No kings, not now, not ever
Weekend reads for March 28, 2026
Happy Saturday, Ink Readers!
Today, March 28, 2026, is the third No Kings day of action — a perfect day to get out there and make it clear, once again, that America has and wants no king (well, with one purely symbolic exception). Details on that below. But before you head out today to make your voice heard, we invite you to read along with us as we catch up on some of the great writing of the week that was, as we do every Saturday. Among the questions, answers, and provocations you’ll find in today’s edition of Weekend Reads:
Joyce Carol Oates on Marlon Brando — and what’s wrong with hero worship
What is Donald Trump trying to accomplish in Cuba?
Rebecca Solnit on the peril and promise of this moment
Does the quest to buy control of our lives…control us?
What Frank Sinatra’s voice still has to teach us
And timeless music for the moment from the Kronos Quartet
We do what we do at The Ink to help you understand these times. If this community keeps you sane, join us today. It’s your support that makes this happen.
To Marlon, in hell
Because your love was carelessly sown, debris tossed from a speeding vehicle.
And because you loved both men and women, except not enough.
Because the slow suicide of self-disgust is horrible to us, and fascinating
as the collapse of tragedy into farce is fascinating
and the monstrousness of festered beauty.
Because you lured a girl of 15 to deceive her parents on a wintry-dark December school day, 1953. [Joyce Carol Oates: A Writer’s Journal]
