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Visual Arts Review: Cartoon Memoirist

June 7, 2005
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By Milo Miles Iranian expatriate Marjane Satrapi continues to expand the art of the comic book. Back in the ’40s, the long-standing prejudice that comic books were incapable of presenting serious, adult matters was exploded by such artists as Bernie Krigstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Will Eisner. But the discovery of how just how uniquely valuable…

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Book Review: The Art of B.S.

April 13, 2005
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A new book gives a philosophical analysis of American culture’s obsession with nonsense.

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Dance Review: Dancing with Ancestors

March 21, 2005
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Urban Bush Women go back to the past in the name of a more communal and compassionate future. By Debra Cash View Gallery The names of Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. Dubois, Shirley Chishom and Ossie Davis roll down like a mighty stream. On stage, Amara Tabor-Smith of the Urban Bush Women reaches across space, at turns…

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Book Review: “The Swimmer” — Wading Through the Ripples of History

February 22, 2005
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By Tess Lewis A new novel captures the atmosphere of post-1956 Hungary from a child’s point of view. The Swimmer by Zsuzsa Bank. Translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo. (Harcourt Books) In tales of exile, the stories of those left behind are rarely told. This is hardly surprising because the abandoned, when they…

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Book Review: Samuel Delany’s Phallic Fun

February 7, 2005
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 Sci-fi master Samuel Delany’s latest novel is a mystery set in the ancient world. Phallos, by Samuel R. Delany. (Bamberger Books) By Vincent Czyz Samuel R. Delany is best known as “l’enfant terrible” who published his first novel at age 20 and then went on to win science fiction’s most prestigious awards — the Nebula…

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Book Review: Social “Darling”

November 22, 2004
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This novel about an American radical of the ’60s who flees to Africa displays a cool grasp of the barbaric machinations of globalization.

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Dance Review: Race and Dance

November 9, 2004
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Dance icon Bill T. Jones confounds expectations about race and the power of stereotypes in two new dance pieces. “Reading, Mercy and the Artificial Nigger” and “Mercy 10×8 On a Circle” by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company By Debra Cash Bill T. Jones would no doubt take umbrage at being compared to the white…

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Dance Commentary: Facing Mekka

November 5, 2004
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A new dance show by Rennie Harris serves as a valuable response to MTV’s commercialization of hip hop.

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Book Review: Target — The White House

October 21, 2004
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By Harvey Blume Nicholson Baker’s new novel is about a man obsessed with killing President Bush. Checkpoint: A Novel by Nicholson Baker. (Knopf) Nicholson Baker’s short, funny — and frequently tender — new novel consists of a conversation between Ben and Jay, high school buddies who haven’t seen each other in a few years, and…

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Book Review: “The Sweet Science” — Nuanced Writing About a Brutal Sport

October 18, 2004
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A.J. Liebling’s classic work of journalism about the fight game is back in print.

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