Namwali Serpell is a Zambian writer and literary scholar living in San Francisco. We met at Serpell’s co-working space, The Ruby, in San Francisco, and sat outside on the patio on a gloriously sunny afternoon in early May to discuss unintentional feminism, sci-fi dreams, the crisis of irony, and blood, hair, and tears.
Read Moreby Laura Winnick
Read MoreQueens-based artist Mickey Aloiso’s photography project From Europe, With Love captures Aloisio’s experience traveling through queer communities in some of Europe’s largest cities. From Europe, With Love consists of classically conceptualized yet bizarre images that subvert our conventions of beauty, sexuality, and Instagram photos. We spoke with Aloisio about his experience putting together this (NSFW) photo series.
Read MoreArtist Mohammad Hassan Forouzanfar imagines the potential of traditional Iranian architecture and its association with modern style; after sixty-seven years of publication, the caustic and hilarious Mad magazine falls into the magazine graveyard, and linguist Gretchen McCulloch’s new book examines the new digital language that’s reshaping our cultural sensibilities.
Read MoreValeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive is the story of a family—a husband and wife with a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, respectively, from previous relationships—driving from their home in New York City to the Arizona-Mexico border.
Read MoreUsing AI to predict auction prices, cultural appropriation at WorldPride, the backlash against the Whitney Museum, cheating scandals, the benefits of walking for creativity, the cost of reading, and more in weekend links.
Read MoreMouths for eyes and teeth on feet—surrealism thrives in the present day. Read about the artists putting a contemporary spin on surrealism, and then read about the new book The Need, in which an intruder is a mother’s doppelgänger. Finally, turn to The Millions for an interview with author Isabel Allende, author of A Long Petal of the Sea.
Read MoreIn this week’s weekend links, Hong Kong artists battle the extradition bill, journalist Lijia Zhang delves into the history of sex workers in China, and a New Yorker article deconstructs the MFA via two new novels: Loudermilk and Bunnies.
Read MoreMark Renner is a visual artist and musician based in Fort Worth, Texas. Having grown up in the rural countryside outside Baltimore, his work is infused with the stillness and solitude of rural living and countless hours spent quietly observing. His music was rediscovered after the Brooklyn-based label RVNG reissued his early material in the collection Few Traces. We spoke with Renner about his life and work, his friendship with the late Stuart Adamson, and his forthcoming album, Seaworthy Vessels Are In Short Supply.
Read MoreThis week in weekend links, we get to the bottom of Lil Nas X’s magnetic personality, queer artists discuss Tumblr’s brash ban of all nude art, and women’s health can be a literary trope: the sick girl narrative.
Read MoreThis week in weekend links, a romance author claims she has dodged her husband’s murder attempts, menopause gets visibility in media via whales, and Soraya Roberts discusses the exploitation of Native American women in Western art history.
Read MoreIn this episode of Art in Conversation, sculptor Coco Spadoni talks about how their own relationship with pottery began, why their work focuses on stories of the body, and how they teach others to get comfortable with clay.
Read More
