A Form of Order: On Paul Taylor A Form of Order: On Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor Dance Company has sustained a signature style, and without having left modern dance behind.
Sep 12, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Marina Harss
The Plague Years The Plague Years
David France’s How to Survive a Plague, Heidi Ewing and Rache Grady’s Detropia, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage.
Sep 12, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
The Poetry of America’s Best and the Brightest The Poetry of America’s Best and the Brightest
The students at Bunker Hill Community College may have difficult lives. But the best are as bright as any Ivy Leaguer.
Sep 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Wick Sloane
What Remains: On the European Union What Remains: On the European Union
How the twentieth century’s confidence in social solidarity, human dignity and a better future died a slow, quiet death.
Sep 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Mark Mazower
Syria Syria
…and when, then, the imagination is transmogrified in circles of hatred, circles of vengeance and killing, of stealing and deceit? Behind the global imperia is the interrogation cell. It’s not a good story. Neither the Red Crescent nor journalists are permitted entry, the women tell how men and boys are separated, taken in buses and never seen again, tanks in the streets with machine guns with no shells in the barrels because the army fears that those who will use them might defect. Who knows what has happened, what is happening, what will happen? God knows. God knows everything. The boy? He is much more than Mafia; he, and his, own the country. His militias will fight to the death if for no other reason than if he’s overthrown they will be killed, too. “Iraq, you remember Iraq, don’t you?” she shouts, a refugee. Her English is good. Reached via Skype, she speaks anonymously, afraid of repercussions. “You won’t believe what I have seen”—her voice lowered almost to a whisper—“a decapitated body with a dog’s head sewn on it, for example.” Yes, I know, it’s much more complicated than that. “It’s the arena right now where the major players are,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs concludes his exclusive CNN interview. Dagestan—its province in the North Caucasus—is what the Russians compare it to, warring clans, sects; Lebanese-like civil war will break out and spread across the region. Online, a report—Beirut, the Associated Press— this morning, “28 minutes ago. 4 Said to Be Dead at Syrian University,” one Samer Qawass, thrown, it is said, by pro-regime students out of the fifth-floor window of his dormitory room, dying instantly from the fall…
Sep 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Lawrence Joseph
Shelf Life Shelf Life
The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard.
Sep 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Ai Weiwei and the Art of Protest Ai Weiwei and the Art of Protest
The courageous Chinese dissident has always had an eye for the point where art and politics meet in performance.
Aug 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Danielle Allen
Pariahs’ Progress: On Isolationism Pariahs’ Progress: On Isolationism
For Christopher McKnight Nichols, isolationists were cultural cosmopolitans who distrusted the impact of empire.
Aug 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Jackson Lears
The Antagonist: On Lillian Hellman The Antagonist: On Lillian Hellman
How did Lillian Hellman become the archetype of hypocrisy?
Aug 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Victor Navasky
Scissor Work: On the Unintended Reformation Scissor Work: On the Unintended Reformation
Brad Gregory wants to upend how we think about the emergence of capitalism, secularism and individualism.
Aug 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Paula Findlen