Stephen Kearse

@kearse.bsky.social

3111 Followers 361 Following

Journalist, critic, and author of novels Post, Liquid Snakes, and In the Heat of the Light. Noreasontopretend.com

If Elmore Leonard had been alive, he would’ve fucking loved them,” Graham Yost, the showrunner of an FX series based on a Leonard novella, said of Whitehead’s trilogy. He’s working on a “Harlem Shuffle” adaptation for Apple TV, to be produced by Barry Jenkins, and praised Whitehead’s decision to focus on a small-time criminal. (At one point, Carney struggles to hold a gun.) The pilot will dramatize the trilogy’s opening heist at the Hotel Theresa on 125th, a thirteen-story tower with a striking white façade once known as the Waldorf of Harlem.
Journalist and author of LIQUID SNAKES Stephen Kearse's POST, about an underground "mailman mafia" conspiring to save the US Postal Service from privatization through a coordinated blackmail campaign aimed at corrupt politicians, while evading hawkeyed feds, to Ben Brooks at FSG Originals, for publication in winter 2028, by Danielle Bukowski at Sterling Lord Literistic (world). Rights: devon.mazzone@fsgbooks.com
For rapper and producer Roc Marciano, American Pimp reflects the American dream. In dense and woozy compositions that invoke pimps like Gorgeous Dre and Rosebudd as if they were patron saints, the documentary takes on the air of scripture. Marciano's twin albums Rosebudd's Revenge (2017) and RR2: The Bitter Dose (2018) lionize pimps as uncompromising go-getters and sophisticates. Over jazz and funk samples slowed to the drip of molasses, he relishes every image and paints his world in, well, gorgeous detail. "Me and my lady slow kiss, low in the hot tub soakin'/Michael Bolton, soft word spoken," he raps on "Burkina Faso." He enunciates words with palpable satisfaction; as they roll off his tongue, you can hear him considering their mouthfeel. Watching his idols has taught him to discover and savor the power of his own voice.
Panel from the manga Dandadan depicting characters entering a large opera house filled with singing people
Ruggish, adjective, defined by Oxford English Dictionary as "difficult, stubborn"
Back sleeve and liner notes for Public Enemy vinyl for "You're Gonna Get Yours." Features their logo: a b-boy in crosshairs
Bookmark-length short story Chainsaw Man, by Stephen Kearse When the unsubtle governor announced a conference at a shuttered scissor factory, reporters predicted he'd talk cuts. To taxes, STI clinic funding, bridge inspections—standard depressing capitol news. The press pool placed bets on the size of the ceremonial shears he'd bring. He showed up with a golden chainsaw, stroking it as he mounted the lectern. The planned cut was extraordinary: to “protect our precious sovereignty,” he buzzed, his administration would excise Pennsylvania from the continent and relocate it to the North Pacific. He assured the journalists any lost jobs would be replaced, then introduced Cut Coordinator Tom Klipputz, former music executive. Klipputz got straight to business: “The Ring of Fire will be an adjustment for some, but the ring of freedom is priceless.” He slid on safety muffs then ordered the work crews along the state borders to begin sawing. The governor’s gilded tool roared over the reporters’ questions.
Homemade blueberry and plain waffles piled on a tray
Screenshot of Hollywood Reporter review of the Drake and PartyNextDoor album Some Sexy Songs 4 U. Quote reads: "There isn’t much rapping to speak of on the new album. It’s mostly R&B crooning and warbling, set to very low BPMs, with little variety. Moreover, every single track is dripping with AutoTune. It’s 2025; are we still pretending this is a stylistic choice and not merely a means of covering up an aesthetically flawed voice? Even the beats, sometimes the strongest aspect of Drake’s oeuvre, feel like they were programmed by AI here. "
Screenshot os 12/20 Deadline article Reads: "In what is starting to sound a lot like the MCU of lawsuits where each side is perpetually teasing or declaring what is coming next, Tony Buzbee’s letter Friday to Judge Analisa Torrie caps the latest phase of an action where Combs has become almost a sideshow to the main action of the Houston-based plaintiff’s lawyer, the rapper born Shawn Carter and Jay-Z’s long time legal sideman Alex Spiro throwing down on each other daily with pledges to be very street and very much a Marine."
NYT headlines reading "Brian Thompson, Not Luigi Mangione, Is the Real Working- Class Hero"
This Spring 2025, GWU's English Department is pleased to offer a Jenny McKean Moore Creative Nonfiction Community Workshop with Kat Chow, a journalist and the author of Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir, named a Notable Book by The New York Times. Every other year, the Jenny McKean Moore Community Workshops offer students in the D.C. area an opportunity to participate in a free, semester-long writing workshop taught by the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington.
2018 meme in which Pusha-T is depicted as T'Challa, asking, "why didn't you bring the boy home?" in reference to Drake's child
An upside down slice of cheesecake
Clip from 2018 documentary Matangi in which MIA talks about the reception of her Super Bowl performance
Screenshot of an October 14 Twitter post announcing the death of storied Brownsville rapper and producer KA at 52.
"DC police officer what while recovering gun from storm drain" "DC police officer fatally shot on DC-295 in Northeast Washington, officials say" "DC officer while trying to retrieve gun from storm drain, dies from injuries"
Reading recommendations from author Rachel Connolly: Liquid Snakes by Stephen Kearse, At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich, Bolt from the Blue by Jeremy Cooper, Tabitha Lasley’s non-fiction writing, and Lucie Elven’s fiction and criticism
Text from Stereogum essay on the 10th anniversary of good kid maad city. As literary critics and English teachers have praised Kendrick’s storytelling, they’ve tended to ignore his style and musicality, which are as much of the story as his raw dispatches about hood life. None of the autobiography works without the freeform buoyancy of his rapping. Realism informs Kendrick’s writing, but like the many movies that influence it — Boyz N The Hood, Pulp Fiction, Training Day, Children Of The Corn, Poetic Justice — good kid, m.A.A.d. city is never strictly about reality. Kendrick is a dreamer and a parabolist sifting through the fog of trauma and nostalgia in search of clarity and purpose. Although he uses real names and details from his life, and the album artwork comprises creased polaroids from his childhood, the goal is emotional rather than journalistic truth.
Screenshot of pitchfork essay on Drake and Kendrick beef
Screenshot of a brief political history of the term outside agitators, from Vicky Osterweil's "In Defense of Looting."
Screenshot of Best Diverse Author category for inaugural Libby Book Awards
Screenshot of an article in The Nation reviewing the Vince Staples show
Screenshot of 2018 essay on pop stars becoming platforms
Image of paragraph from Liquid Snakes acknowledgements.
Screenshot of 12/15 CNN piece on film American Fiction.