The Irrepressible Elaine May The Irrepressible Elaine May
Her films reveled in the possibility of capturing the spontaneous beauty of improvisation.
Oct 21, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Alex Kong
By His Endorsement of Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Shows the Dark Side of Camelot By His Endorsement of Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Shows the Dark Side of Camelot
The complex Kennedy legacy has reactionary as well as liberal strands.
Aug 28, 2024 / Jeet Heer
Natasha Trethewey’s Life in Poetry and Prose Natasha Trethewey’s Life in Poetry and Prose
A work of biography, an essay on literature and memory and the South, a prose poem full of lyrical dexterity, Trethewey's latest book is like all of her others: a master study of ...
Aug 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Edna Bonhomme
Percival Everett’s Great American Novel Percival Everett’s Great American Novel
In his new novel James, Everett reminds us of the thorny absurdity that is U.S. history.
Aug 19, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Omari Weekes
Althea Gibson Let the Racquet Do the Talking Althea Gibson Let the Racquet Do the Talking
A recent biography of the complicated tennis legend underlines the sport’s persistent challenges with race, class, and celebrity.
Aug 13, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Alisa Solomon
The Many Lives of Harriet Tubman The Many Lives of Harriet Tubman
Tiya Miles’s Night Flyer is a landmark biography of one of 19th-century America’s most important figures.
Jul 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kellie Carter Jackson
Seeing Ourselves in Joni Mitchell Seeing Ourselves in Joni Mitchell
Ann Powers’s deeply personal biography of Joni Mitchell looks at how a generation of listeners came to identify with the folk singer’s intimate songs.
Jun 11, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu
The Enigma of Frantz Fanon The Enigma of Frantz Fanon
A revolutionary and an intellectual, a nationalist and a cosmopolitan, a doctor and a revolutionary, Fanon was always multiple.
Jun 3, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Ken Chen
The Genius of Ella Fitzgerald The Genius of Ella Fitzgerald
She remade the American songbook in her image, uprooting the very meaning of musical performance.
May 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Sam Fentress
Keith Haring and the Downtown Art Revolution Keith Haring and the Downtown Art Revolution
A new biography tells the story of not only Haring’s life but also the exhilarating world of New York art in the 1970s and 80s.
May 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Schulman