Books & the Arts

Shaking Up Your Perceptions

Shaking Up Your Perceptions Shaking Up Your Perceptions

How films chosen for the Human Rights Watch Film Festival test the limits of both authority and documentary filmmaking.

Jul 16, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Saviors

Saviors Saviors

Spiders under the furniture cut loose the papery drained bodies as simple testaments of just how valuable they have been how surrounded we were…

Jul 14, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Allan Peterson

How Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel

How Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel How Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel

The astronaut told us he didn’t look out the window for eight and a half minutes as the rocket launched him beyond our atmosphere. Terrifying things happened— ground vanished, boos…

Jul 14, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Catherine Pierce

On the Record’s Act of Witness

On the Record’s Act of Witness On the Record’s Act of Witness

Telling the stories of three women who accused Russell Simmons of sexual assault, the documentary is a powerful case study in how institutions have failed Black women.

Jul 14, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

J.M. Coetzee’s States of Exile

J.M. Coetzee’s States of Exile J.M. Coetzee’s States of Exile

In writing an allegory that is barely an allegory and a trilogy of novels that are often not novels, Coetzee appears to have made his own literary displacement total. 

Jul 14, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Siddhartha Deb

The Many Lives of Catherine the Great

The Many Lives of Catherine the Great The Many Lives of Catherine the Great

A new Hulu show presents the life of the Russian empress as a narrative of lean-in empowerment. But was it?

Jul 13, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Sophie Pinkham

Not Catharsis but Vengeance: The Startling Fiction of Fernanda Melchor

Not Catharsis but Vengeance: The Startling Fiction of Fernanda Melchor Not Catharsis but Vengeance: The Startling Fiction of Fernanda Melchor

Her novel Hurricane Season burrows into the circumstances of a small-town murder and what it says about a society that disregards femicide.

Jul 9, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Lucas Iberico Lozada

The Past and Future of Latinx Politics

The Past and Future of Latinx Politics The Past and Future of Latinx Politics

Two new books look at the history of Latinx Democrats and Republicans and the role each will play in the future.

Jun 30, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Ed Morales

Maria Reva’s Mordant and Profound Fiction

Maria Reva’s Mordant and Profound Fiction Maria Reva’s Mordant and Profound Fiction

In her short story collection, Good Citizens Need Not Fear, Reva documents the chaos, joy, and serendipity of life before and after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Jun 29, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Wilson

Run the Jewels’ Wake-up Call

Run the Jewels’ Wake-up Call Run the Jewels’ Wake-up Call

While other mainstream rappers might create one song or one album dedicated to the unrest, Killer Mike and El-P have carried that torch for six years.

Jun 29, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Marcus J. Moore

x