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Arts in Society

Arts in Society brings our previously siloed poetry and fiction—along with cultural criticism and belles lettres—into a common project. It focuses on how the arts—including the visual arts, theater, dance, and film—can speak directly to the most pressing political and civic concerns, including racism, inequality, poverty, demagoguery, sex- and gender-based violence, a disempowered electorate, and a collapsing natural world.

Poetry

In the middle of the road of our life
I wandered upon a dark wood a gloomy wood

A Sigh

Tomás Q. Morín

Arts in Society

Everyday Mojo Letters to Yusef

A series of creative reflections on why Yusef Komunyakaa remains one of our greatest living writers and what it means to be a Black Jazz Poet.

Arts in Society

Bringing Abolition to the Museum

Artist-activist Shellyne Rodriguez speaks with Billy Anania about museum labor practices and how Strike MoMA imagines a future of art for the people.

Shellyne Rodriguez, Billy Anania

Poetry

That’s how bad
I’d like to be
desire’s idea
of a good time.

A Name That Doesn’t Nick

Arts in Society

Loudspeaker

A woman, menaced late at night by catcalling men, tries a novel approach to self-defense. Translated from the Spanish by the author and Arthur M. Dixon.

Anjanette Delgado

Poetry

We knew so little
about the plague
we underwent . . .

Three poems

Arts in Society

Mike Nichols and the American Century

The director made landmark contributions to three distinct art forms. His life reflected the American experience in the latter half of the twentieth century—both its failures and its feats.

Jonathan Kirshner

Arts in Society

Working on Our Primal Scream

Amidst a boys’ club of ’70s-era comics, Shary Flenniken’s ‘Trots and Bonnie’ was unique for its feminist depiction of the political and sexual awakening of young women.

Arts in Society

Adrienne Rich’s Solitudes

Critics tend to discount Rich’s later poems, fundamentally misunderstanding how they engage her radical vision of community.

Arts in Society

Queer Shoulders at the Wheel

John Wieners was one of the most important gay poets of his generation, but subsequent decades have seen him all but forgotten. A new collection of his letters vividly returns him to readers.

Arts in Society

Autofiction’s First Boom Was in Turn-of-the-Century Japan

Newly translated into English, Minae Mizumura’s An I-Novel is a vivid portrait of immigrant displacement and the ironies of our global cultural ecosystem.

Arts in Society

‘Ancestors’ Contributors Reading

A recording of our digital reading of poetry, fiction, and essays from our annual literary anthology, with ASL interpreting.

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