Of course, I’m talking about the new Ryan Coogler film, Sinners. It’s the topic of the moment and an aesthetic roadmap for enduring these trying times. One of the many things I love about this film is its perfect timing. What’s happening to the country has us on an emotional knife edge. Now here come two-plus hours of story that has completely captured the zeitgeist. With his comrade in arms and the arts, Michael B. Jordan, Coogler is serving creativity, beauty, depth, histo

Among the things that are essential to living, the writing and reading of words stems from the mists of the past and reaches into the equally nebulous future. Books serve as markers along the path of evolving civilization. “Read!” That was the word revealed by an angel to the Prophet Muhammad as he was meditating in the Cave of Hira. It is part of the first Surah of the Muslim Holy Book, the Quran. “In the beginning was the Word…” is the first verse of the first chapter in

Two recent events taking place a world apart, have propelled my thoughts back several decades. They speak to the interconnection of art, culture, and politics. What links them are a film festival and the synchronicity of time. One is the publication of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker’s diaries, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire . The other is the sentencing, in absentia, of life imprisonment for Blaise Compaore, former president of Burkina Faso. The year was 1992 w

Painting and protest. Art and activism. Singular style; multidisciplinary approach. The exhibit at the New Museum of works by Faith Ringgold heralds all of this and more. It encompasses three floors and six decades of her paintings, multimedia story quilts, and craft-based soft sculptures. That it is the first full retrospective of the 90-year old artist’s work in her hometown of New York City is regrettable if not shameful. But seeing it all together now is glorious, i

Jeen-yus: A Kanye Trilogy is a documentary that follows two decades in the life of the artist formerly known as Kanye West, Yeezy, and now legally known as Ye, American music producer, rapper and fashion designer. There is not much I need to say about him. Ye speaks for himself under his many names, professions and public pronouncements. The two men who began the documentary in the early 2000s, Coodie and Chike, had complete access from early on in Ye’s career. They were

One of the benefits of the recent December holiday, coupled with the restrictions of a resurging pandemic, was lots of free time to stay in and catch up on my TV viewing. One of the series in which I indulged was The Chef’s Table. It took me a long time to tune in. I thought it was just another cooking show, so I ignored it until last year. Then I caught one episode in Season 3 featuring Jeong Kwan, a South Korean Buddhist monk who is the cook at her monastery. Actually,

With the recent passing of Sidney Poitier, tributes and reflections have been pouring in for this man among men. I, too, have a Sidney Poitier story. The year was 1992. I was a young mid-level executive at Sony Pictures Entertainment in Culver City, CA. That was the year that the American Film Institute gave Mr. Poitier a Life Achievement Award. Columbia Pictures, part of Sony Pictures Entertainment, had good reason to celebrate the recipient and the honor. For the decade

Photo Courtesy Jonathan Ernst/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, NY Times 1/22/21 When I first heard of Amanda Gorman, she was 17 years old. A tiny slip of a girl who’d become the nation’s first Youth Poet Laureate. She had begun making her mark on the literary world long before that, and her words had already carried her far. So I considered myself lucky that in 2018, I was able to secure her participation in a tribute to the profound and prolific poet, Sonia Sanchez, at

The day my daughter and I got tickets to the Broadway play, Hamilton , it was by divine synchronicity. A good friend, who knew I wanted to see it, heard that morning of two other friends who had tickets for that day’s matinee but suddenly could not attend. A couple of texts, a trip to the ATM, a quick handoff at Grand Central Station, a decision for my daughter to skip classes and there we were in our mezzanine seats, lapping up every note. So I was really ready for the fil

It’s called the Façade Commission - four sculptures at the Fifth Avenue entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Although the four niches were built into the stonework when this entrance was opened in 1902, this is the first time they have actually housed sculptures. These could not have been four timelier, more other worldly and energetically powerful works of art. From the moment I read about their installation last fall the sculptures have called to m

In 2018, the March on Washington Film Festival paid tribute to the great Sonia Sanchez on its Opening Night. Seminal figure of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, now in her 80s, Sonia Sanchez continues to raise her indomitable voice for art, power, racial justice, women’s liberation and peace. Her second book, We A BaddDDD People , brought the revolution of the political and the personal into popular culture. She has played a pivotal role as a poet, playwright, teacher, a

In 1871, novelist Lewis Carroll wrote the sequel to his 1865 classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , called Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There . In it he described an alternate universe, where things are contrary to the real world. The Covid-19 pandemic is a potent opportunity to use it as a kind of mirror, to see things from an alternative perspective for what might be hiding in plain sight. After following all of the directives to wash hands frequent

As soon as I saw the commercials for this new network comedy, Bob Hearts Abishola, I was intrigued. Truth be told, I did not hold out much hope that this sitcom would authentically depict the lives of immigrant Nigerians in America without succumbing to culturally ignorant stereotypes and dumbed-down dialogue. That seems to be the general way of sitcoms. And I was very wary of what’s become the typical comedy couple – an out-of-shape clueless man who is the butt (pun intend

I love clothes. I mean I really LOVE clothes. I love fabrics, textures and natural fibers so much I can taste them. I dream about clothes, and wake up with ideas for new outfits. It must be in my DNA. In my senior year of high school I was voted best dressed, and in an all girl’s school that’s saying something. (Actually, I used to think that was a pretty shallow award, but now I know they were heralding my gifts.) I once saw a Barbie post card that read, “Every day I wake u

That’s a pretty drastic statement, right? Burn the books. Well, it’s not shades of Fahrenheit 451 , the dystopian novel and film about the slow substitution of reading literature for the sound bites and factoids of television. In the world created by acclaimed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, and reimagined by director Francois Truffaut, reading was banned and firemen burned houses that contained books. So I don’t really mean to burn the books, exactly, but I do mea

If you’re a movie buff you might recognize the title of this blog as the name of the book written by the character Hubbell Gardiner in the movie The Way We Were . Robert Redford played Hubbell, all golden blond, young, athletic and almost unbearably handsome. He was the gorgeous goyem guy to Barbra Streisand’s Katie Morosky, the bright, outspoken, politically-passionate, Brooklyn Jewish girl. He was penthouse condo to her top floor walk-up. An odd couple if ever there wa