The Best Albums of 2021 The Best Albums of 2021
Our music critic’s 10 favorite pieces of music from this year.
Dec 24, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu
Soul Train and the Desire for Black Power Soul Train and the Desire for Black Power
Don Cornelius’s faith that Black culture would attract a mass audience—and his devout belief that Black culture should be in the hands of Black people—make the program he created a...
Dec 22, 2021 / Mark Anthony Neal
Taking a Break With Viet Thanh Nguyen Taking a Break With Viet Thanh Nguyen
A special conversation with the Pulitzer Prize–winning author.
Dec 21, 2021 / Podcast / Dave Zirin
Remembering the Clarion Call of bell hooks Remembering the Clarion Call of bell hooks
My recollections of the late scholar, who revolutionized her fields.
Dec 21, 2021 / Patricia J. Williams
Alfred Döblin’s Surreal Foray Into Climate Fiction Alfred Döblin’s Surreal Foray Into Climate Fiction
The 20th-century German writer’s novel Mountains Oceans Giants is a stunning and strange look into what an environmental apocalypse might look like.
Dec 21, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Joe Bucciero
What’s New in the New “West Side Story”? What’s New in the New “West Side Story”?
In Steven Spielberg’s version, we get a film that offers a far more inclusive vision of postwar America but one that still retains its flawed view of working-class tribalism.
Dec 20, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Ed Morales
My Journey Into the Land of the Unmasked My Journey Into the Land of the Unmasked
I headed to Florida as a hardcore Covid-avoider, but after just three days, I was singing karaoke with strangers, throwing all caution to the wind.
Dec 16, 2021 / Elie Mystal
The Startling Postcolonial Poetics of “Coolitude” The Startling Postcolonial Poetics of “Coolitude”
Khal Thorabully’s epic poem “re-voices” the history of Indian indentured migration, and in the process imagines a new kind of transoceanic political solidarity.
Dec 16, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Aditya Bahl
Portraits in Minneapolis Portraits in Minneapolis
A street-art celebration of diversity.