Books & Culture
Living Through Turbulent Times with Jane Austen
How six unexpectedly far-ranging novels carried me through eight years, two births, one death, and a changing world.
- Personal History
What Is Distance Learning For?
Ms. V did this with eighteen kids, every single day. How hard could it be for us to do it with one kid, our own?
- Cultural Comment
When Marian Anderson Defied the Nazis
The African-American contralto gave a brilliant demonstration of her full humanity at a time when white supremacists wanted to deny it.
The Latest
The Two Sides of the Bowery
In the nineteen-seventies, you would see crime, drugs, and dead bodies on the infamous strip; you might also spot Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger, or the founding members of Talking Heads.
Sunday Reading: Manhattan Sketches
From The New Yorker’s archive: stories that showcase city life in its many dimensions.
Chance the Rapper Is Still Figuring Things Out
The artist on the two-party system, Black liberation theology, and learning from his mistakes.
What to Stream: “Come and Get It,” One of the Greatest Films by Howard Hawks
The boisterous melodrama, from 1936, is a mysterious outpost of Hawks’s distinctive and original cinematic universe, a tale that seethes with perversity beneath its robust surfaces.
The Critics
The Argument of “Afropessimism”
Frank B. Wilderson III sketches a map of the world in which Black people are everywhere integral but always excluded.
The Invention of the Police
Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.
Why the Chicks Dropped Their “Dixie”
The all-female country band, which survived an instance of proto-cancel culture for its politics in the past, again wants to meet the current moment.
“Palm Springs” and the Comedy of Eternity
Following in the footsteps of “Groundhog Day,” Max Barbakow’s spirited film turns a wedding into Purgatory, with bumbling speeches and so-so canapés on endless repeat.
Goings On About Town
The Fresh Relevance of the Dance on Camera Festival
The festival, now in its forty-eighth year, will stream films including Susan Misner’s “Bend” and Khadifa Wong’s “Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance.”
Goldbelly Ships Iconic Restaurant Food to Your Home
The online startup sends meal kits and menu items from beloved restaurants nationwide, from Raoul’s decadent burger au poivre to Veselka’s borscht and pierogi.
HAIM’s Carefree and Comfortable New Album
“Women in Music Pt. III” gives the impression that the three sisters recorded it while lounging in the breeze.
Photo Booth
A Visitor to Ireland Finds Ballet in the Ancient Sport of Hurling
In a new book, “People of the Mud,” the photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez creates a choreography of bodies at work and at play.
Podcasts
Michaela Coel of “I May Destroy You,” and the State of the Biden Campaign
Staff writers discuss how the Democratic Presidential candidate is handling one of the most tumultuous periods in modern times. Plus, a conversation with Coel about dramatizing sexual assault on television.
Video
The Cartoonist Emily Flake Demonstrates How to Draw a Child
Emily Flake discusses how having a child changed how she illustrates kids, and pokes fun at her pre-motherhood drawings.