“What will happen to Afghan programs like the Zohra Orchestra as the Taliban regains control of the country?”
arts and culture
Longreads Best of 2018: Arts and Culture
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in arts and culture.
On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Cartoonist Hustling for Money
Bob Mankoff created a successful business model for cartoonists to get paid. Then Condé Nast ruined it.
‘Oakland Used to Be More Funky’: Where Have All the Artists Gone?
The staff at Laney Tower take a close look at the past, present, and future of Oakland’s artistic community.
Vanishing Point
“Without the right kind of help, Oakland could lose yet another piece of its vibrant, artistic legacy.” As affordable residences and art spaces are becoming increasingly scarce, artists in Oakland are forced to move elsewhere. Laney Tower journalists take a look at the history, present, and uncertain future of the city’s arts and culture scene.
‘The Stakes May Be the Survival of Civilization’
The first report from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1966 was a passionate defense of the government’s role in the arts.
A Moleskine In Every Satchel, and a Board Game On Every Table
In the New York Review of Books, Bill McKibben uses his review of David Sax’s new book, The Revenge of Analog to meditate on the enduring joys of playing board games or writing things with paper and pen, and how they keep us grounded in our humanity.
Pause! We Can Go Back!
Bill McKibben’s review of the new David Sax book, The Revenge of Analog, is itself a great read on the virtues and affectations newly-hip analog items — Moleskins, Scrabble boards, vinyl records.
She Loved Him, and He Died in the Holocaust. Now Her Son Is Bringing His Music Back to Life
A son spends years trying to learn what happened to a talented young musician whom his mother loved and never forgotten, and recovers some of the music he left behind.