The Arts Archives - Page 21 of 38

Feminism

More Misandry, Please!

France Needs More Man-Haters—but Pauline Harmange doesn’t seem to be one of them

April 28, 2021 • by Hannah Leffingwell

_____ The cover of French feminist Pauline Harmange’s recent book I Hate Men (Fourth Estate, 2021, translated by Natasha Lehrer) prepares the reader for a salacious world of feminist intrigue, and a no-holds barred misandrist rant for the ages. Arranged in bold block letters over a neon yellow background, the title ...

Activism

Teaching Through the Pandemic

In a course about memorializing HIV-AIDS, students learned about community by making one

April 21, 2021 • by Dan Royles

_____ Everyone involved in education has found the past year to be a special challenge for teaching, learning, and simply making it from one day to another. But how do you teach students about a pandemic during a pandemic? In December 2020, queer historian Dan Royles interviewed Theodore (Ted) Kerr and his ...

Literature

Beverly Cleary

Past Present Podcast, Episode 272

April 6, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: At the age of 104, children’s author Beverly Cleary has died. Natalia drew on this Bulwark article about Cleary’s apolitical appeal, and Niki referred to this Atlantic essay and this Vulture piece about her grasp of children’s emotional landscape. Neil ...

Literature

The Big Cats, Part XII

On Dreams and Dreamers

March 30, 2021 • by Val Vinokur

The platelets of love clog / the arteries of sense...

Fashion

Masking and Visibility

Performing the pandemic

March 10, 2021 • by Patricia Brien

_____ In his Autumn 2019 collection, Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, sent his models out on the runway covered in clothing and layers of protective gear. He also used many different forms of face coverings and masks (not mouth coverings). He was inspired by Hannah Arendt’s writings on totalitarianism and ...

Art & Design

Broom Swept

Failure tells a tale about capitalism too

March 2, 2021 • by Mark Hage

_____ What closes and then darkness, what opens and then bright?Before the horn has risen,where hides the lord of light? —Tian Wen, A Chinese Book of Origins How you frame something is a moral decision. —Babette Mangolte On Mercer Street, on the island of Manhattan, and just before the city paused, walking in a southerly direction ...

Fashion

What We Really Wear

The connection between fashion and self

January 29, 2021 • by Manou Messman

I was only 5 years old the first time I wondered about why we wear what we wear. I used to sit in a corner of our living-room so I could observe my parents and their friends. Why did they wear what they wore, and how did their clothes connect ...

Gender

Cis Lit and the Trans Writer

On Torrey Peters and the possibilities for trans girl fiction

January 12, 2021 • by McKenzie Wark

What would happen if we took seriously the perspectives of trans people, and allowed them to potentially transform how we see the whole of gender? Detransition, Baby is a book about what cis and trans women might have to say to each other. It does allow a certain amount of cis tourism ...

Literature

Creatures of Habit

From Our First Zombie President to Ling Ma’s Severance

December 17, 2020 • by Russ Castronovo

The main problem with zombies is that they lack self-awareness. The opening words of Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals— “We are unknown to ourselves”—could serve as a zombie manifesto. Driven by little more than the impulse to consume, zombies shamble along from meal to meal without ever pausing to ...

Literature

The Big Cats, Part XI

On bones and bonfires

November 17, 2020 • by Val Vinokur

November bonfires roast / the marrow of the lost...

Literature

Poetry to Vote By

Reading Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic on the eve of the election

November 3, 2020 • by Evangeline Riddiford Graham

How many of us are brave enough for art? At the bakery down the block, polling shows Trump surging ahead. Each purchase of an election-themed cookie—Biden or Trump, with red, white, and blue sprinkles—is tallied by the bakers as a vote in favor for the relevant candidate. “Our forecast is never ...

Corporations

Fall Fashion

Could the collapse of consumption point to a better future for the fashion industry?

October 28, 2020 • by Otto von Busch

----- Outside the window, it should have been autumn season. With the arrival of more crisp weather, a section of the wardrobe opens for the new possibilities, colors, and textures: jackets and closed shoes, knits and tweed. And layers. Layers force the wearer to think in more complex combinations. With a ...