‣ Why have the homes of Black American writers like Toni Morrison and Langston Hughes fallen into disrepair? Journalist Nneka M. Okona writes for the Guardian about their structural neglect and possible blueprints for their preservation:
Morrison’s home, according to Conley during her visit, is privately owned, as demonstrated by Donald Trump signs she saw surrounding the property. As of now, there are no efforts for a historical marker or any other kind of preservation of the home. Hughes’ home in Cleveland has endured many changes throughout the years beyond the planned demolition in 2009 – including a renovation before being sold for $85,000 to a private owner in 2013. Being privately owned means the hurdles for historical markers or any other designation of its status fall into the owner’s hands, if they choose to pursue it at all. These homes, however, represent a much larger pattern of neglect of integral legacies of Black writers, even after their deaths.
The statistics on preservation of African American historical structures reflect this. Only 2% of the 95,000 entries on the National Register of Historic Places focus on the lives, experience and culture of African Americans.
That means there’s larger systemic failings and inequities to be addressed for cases like Hughes’ and Morrison’s homes in Ohio, despite the issue of their current ownership. And the countless other homes of Black literary figures throughout history, those who have held us together and dazzled us in written form on the page. These legacies matter and have personal and collective stakes. What is preserved, after all, molds what we remember and what is known about Black writers of the past. Our Black creative memory, too, is sculpted from these things.
‣ New York City erupted in protest after the police who murdered 25-year-old graffiti artist Michael Stewart were acquitted in 1985. But Stewart’s trailblazing work, and the murder trial itself, are often missing from shows about street art today. For the Nation, Michael Shorris reviews a new book that attempts to set the record straight:
Another man—another painter and graffiti artist—sits in the shadow of this colorful carnival. Michael Stewart was a peer of Basquiat, Haring, and Scharf, a young painter who ran in the same downtown scene, angling for his own gallery show. “Michael,” observed Haring, “wanted to be like Jean-Michel. He looked like Jean-Michel.” He was even dating Basquiat’s ex-girlfriend. Like many burgeoning artists, Stewart followed a peripatetic trajectory, working service jobs and deejaying, all while painting on the side. But his ambitions were cut short. Early in the morning of September 15, 1983, Stewart was delivered to New York’s Bellevue Hospital by a group of New York City Transit Police officers. He had been arrested for writing graffiti. He was unconscious and badly bruised. He remained in a coma for 13 days, then he died. He was 25 years old.
What, precisely, occurred during the wee hours of that September morning—and why six transit police officers were later acquitted during the trial of their actions—is the subject of Elon Green’s new book, The Man Nobody Killed: Life, Death, and Art in Michael Stewart’s New York. For New Yorkers of a certain generation, Stewart’s name will ring familiar: His case was a cause célèbre in a city fiercely divided by matters of race and justice. But his story’s prominence has faded with time, grimly obscured by a seemingly endless list of names lost to racial violence and police brutality. At Luna Luna, attendees are met by an enormous collage of downtown artists and a timeline of events contemporaneous with the show; Stewart’s name and face are nowhere to be found.
‣ The Chinese government is targeting women who write gay erotica, despite the fact that cis het material faces comparatively little backlash, Yi Ma and Eunice Yang report for BBC:
Although authors of heterosexual erotica have been jailed in China, observers say the genre is subjected to far less censorship. Gay erotica, which is more subversive, seems to bother authorities more. Volunteers in a support group for the Haitang writers told the BBC police even questioned some readers.
Those who reported being arrested declined to be interviewed, fearing repercussions. Police in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, who are accused of driving this crackdown, have not responded to the BBC.
Online, the crackdown has unleashed a debate – and a rarer pushback against the law.
“Is sex really something to be ashamed of?” a Weibo user asked, arguing that China’s anti-obscenity laws are out of touch. Another wrote that women never get to decide what is obscene because they don’t control the narrative. Even legal scholars have expressed concern that just 5,000 views for anything deemed “obscene” qualifies as criminal “distribution”, lowering the bar to arrest creators.
It made Beijing uneasy enough that discussions have been vanishing: #HaitangAuthorsArrested drew more than 30 million views on Weibo before it was censored. Posts offering legal advice are gone. A prominent Chinese news site’s story has been taken down. Writers’ accounts, and some of the handles, are also disappearing.
‣ Matt Novak reports for Gizmodo about users online who claim that Gazans requesting aid on social media are, actually, AI-generated. The horrifying trend is making survival during a genocide, which often requires Palestinians to appeal to twisted algorithmic priorities to get attention and donations online, quantifiably more difficult:
Gazans like Sahar and Saeed are far from the only people having a hard time proving their identities in a skeptical social media environment. Bluesky has received criticism from activists in recent months as Palestinians in Gaza struggle to survive but are getting banned left and right for allegedly being scammers or bots. Hany Abu Hilal is an English teacher in Gaza with three young kids that Gizmodo also verified as a real person through his Palestinian ID and a video call. He started a crowdfunding campaign on Chuffed, but he keeps getting his accounts deleted on Bluesky for spam.
“My flat was completely burnt and then completely destroyed,” he told Gizmodo, explaining that he lives in a tent in Khan Younis which can’t shield them properly from the heat or the cold. Hany said he was banned from Bluesky without a clear explanation and he’s desperate because he can’t ask for help online in spaces that keep deleting Palestinian accounts.
‣ Late Marvel comic artist Jack Kirby, who authored iconic characters like Black Panther and Iron Man, just got two streets named after him in his hometown of New York City. Lex Briscuso reports for IGN:
NYC renamed the corner of Essex Street and Delancey Street on the Lower East Side to Jack Kirby Way and Yancy Street, highlighting the New York native’s contributions to his home neighborhood. Kirby was born on that corner and lived at 147 Essex Street, a place he later paid homage to by inventing the iconic Yancy Street, the home of Ben Grimm AKA The Thing.
Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief C.B. Cebulski took to social media to gush over the ceremony, in which the city unveiled two brand new street signs corresponding with the new names. Kirby’s family and Marvel friends and family attended the milestone moment.
‣ The Millennials are fighting with the Gen Z-ers again — this time about the so-called “Gen Z stare.” As a ’99 cusper, I’m staying out of it, but both the phenomenon and the discourse around it are generating some interesting theories about communication and social norms. Nicole Stock asked people about it for the New York Times:
It’s unclear exactly how and when the phrase was coined, but several social media users said they first came across it on TikTok in the last few weeks. And the cause? That’s also up for debate.
Lanie Beams, 25, who felt qualified to make a TikTok on the topic because she is Gen Z herself, said there was a wide range of causes people were identifying, including vaping, iPad usage and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Everyone’s blaming it on something else,” Ms. Beams said.
Several social media users also pointed to the idea that the stare had roots in anxiety.
“It almost feels like a resurgence of stranger danger,” said Jordan MacIsaac, a 24-year-old bartender. “Like, people just don’t know how to make small talk or interact with people they don’t know.”
‣ Thanks to relentless Netflix ads (and the recommendation of News Editor Valentina Di Liscia), I am officially part of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders docuseries fandom. YouTuber Khadija Mbowe breaks down the web of gendered, cultural norms and values encoded into the team’s aesthetics and ethos — and why it’s okay to watch the show, as long as you proceed with caution:
‣ Nobody’s doing it like this guy who has spent two decades building a mini model of NYC:
‣ A terrifingly accurate actor-on-actor parody, featuring the nepo baby final boss:
‣ It’s called having TASTE:
Required Reading is published every Thursday afternoon and comprises a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.
