The Magazine
May 6, 2024
Goings On
Goings On
Teresita Fernández’s Shifting Sculptural Landscapes
Also: Kamasi Washington, “The Outsiders” reviewed, Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival, and more.
The Food Scene
The Return, Again, of the Power Lunch
Four Twenty Five, a luxe new dining room from the mega-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten, takes square aim at the expense-account crowd.
By Helen Rosner
The Talk of the Town
Benjamin Wallace-Wells on Trump’s criminal trial; Civil War photos; Ramy Youssef’s Eid banquet; Putin and Berezovsky in “Patriots”; chess and basketball.
Comment
Donald Trump’s Sleepy, Sleazy Criminal Trial
The most striking aspect of the former President’s hush-money trial so far has been that, for the first time in a decade, Trump is struggling to command attention.
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Archives Dept.
The Civil War Photographers Before Kirsten Dunst
The Still Picture Branch of the National Archives contains the glass-plate negatives of the real Civil War, including those by the photographer Timothy O’Sullivan.
By Robert Sullivan
Breaking Bread
Breaking a Ramadan Fast with Ramy Youssef
A gaggle of creative types—David Byrne, Cynthia Nixon, Debra Winger—gather in Bushwick for a lavish bridge-building Eid.
By Jennifer Wilson
The Boards
How to Play Putin
Will Keen and Michael Stuhlbarg, the stars of the play “Patriots,” about the rise of the Russian President, studied how Putin plays table tennis and why his hand trembles.
By Michael Schulman
Dept. of Moves
A Miami Heat Rookie Gets Checkmated
Jaime Jaquez, Jr., a chess enthusiast, arranged a meet-up with the thirteen-year-old prodigy Tanitoluwa Adewumi for some tips and a game of H-O-R-S-E.
By Dan Greene
Reporting & Essays
Profiles
Who’s Afraid of Judith Butler?
The philosopher and gender theorist has been denounced, demonized, even burned in effigy. They have a theory about that.
By Parul Sehgal
Our Local Correspondents
Can Turning Office Towers Into Apartments Save Downtowns?
Nathan Berman has helped rescue Manhattan’s financial district from a “doom loop” by carving attractive living spaces from hulking buildings that once housed fields of cubicles.
By D. T. Max
American Chronicles
Deb Haaland Confronts the History of the Federal Agency She Leads
As the first Native American Cabinet member, the Secretary of the Interior has made it part of her job to address the travesties of the past.
By Casey Cep
Annals of Inquiry
The Battle for Attention
How do we hold on to what matters in a distracted age?
By Nathan Heller
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Horoscopes Written by My Mother
With Saturn rising, you might feel the astrological pull of stubbornness in your sixth house. Like when Bess waited thirteen hours before she got the epidural.
By Bess Kalb
Fiction
Fiction
“Pulse”
He felt a pure, infantile fear. The smell of pencils. The cold metal smell of the ladder. There was a static crackle above him. And it froze his blood.
By Cynan Jones
The Critics
A Critic at Large
Academic Freedom Under Fire
Politicians despise it. Administrators aren’t defending it. But it made our universities great—and we’ll miss it when it’s gone.
By Louis Menand
Books
Briefly Noted
“Knife,” “A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages,” “Neighbors and Other Stories,” and “Butter.”
Books
How Far Should We Carry the Logic of the Animal-Rights Movement?
People who think seriously about the use and abuse of nonhuman creatures often end up calling for changes that might seem indefensible—at least, at first.
By Kelefa Sanneh
Pop Music
The Tortured Poetry of Taylor Swift’s New Album
“The Tortured Poets Department” has moments of tenderness. But it suffers from being too long and too familiar.
By Amanda Petrusich
The Theatre
“Stereophonic” and “Cabaret” Turn Up the Volume on Broadway
David Adjmi’s cult-hit play features seventies-inspired rock songs by Will Butler, while Eddie Redmayne presides over a demonic version of the Kit Kat Club.
By Helen Shaw
The Current Cinema
Love Means Nothing in Tennis but Everything in “Challengers”
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist sustain a three-way rally of romance in Luca Guadagnino’s almost absurdly sexy sports film.
By Justin Chang
Poems
Poems
“Laundry”
“Who can watch a child and not feel fear / like static in the background or a tinnitus you try to ignore.”
By Ellen Bass
Cartoons
1/15
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Link copied
Puzzles & Games
Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.