Arts

Books
Arts

'Nimona' Shifts Shape And Takes Names — In Sensible Armor, Of Course

6:56pm May 13, 2015

by NPR Staff

Comics creator Noelle Stevenson has written for Boom! Studios and Marvel's new female Thor. Her webcomic Nimona, about a young shapeshifter with a streak of villainy, has just been released as a book.

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Elena Biamon holds coffee berries grown on her farm near Jayuya, a town in Puerto Rico's mountainous interior.

Arts
Economy

Puerto Rico Wants To Grow Your Next Cup Of Specialty Coffee

5:48pm May 13, 2015

by Greg Allen

More than a century ago, Puerto Rico used to produce world-class coffee. Now farmers there are trying to rebuild the industry by focusing on growing higher-quality beans, which command higher prices.

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The new building's window-lined hallways are in stark contrast to the brutalist design of the Whitney's former home.

Arts

Whitney Museum's New Building Opens Doors (And Walls) To Outside World

5:18pm May 13, 2015

by Joel Rose

For decades, the museum was housed in a concrete fortress with few windows. Its new home offers striking views of the Manhattan skyline, but critics say the design draws attention away from the art.

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Tom Brokaw served as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 until 2004.

Books
Arts

Tom Brokaw Reflects On Cancer, 'Nightly News' And His 'Lucky Life'

4:08pm May 13, 2015

The former NBC anchorman says his multiple myeloma diagnosis two years ago made him "more conscious of the fact that the days are more numbered." His new memoir is A Lucky Life Interrupted.

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Books
Arts

Myth, Fantasy And Sci-Fi Dovetail In 'Archivist Wasp'

3:36pm May 13, 2015

by Jason Heller

Nicole Kornher-Stace's new novel follows Wasp, an Archivist tasked with hunting ghosts to scavenge information about the past for her primitive post-apocalyptic society — where all is not as it seems.

United States Steel Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson Plant, 2013, from The Notion of Family (Aperture, 2014).

A Rust Belt Story Retold, Through Portraits Of The Women Who Lived It

3:18pm May 13, 2015

by Shereen Marisol Meraji

LaToya Ruby Frazier's photography tells the story of the black community living in the shadow of Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill through portraits of her grandmother, her mother and herself.

De Kooning made dozens of drawings, sketches and paintings of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Arts

For Artist Elaine De Kooning, Painting Was A Verb, Not A Noun

1:59pm May 13, 2015

by Susan Stamberg

One of de Kooning's friends once asked her what it was like to work in the shadow of her husband, Willem de Kooning. She replied: "I don't paint in his shadow, I paint in his light.'"

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Arts

Tradition with a Twist of Ingenuity: the Secret Ingredients of a Cocktail

1:25pm May 13, 2015

A man walks into a bar and orders a Cosmopolitan to numb his recent breakup wounds.

No, he doesn't.

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Raúl Castillo, Jonathan Groff and Russell Tovey from HBO's Looking.

Arts

Jonathan Groff And Raúl Castillo: 'Looking' Ahead

1:07pm May 13, 2015

Ahead of the season finale of HBO's Looking, the co-stars who play on-again, off-again couple Patrick and Richie talk about redefining gay life on television and play a game about other TV romances.

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Books
Arts

Remembering A Troubled Brother In 'Lord Fear'

1:05pm May 13, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Lucas Mann's new memoir pieces together family memories to create a portrait of his heroin-addicted older brother, who died of an overdose. Critic Heller McAlpin calls it difficult but necessary.