Decolonizing Art for Art’s Sake
Culture critic and filmmaker Mara Ahmed deconstructs three versions of an opéra-ballet to get at the heart of western racism in mainstream dance performance.
Category: Columns
To the Light—Remembering Lawrence Ferlinghetti: 1919-2021
Ammiel Alcalay remembers an American original, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who was also the publisher and doyen of City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
On Desert Planets, Meditations on “Dune”
Francisco Letelier on the lingering memories of Dune as a metaphor for a struggling planet.
On American Democracy and Empire, a Corrective
The MAGA movement is not a cause but a consequence of GOP policies, and its instantaneous vanishing with Trump's political demise is unlikely.
Remember 2020 Not for Covid-19 or Trump Chaos, But Climate Change
Columnist Iason Athanasiadis remembers 2020 not so much for the pandemic or the chaos of Trump but what humankind has wrought on nature.
A Beheading for the Prophet and a Reckoning for France
Jordan Elgrably on rising tensions in France and in the Arab/Muslim world follow Samuel Paty's beheading at the hands of a young Islamic radical who was shot dead by police.
The Dream of Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim
An Angeleno assesses The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
A Humanitarian Catastrophe: Understanding the War in Yemen
Why is it that Americans know so little about Yemen, why has the country seemed so off the radar to us?