weekend links: Lil Yachty, Ibrahim Kamara, killer Smurfs
Katja Novitskova, Pattern of Activation (sea lion) (2015). Image courtesy Hyperallergic.
Rebecca Solnit’s The Loneliness of Donald Trump provides thoughtful analysis of the man who is single-handedly setting our country (and planet) on the path to destruction. The Paris Agreement is only the latest in what is sure to be a long list of spiteful, misanthropic evils that this spoiled, narcissistic man-child wreaks upon the nation. [Lit Hub]
Khalid, nineteen-year-old pop prodigy and creator of teenage anthems, talks to Michel Martin about his debut album, American Teen, which explores timeless themes of belonging, love, loneliness, and loss. His mother is there with him as he speaks about his music as an outlet for “youth” problems that are experienced by people of all ages. [NPR]
Lil Yachty’s debut album, Teenage Emotions, was released last Friday, and with it comes a need to analyze his cheerful and childlike brand of “joyous hip-hop” and its transcendence of (or disregard for) traditional hip-hop. Yachty remains cold like a Sprite soda in the face of hip-hop diehards’ heated rejection of him. [The New Yorker]
Ibrahim Kamara is a stylist born in Sierra Leone and based in London who has been pioneering “a new vision of black masculinity” through his bold, hands-on work, which often goes as far as dumpster diving. Here, he discusses his formative years and misconceptions about African fashion. [Fader]
In Kerpen, Germany, is an art space that is less museum, more haunted house. The inaugural exhibit at the Haus Mödrath Space for Art, titled Lodgers, is a collection of dark and dystopian, terror-inducing images including humanoid robots devouring Christ, coffins and cribs put together, and killer Smurfs. Go see it before it closes in November 2018, if you DER. [Hyperallergic]
Artist Kara Walker, famous for her sugar sphinx statue in Williamsburg called A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, will be unveiling a new public art project involving water this fall at the contemporary art triennial Prospect New Orleans. Her art will be featured alongside those by icons, such as Yoko Ono and Louis Armstrong. [The New York Times]
With the beginning of Pride Month comes news that Netflix has cancelled Sense8, the Wachowskis’ daring and emotionally charged show known for its diversity, especially its representation of the LGBT community, after two seasons. The public is reacting with a kind of outrage that was last seen when Netflix cancelled another show famous for its inclusiveness, The Get Down. [Vulture]
John Cameron Mitchell’s new movie is based on the Neil Gaiman short story “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” and Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman will be in it as aliens. No theatrical release date yet for this iconic ‘70s period piece, but here’s to hoping it delivers that quintessential Gaiman weirdness. [Flavorwire]
LA’s dark-pop trio MUNA stands out as a politicized band that represents the relationship between pop music and activism, especially in their rebuking of the new president and all three members’ overt queerness. Released in the aftermath of the inauguration, their newest album, About U, includes songs that are explicitly about toxic relationships, as well as songs rooted in advocacy that often address current events like the Pulse nightclub shooting and Trump’s immigration ban. [The Nation]
Cooper Hewitt’s new exhibit, “The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s,” is a dazzling homage to the Art Deco design. Time to pull out that dress you were saving for a Gatsby themed party. [The Village Voice]
Austin bid adieu to the Off Center recently, longtime home of the Rude Mechs theater group and the latest casualty in Austin’s struggle for affordable arts spaces. Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin reports. [Arts and Culture TX]
In better news, Austinites are in for a treat this weekend, with the arrival of Ai Weiwei’s Forever Bicycles, installed at the Waller Creek Conservancy and opening on June 3. The piece is on long-term loan and has been brought to town courtesy of The Contemporary Austin, The Waller Creek Conservancy, and the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation.
—Jae Lee