Art
How to Survive a Fall
Through visceral, corporeal gestures, Le’Andra LeSeur reconfigures trauma into a psychic site from which one can still bloom into something tender and fierce.
Zeba Blay
Zeba Blay is a Ghana-born, NYC-based culture and film critic. Formerly Senior Culture Writer at HuffPost, her words have also appeared in Allure, Essence, and more. In 2021, she published her debut book of pop culture essays, “Carefree Black Girls.“
Film
Stop Fetishizing Marilyn Monroe's Trauma
The problem with Andrew Dominik's biopic Blonde is its assumption that Monroe’s victimization was the most fascinating thing about her.
Art
Carrie Mae Weems Brings Change to the Guggenheim
This year, Carrie Mae Weems gets the distinctive honor of becoming the first African-American woman to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim — her first major exhibition at any New York museum, ever. It’s one of those honors that sits at an awkward intersection, both disappointing and profound.
Art
Spring Breakers: More Skittles Than Chess
The dust has now begun to settle in the wake of the release of Spring Breakers, director Harmony Korine’s highly anticipated and now much-debated crime drama about four college co-eds who go on a crime spree during a holiday in Florida. By now, even if you haven’t seen the movie, you probably know a
Art
Foreign Policy: How the Oscars Slight Global Cinema
In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences sparked a flurry of debate when it was announced that the Best Picture category for the Oscar would be expanded from five to ten nominees. According to then-academy president Sid Ganis, the increased number would “allow Academy voters to recogni
Film
Ethnic Cleansing: Colorblind Casting in Cloud Atlas
Last month, British actor Jim Sturgess sent a tweet to his 40,000 followers which read: “Yellowface? Blackface? Pinkface? Pinkberry? Blueberry? Strawberry? Bananas? Frozen Yogurt? All the toppings? ... Lovely!” The message was Sturgess’s veiled response to recent criticism of his role in the upcomin