Books & Culture
“Theatre Can’t Miss This Moment”: An Interview with Audra McDonald
The actress on color-blind casting, virtual performance, and learning how to trust her own power.
- Letter from the U.K.
Swifts and the Fantasy of Escape
During the coronavirus pandemic, birds are doing the travel that we can’t.
- Culture Desk
The Online Movement to #FreeBritney
Fans, concerned about a conservatorship that controls Britney Spears’s estate, have begun parsing her Instagram account for clues about her well-being.
The Latest
Bramancing the Braless: Notes on Nine Lingerie Startups
How different are these newfangled garments from the ones we’ve been wearing (or not wearing) forever?
What to Stream: “The Last Days of Immanuel Kant,” a Physical Comedy of the Philosophical Life
Philippe Collin’s 1996 film follows the famously abstemious and abstruse philosopher as he’s anticipating his death, yet it’s a physical comedy filled with neo-slapstick intimacy.
“My First Sessions” Explores the Relationship Between Therapy and Culture
For a Chinese college student adjusting to life in the U.S., anger and sadness felt like dark secrets, but the idea of seeing a therapist was daunting.
The Critics
Rethinking the Science of Skin
What is all the scrubbing, soaping, moisturizing, and deodorizing really doing for the body’s largest organ?
Joseph McCarthy and the Force of Political Falsehoods
McCarthy never sent a single “subversive” to jail, but, decades later, the spirit of his conspiracy-mongering endures.
American Tragedy and Comedy, Streaming on YouTube
“The Line,” a play of communal horror, follows health-care workers battling COVID-19, and Hannibal Buress’s new special turns a police encounter into comedy and catharsis.
The Rallying Cry in Pop Smoke’s Posthumous Album
On “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon,” the charismatic New York rapper, who was killed in February, sounds like a young man exploring all his possibilities.
Goings On About Town
The Return of the Drive-In
With New York movie theatres closed, drive-ins, including the Warwick, upstate, and the Skyline, in Greenpoint, are thriving, offering familiar films and such new releases as “Relic” and “She Dies Tomorrow.”
The Picnic Baskets of the Pandemic
Bubby’s craggy fried chicken, Café Kitsuné’s frilly ham and Gruyère on baguettes, Otaku Katsu’s sando set, and more blanket-ready fare.
Eye-Catching Art for an Unprecedented Summer, in “Monuments Now”
The outdoor exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park includes Jeffrey Gibson’s kaleidoscopic ziggurat “Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House,” performances by indigenous American artists, and more.
Photo Booth
The Faces of Those Marching for Racial Justice in New York
Al J. Thompson’s portraits from Black Lives Matter marches in New York telegraph unity and a common sense of resolve.
Podcasts
Who Gets to Be Italian?
The children of Black immigrants in Italy are dispossessed by a country that doesn’t offer birthright citizenship. Plus, an economist on whether—and how—to reopen schools.
Video
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Responds to Verbal Abuse by Ted Yoho
In a speech on the House floor, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Ted Yoho’s profane slur on the Capitol steps is part of a larger problem faced by all women.