fiction and creative non-fiction from Brennan Quenneville
Do not for a second believe that the events of January 6th, 2021, in which domestic terrorists assaulted the United States Capitol, were fomented only by the words of Donald Trump. The sitting president is a habitual, unrepentant liar and his constant spew of hateful, untruthful rhetoric is of dire consequence for America. But he [...]
Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers introduced me to "Hell You Talmbout," a magnificent piece of social activism by Janelle Monae and Wondaland Records from 2015. The song is primarily a roll call of Black Americans that have been murdered by the police and that it feels even more prescient right now than it did in [...]
Congress is in the early phases of negotiating another massive stimulus package and it's tempting to append "before it's too late" to the end of that statement but, in truth, it's probably already too late for this next stimulus package to have anything near optimal impact for the people it's meant to serve. Of course, [...]
"Tell me what democracy looks like," said a young black man. His words, amplified through a megaphone, carried across the intersection to where we stood. "This is what democracy looks like," came the response from the crowd that had flooded each of the four corners of our city's small downtown. We wore masks and stood [...]
We are living in a fraught, historic time and right now it feels nearly impossible to think about anything save the unrest that grips the nation and the onslaught of dangers that beset black Americans and other systemically disenfranchised minorities. As a member of the privileged white middle class, I make a less than compelling [...]
Post-apocalyptic fiction rarely focuses on the fall. There's the initial outbreak, the surprising interaction between man and beast or man and nature that introduces some mutagenic pathogen to first one individual and then, rapidly, countless others. Then comes the smash cut to a hollowed out world of ghost towns and ragged survivors, a bombed out [...]
Unsure of where I was supposed to be, I shuffled through the crowded lobby of my freshman year dorm and approached a wide desk. A harried-looking woman sat there and as I approached she spoke to me without even looking up. "Last name?" she asked. "Quenneville," I said. "With a Q." She looked up, not [...]
It's easy to feel that we live in the most extreme of times, whether good or bad, and that these current years are truly the crux of humanity, the pinnacle of our society. But every generation has felt this way and so, necessarily, every generation has been wrong. It's hard to see how we're any [...]
Three years ago The Decemberists released What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, the band's seventh full-length album which, like most releases from Portland's premier prog-folk outfit, is clever and catchy and thoughtful. Stylistically, What a Terrible World hews closely to The Decemberists' well-established folksy style but the album is no worse for being [...]
Yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence attended an NFL national anthem performance in Indianapolis. Typically, this would imply that he watched the football game that followed but in this ridiculous stupid maddening curious instance it does not. Because, as soon as the anthem - for which several visiting 49ers players kneeled - was over, Pence exited [...]
Songs & Stories 