serious consequences for those who called these neighborhoods home long before penniless painters with flamboyant hairstyles and funky clothes came knocking.

Counting Pennies (poem © 2006)

Published in Philadelphia Stories. Online version available here. –CS 14.06.2008

Two Minutes with Tina Collins and GET-UP (poem © 2005)

My interview with Tina Collins of Graduate Employees Together—University of Pennsylvania (GETUP), a teaching assistants union in Philadelphia’s premier university. Originally published in the December 222nd-28th, 2005 issue of the Philadelphia City Paper, online version available here. – CS 16.07.2008