Category Culture

Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In art history, the odalisque is a female figure in repose, her body splayed out for the viewer’s eye to devour. Ingres’s “Grande Odalisque,” from 1814, bestows her with an anatomically…

The Most Treasured Jar in My Pantry

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Of all the ingredients in my pantry, my jar of vanilla is my most treasured. It’s not the ordinary kind of vanilla that you can find at any grocery store; I’m…

The Haiti That Still Dreams

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story I often receive condolence-type calls, e-mails, and texts about Haiti. Many of these messages are in response to the increasingly dire news in the press, some of which echoes what many…

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

I’ve been going back to eastern Kentucky for over a decade. Since 2016, something there has changed. Kevin Rogers has five rules: love God, love others, don’t do dumb things, don’t die, and “Get ye, therefore, over thyself.” “Roger’s Rules”…

A Tamarind Tree’s Sweet and Sour Inheritance

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Gifts from ancestors take the darndest forms. Mine included a tamarind tree, the tallest and most magnificent in our yard. My grandfather’s grandfather—a tall, corpulent Indian, prone to indulging in fine…

In Justine Kurland’s Photographs, a Mother and Son Hit the Road

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The American road-trip narrative is often marked by violence. In films such as Ridley Scott’s “Thelma & Louise” (1991), Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” (1973), and Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” (1994), acts…

It’s Taylor Swift Day, Again

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Tyler FoggattSenior Editor You’re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. Don’t be…

Ralph Fiennes Sidles His Way Into Power as Macbeth

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Simply getting to the almost totally sold-out monster hit “Macbeth” in Washington, D.C., which has already been staged in Liverpool, London, and Edinburgh, contains its own, particular adventure. Produced in the…