Arts Columns
Gatsby / 51mm
Gatsby To see dawn’s red face, angry against a brooding horizon. Your dowdy eyes, your tears: pearly, lactic. Two fingers pressed to the roof of your mouth, the prickle and the purge. I slice
‘My First Summer’ Review: Colorful and Messy and Free
“My First Summer” is diametrically opposed to my last article on “Brokeback Mountain” in terms of visibility: Neither I nor anyone I know had heard of it. But boy am I glad Letterboxd led me to this gem.
Salgado, the Sahel, and Photography’s Biggest Dilemma
Sebastião Salgado’s book “Sahel: The End of the Road” is neither mesmerizing nor captivating. In fact, the vast majority of its images make the viewer want to look away.
Apollonia Poilâne ’07 and the Culture of Bread
Legacy. History. Institution. All of these words come to mind when thinking of the famous bakery, an almost century-old Parisian institution of which Poilâne serves as the careful custodian.
On Creating Demons / Fresh Eyes
A chicken crows evening in a hideaway hen– house, songs of remembering and choosing. I left my vitality, once, in the arm of your apartment, a crooked yellow elbow. Do you remember?
“Brokeback Mountain” Review: If You Enjoy Films About Queer Misery, This Movie Is For You
Jake Gyllenhaal is Jack Twist and Heath Ledger is Ennis Del Mar, a couple of sheepherders whose work on Brokeback Mountain leads to a beautiful and heart-wrenching romance that develops between them — or so I was led to believe.
On Creating Demons / Fresh Eyes
A chicken crows evening in a hideaway hen– house, songs of remembering and choosing. I left my vitality, once, in the arm of your apartment, a crooked yellow elbow. Do you remember?
McCurry, Meiselas, and the Mystery of Imagination in Documentary Photography
Several years ago, my parents gifted me a copy of National Geographic’s “Asia and Oceania: Around the World in 125 years.” My history-loving, faraway imagination was seduced by the book, transporting me to the mountains of Kashmir, ports of Victoria Harbor, and jungles of Bagan to live a multitude of lives I had never before conceived of.
Lena Waithe and Unremarkable Black Art
While I could commend “Twenties” for its groundbreaking representation of queer Black womanhood, I prefer to not praise the show solely because of the gaps it fills.
Three Little Birds: Yared’s Inspiration From Above
This story takes us to the center of the Yaredian and one might say Ethiopian philosophy of music. It tells us that music does not come from within us, but reveals itself through us after descending from on high.
Arquitectura Mexicana
I was 15 when I first visited my homeland for the first time. My mother’s stories and media like “Coco” had familiarized me with aspects of my Mexican culture, but this didn’t compare to seeing it in person.
‘The Effect’ Preview: ‘Love, Drugs, and Ethics’
“The Effect,” running Nov. 10 through Nov. 13 at the Loeb Ex, follows two volunteers in a clinical trial who fall in love. It aims for realism and an immersive, thought-provoking experience.
The Call to Adventure
There isn’t a better metaphor in the world for overcoming obstacles and ascending from melancholic depths than climbing a mountain. Or seven of them.
Picturing the Past and Future — The Resurgent Importance of Nadav Kander’s Journey Along the Yangtze River
Kander implies that photography is a poor means of objectivity, preferring to use it to interrogate the world’s emotional depths.
Issa Rae Frees Black Women From The Restraints of Respectability
“Rap Sh!t” is not concerned with racial uplift or respectability. It is a refreshingly real representation of the absurdities and contradictions of being an aspiring rapper, of survival, Miami, and girls from the hood.
A Child's Thoughts image 1
Illustration by Elana R. Lane, computer science and design student at Northeastern University.
When I Talk About Anime, I Am Talking About Time
When rewatching a favorite, I can recall distinctly the landscapes and people, the anxiety and aspirations, that marked the period I first watched it in. Anime has become an accidental way of assembling a chronology of my past.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Visions of Return
Many of the most iconic scenes from the animator’s extended repertoire are ones that involve transformation.
An Unlikely Cubicle
At Harvard, we push them down deep, transcending their tragedies of inaccess through our relentless resourcefulness. But through our hard work and creativity, our not-a-moment’s hesitation to grasp at any opportunity that comes our way, we have the courage at moments like these to reflect. And to reach back.