Father of the Blues
August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom soars in a new film adaptation with Viola Davis, bringing the playwright’s voice to a whole new generation
Breaking Out Is Hard to Do
The director of The Queen’s Gambit reveals which songs he plays when the well seems to have gone dry
Loading the Dice
Before the world praised Picasso and Duchamp, a 1913 alphabet book skewered the Cubists and futurists in a series of hilarious illustrations
Good Pluck
The Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital is gaining world recognition for his delightful mastering of the string instrument
Short List
What to read this week, from Roger Rosenblatt’s new essays to books on Venice and the origins of humankind
Doctors’ Orders
The story of two pioneering women doctors and the London hospital they founded amid the turmoil of World War I
French Leave
Nearly ten years ago Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of rape but managed to avoid jail. A new documentary recounts the incident and its aftermath
The Female Gaze
Alongside a show at Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery, a book re-evaluates the history of photography through the lens of the New Woman
Zeina Durra
With Luxor, the British filmmaker brings romance to the ruins of the Egyptian Pharaohs
Night and Day
The centenarian Eddie Jaku, who survived Kristallnacht and Auschwitz, considers himself “the happiest man on Earth”
Away with Words
Everybody’s talking, but what’s the point when we have these songs from Charles Mingus, Art Farmer, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, and more
Home for the Holidays
Art, ballet, operas, carols: a cultural guide to a holiday season spent socially distanced and (mostly) at home
Candice Bergen Is No Dummy
What it’s like to work with Meryl Streep. And the man who turned her “to goo”
On Thin Ice
Confessions of a hockey dad
Trump in Exile
Where on earth can a defeated, disgraced president go when his White House stint is finished?
He Keeps 007 in Gear
Good news: Ben Whishaw returns as Q in the new James Bond. Not good news: the film is still delayed