A play about the imagined fault line between black and white lives by Claudia Rankine, the author of Citizen The White Card stages a conversation that is both informed and derailed by the black/white American drama. The scenes in this one-act play, for all the characters’ disagreements, stalemates, and seeming impasses, explore what happens if one is willing to stay in the room when it is painful to bear the pressure to listen and the obligation to respond. —from the introduction by Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine’s first published play, The White Card, poses the essential question: Can American society progress if whiteness remains invisible? Composed of two scenes, the play opens with a dinner party thrown by Virginia and Charles, an influential Manhattan couple, for the up-and-coming artist Charlotte. Their conversation about art and representations of race spirals toward the devastation of Virginia and Charles’s intentions. One year later, the second scene brings Charlotte and Charles into the artist’s studio, and their confrontation raises both the stakes and the questions of what—and who—is actually on display. Rankine’s The White Card is a moving and revelatory distillation of racial divisions as experienced in the white spaces of the living room, the art gallery, the theater, and the imagination itself.

Classic techniques—contemporary projects! This second entry in the new Paper Crafts Workshop series proves that traditional methods of crafting can produce some of the most exquisite greeting cards ever. Every idea is eye-opening and lovely: paper lacework, a form of paper weaving knownas papuela, silhouette cutting, iris folding, paper embroidery, paper piercing (Ornare), kaleidoscope folding, and more. With plenty of photos and description to lead the newcomer through every step, and patterns when needed, crafters won’t be able to resist making every card. Best of all, the supplies and papers needed to create these unique designs are all easily found at neighborhood scrapbooking stores.