Arts & Life

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Arts

In 'Jack,' Marilynne Robinson Shows Grace Is For Everyone

7:00am October 01, 2020

by Lily Meyer

Robinson's latest Gilead novel centers on prodigal son Jack, newly released from prison and in love with a Black woman — a crime in 1950s Missouri. But it's not a pat tale of love overcoming racism.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest ... you know what, never mind. I'm good." Michael (Jim Parsons) and Donald (Matt Bomer) in The Boys in the Band.

Arts

'The Boys In The Band': Raging Gracefully

5:02pm September 30, 2020

by Glen Weldon

Netflix's adaptation of Mart Crowley's 1968 play about a gay birthday party that goes off the rails features hard liquor, sharp tongues and broad types.

A new book tells the story behind Operation Varsity Blues, the largest college admissions scandal ever prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Lies, Money And Cheating: The Deeper Story Of The College Admissions Scandal

1:57pm September 30, 2020

A new book tells the story behind Operation Varsity Blues. The juicy details demonstrate how the admissions process was already broken and extremely unfair.

Writer Kevin Young has been named The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. "Having visited the museum myself with my family, I know what a powerful place it is, transforming visitors both in-person and online, and re

Arts

Kevin Young Named Director Of National Museum Of African American History And Culture

1:17pm September 30, 2020

by Elizabeth Blair

"I am eager to engage further directions in the museum's mission, embracing our digital present and future while furthering conversations around Black history, art, liberation and joy," Young says.

A portrait of Mac Davis taken on Oct. 12, 1981.

Mac Davis, 'Painter' Of Classic Songs, Dead At 78

1:09pm September 30, 2020

by Andrew Flanagan

Davis parlayed a middling career as a promotions man into a successful one writing songs for the stars and scoring hits of his own.

Helen Reddy, performing in London in 1974.

'I Am Woman' Singer Helen Reddy Is Dead, Aged 78

1:08pm September 30, 2020

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

The Australian-born singer whose feminist anthem "I Am Woman" became a hit at the height of the women's liberation movement died Tuesday in Los Angeles. She had dementia.

Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson stages one of her father's "deaths" in Dick Johnson Is Dead.

Arts

Filmmaker Faces Her Father's Mortality By Staging His 'Death' Again And Again

12:08pm September 30, 2020

by Sam Briger

When Kirsten Johnson's dad started showing signs of dementia, she struggled to accept the impending loss. So she staged a series of imagined accidents in her new film, Dick Johnson Is Dead.

Filmmaker Radha Blank stars as a fictionalized version of herself in The Forty-Year-Old Version. The film, which began as a Web series, was inspired by Blank's own experience as a playwright and rapper in Harlem.

Arts

'The Forty-Year-Old Version' Is Fast, Funny, Multi-Faceted And No Small Feat

11:27am September 30, 2020

by Justin Chang

Radha Blank plays a fictionalized version of herself — a struggling artist from Harlem, who was hailed years earlier as a promising playwright. The film is gorgeously shot in black-and-white.

Left to Right: Naji, Ibrahim, Ahmed, Adeebah, Rahaf, Ammal and Hala Aldabaan in their Connecticut home.

A Syrian Refugee Family's Resettlement In The U.S. Is Captured In Graphic Novel

3:58pm September 29, 2020

by Deborah Amos

Welcome To The New World begins in 2016 when the Aldabaans arrive on election day — and wake up in Donald Trump's America. Author Jake Halpern began to document the newcomers in a comic strip.

His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, by Jonathan Alter

'His Very Best' Calls Jimmy Carter 'Perhaps The Most Misunderstood President'

3:48pm September 29, 2020

by Michael Schaub

Jonathan Alter tells Carter's life story beautifully and with admirable fairness — while it's evident that he admires Carter, he treats the former president as a real person, as flawed as anyone else.