Books & the Arts

Raoul Peck’s World

Raoul Peck’s World Raoul Peck’s World

In Exterminate All the Brutes, Peck offers a bold new history of colonialism and violence.

Jun 14, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Ed Morales

Aretha Fanklin

The Unwritten History of Black Performance The Unwritten History of Black Performance

Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib’s new book undertakes an ambitious task: contextualizing the scope and scale of a people’s cultural expression.

Jun 10, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kelton Ellis

Francis Bacon

Behind the Hedonist Persona of Francis Bacon Behind the Hedonist Persona of Francis Bacon

Annalyn Swan and Mark Stevens’s comprehensive study of the British artist is a sensitive investigation into his artistic identity.

Jun 9, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Tausif Noor

Corrugated Tin Facade / Tin Building WALKER EVANS

The Anti-Nostalgia of Walker Evans The Anti-Nostalgia of Walker Evans

A recent biography reveals the many contradictions of the photographer who fastidiously documented postwar American life.

Jun 8, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rahel Aima

Austrian author Thomas Bernhard. Tonhof. Maria Saal. Carinthia. Photograph. Christmas 1957/58 (Photo by Helmut Baar

The Epic Misery of Thomas Bernhard The Epic Misery of Thomas Bernhard

His little-known novel The Cheap-Eaters, recently translated by Douglas Robertson, puts forward a basic thesis: Life is a sequence of crushings.

Jun 7, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams

Sun Ra

The Story of Sun Ra’s Egyptian Adventure The Story of Sun Ra’s Egyptian Adventure

How a 1971 trip changed the course of the free jazz icon’s career.

Jun 2, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Marcus J. Moore

The Surreal Pleasures of ‘The Masked Singer’

The Surreal Pleasures of ‘The Masked Singer’ The Surreal Pleasures of ‘The Masked Singer’

By discarding all the tropes of standard reality TV, this singing competition allows viewers to revel in pure weirdness.

Jun 2, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions

The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions

A new history examines how the late 19th century’s raucous party system gave way to a more sedate and exclusionary political culture that erected more and more barriers to particip...

Jun 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

Telling the Story of Undocumented America

Telling the Story of Undocumented America Telling the Story of Undocumented America

Using both journalism and visionary vignettes, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio examines undocumented life in contemporary United States.

Jun 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Gaiutra Bahadur

Nation Poetry

Final Poem for the ‘Field of Poetry’ Final Poem for the ‘Field of Poetry’

In the grip of a nor’easter, you come bearing grief, have in pieces not come in peace. You arrive bladed with certainty. You slam shut the car door and smolder before the locked ca…

Jun 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Phillip Williams

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