Manhattan’s International Freedom Center – A Lot Of Politics

A new museum in lower Manhattan that will house the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center is desitgned by the Norwegian firm Snohetta. The design is “strangely seductive: with some fine-tuning, it could even become a fascinating work. It is already closer to the standard set by Santiago Calatrava’s soaring glass-and-steel transportation hub than that of the site’s troubled Freedom Tower, for example. But ultimately, the museum is more about politics than architecture – a theme-park view of American ideals in an alluring wrapper.”

The Website That’s Shaking Up The Poetry World

“Alan Cordle created Foetry in April 2004 after years of watching his wife, Kathleen Halme, enter poetry contests and becoming increasingly convinced that they weren’t fair. At first, it was just Mr. Cordle and his computer. But the site gained momentum and soon it was attracting hundreds of visitors each day, many of whom also believed that something was rotten about these contests. They gossiped and gathered evidence.”