Books and Ideas

United States to Refugees: Don’t Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor!

United States to Refugees: Don’t Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor! United States to Refugees: Don’t Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor!

Putting out the welcome mat for white Christians—while slamming the door in the faces of other migrants—is an American tradition.

May 9, 2022 / Feature / David Nasaw

Black Flame Hunters

Jazz Fest Is Back. Let’s Dance. (But It’s Complicated.) Jazz Fest Is Back. Let’s Dance. (But It’s Complicated.)

Beyond the confines of a beloved annual event, the future of live music in New Orleans remains unsettled.

May 6, 2022 / Larry Blumenfeld

Red Planet Books and Comics in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Don’t Fear a Red Planet: The Story of the World’s Only Native Comic Shop Don’t Fear a Red Planet: The Story of the World’s Only Native Comic Shop

Lee Francis IV turned an empty hair salon into a space for “Indigenerds” to let their imaginations run wild.

May 4, 2022 / Cecilia Nowell

An Intimate History of Hong Kong

An Intimate History of Hong Kong An Intimate History of Hong Kong

A conversation with Karen Cheung about her memoir The Impossible City, the nascent Hong Kong literary tradition, and understanding a period of upheaval through art and cultural exp...

May 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Rosemarie Ho

W.E.B. Du Bois’s Abolition Democracy

W.E.B. Du Bois’s Abolition Democracy W.E.B. Du Bois’s Abolition Democracy

The enduring legacy and capacious vision of Black Reconstruction.

May 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Gerald Horne

Le Pen’s Third Try for the Presidency Fails

Le Pen’s Third Try for the Presidency Fails Le Pen’s Third Try for the Presidency Fails

You ran again and then you ran again, And still the French did not elect Le Pen. They knew you could have done a lot of harm If number three turned out to be the charm. We hope the…

May 3, 2022 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Nijinska’s Revolutionary Vision of Dance

Nijinska’s Revolutionary Vision of Dance Nijinska’s Revolutionary Vision of Dance

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

May 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Wilson

Jennifer Egan’s World Wide Web

Jennifer Egan’s World Wide Web Jennifer Egan’s World Wide Web

Her latest novel tackles a favorite topic of her fiction—the excesses of the Internet and modern technologies.

May 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Erin Somers

John Keene’s Poetry of Others

John Keene’s Poetry of Others John Keene’s Poetry of Others

In Punks, the self is never static and cannot exist outside its relationships to others.

May 2, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ken Chen

Nazi governor of Poland Hans Frank at the Nuremberg Trials, 1946.

What Is Left of History? What Is Left of History?

Joan Scott’s On the Judgment of History asks us to imagine the past without the idea of progress. But what gets left out in the process?

May 2, 2022 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

x