Books & the Arts

Imani Perry’s Capacious History of the South

While the South is often dismissed as a region catching up to the rest of the country, Perry’s new book demonstrates why it has always been the key to defining the promise and limits of American democracy.

Robert Greene II

From the Magazine

Is the Avant-Garde Still Avant-Garde?

Today’s radical art movements can always congeal into tomorrow’s orthodoxy.

Stefan Collini

Jordan Peele’s Extraterrestrial Americana

Telling a tale of cowboys, aliens, and Hollywood, the director’s third feature film, Nope, is his most successful cinematic spectacle to date.

Stephen Kearse

Literary Criticism

What Happened to Newspaper Book Reviewing?

As a mode of recommendation, the newspaper fiction review has less to recommend it than ever before.

Frank Guan

Vladimir Sorokin’s Anti-Realism

For the Russian novelist, the end of Soviet literary and political culture marked the loss of a powerful foil.

Gregory Afinogenov

Ottessa Moshfegh’s Cruel Worlds

In her new novel, Moshfegh explores the brutish world of the Middle Ages.

Elvia Wilk

B&A Newsletter

History & Politics

Cedric Robinson’s Radical Democracy

Rejecting the resignation of the 1970s and ’80s, Robinson found hope and resistance in the ruins of the American city.

Jared Loggins

The History Lessons of “My Brilliant Friend”

The third season of the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s multi-part novel dives into the tantalizing and heartbreaking story of Italy during the Years of Lead.

Katherine Hill

Music

The Reflections of Kendrick Lamar

His intimate new album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers lifts a mirror to his listeners.

Joshua Bennett

≠What do you call a group of people united by grief? A family. Or at least that’s the formulation that has been dancing through my mind as I pondered where to begin. This is, after all, the frame that Kendrick Lamar offers from the outset on his long-awaited fifth album,… Continue Reading >

Television and Films

“The Kids in the Hall” Stands the Test of Time

In a recent reboot, the comedy troupe’s work remains as trenchant as ever.

Vikram Murthi

Group of adults lying by poolside, film crew giving instructions

The Reign of Reality TV

Danielle Lindemann’s True Story examines the pleasure and politics of what is quickly becoming the most influential genre of entertainment around the world.

Jake Nevins

David Cronenberg’s Tableaux of Pain and Pleasure

His latest film, Crimes of the Future, continues a decades-long project to explore the limits of the body and the supposed rules of reality.

Beatrice Loayza

Dance

Nijinska’s Revolutionary Vision of Dance

Lynn Garafola’s biography of the dancer and choreographer charts her globetrotting life and radical art.

Jennifer Wilson

In 1905, the dancers of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg went on strike. Their demands: higher wages, a five-day workweek, training in how to apply theatrical makeup, the right to wear their own pointe shoes. They elected a small delegation, which included star pupils Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky,… Continue Reading >

Poems

September 22, 2022

A Poet Confronts the Violent History of El Salvador

Christopher Soto’s Diaries of a Terrorist grapples with the the security ideology that shapes the Americas through poems that explore activism and resistance.
Danielle Mackey
September 15, 2022

Elegy for a Poet Who Loved Sneakers

P. Scott Cunningham
September 12, 2022

Jana Prikryl's Poetry of Perpetual Motion

In her new collection, Midwood, she travels through the borders of space, time, life, and death.
Rhian Sasseen
August 18, 2022

Salman Rushdie Joins Indian Writers on 75 Years of Independence

Shortly before he was attacked, Rushdie joined with dozens of Indian literary artists to lament the rise of Hindu nationalism and the fragile state of the country's democracy.
Pranay Somayajula

Log In

Books & the Arts

While the South is often dismissed as a region catching up to the rest of the country, Perry’s new book demonstrates why it has always been the key to defining the promise and limits of American democracy.

Professional basketball finds itself at a crossroads—between its image as a do-gooder and a history of self-serving contradictions.

Was the French filmmaker the single most important individual in the history of cinema?

From the Magazine

How to understand Adam Smith’s politics

Today’s radical art movements can always congeal into tomorrow’s orthodoxy.

Telling a tale of cowboys, aliens, and Hollywood, the director’s third feature film, Nope, is his most successful cinematic spectacle to date.

Literary Criticism

As a mode of recommendation, the newspaper fiction review has less to recommend it than ever before.

For the Russian novelist, the end of Soviet literary and political culture marked the loss of a powerful foil.

In her new novel, Moshfegh explores the brutish world of the Middle Ages.

B&A Newsletter

Best of Books & the Arts

History & Politics

Rejecting the resignation of the 1970s and ’80s, Robinson found hope and resistance in the ruins of the American city.

The third season of the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s multi-part novel dives into the tantalizing and heartbreaking story of Italy during the Years of Lead.

Michael Kazin’s new book examines the contradictory past and uncertain future of the Democratic Party.

Music

His intimate new album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers lifts a mirror to his listeners.

Television and Films

In a recent reboot, the comedy troupe’s work remains as trenchant as ever.

Danielle Lindemann’s True Story examines the pleasure and politics of what is quickly becoming the most influential genre of entertainment around the world.

His latest film, Crimes of the Future, continues a decades-long project to explore the limits of the body and the supposed rules of reality.

Dance

Lynn Garafola’s biography of the dancer and choreographer charts her globetrotting life and radical art.

Poems

September 22, 2022

Christopher Soto’s Diaries of a Terrorist grapples with the the security ideology that shapes the Americas through poems that explore activism and resistance.

September 15, 2022

September 12, 2022

In her new collection, Midwood, she travels through the borders of space, time, life, and death.

August 18, 2022

Shortly before he was attacked, Rushdie joined with dozens of Indian literary artists to lament the rise of Hindu nationalism and the fragile state of the country's democracy.

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