Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – May 15, 2023

Bruce McCalls “Safe Travels”

The New Yorker – May 15, 2023 issue

Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter

A portrait of Prince Harry composed of scribbles that evoke writing, on a yellow piece of binder paper.

By J. R. Moehringer

Collaborating on his memoir, “Spare,” meant spending hours together on Zoom, meeting his inner circle, and gaining a new perspective on the tabloids.

The Filmmakers Who Voyaged Inside the Body

The filming of a human surgery.

By Alexandra Schwartz

For more than a decade, two “recovering” anthropologists have brought documentary closer to the human experience. Now they’ve made the camera part of our flesh and blood.

The Critics

Arts & Culture: Art Review Magazine – May 2023 Issue

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ArtReview (May 2023 Issue)Featuring Frida Orupabo, Isaac Julien, Sarah Pierce, Kahlil Robert Irving and Christina Quarles; columns on faltering art markets and questions of what art should do for a society; and much more

Aki Sasamoto wins Calder Prize 2023

Aki Sasamoto, Yield Point, 2017, installation view. Image: Jason Mandella

The winner receives $50k, a three-month residency at Atelier Calder, and the placement of works in a public collection

Have We Reached the Endpoint of Revivalism?

Cao Fei, MatryoshkaVerse, 2022. Double Channel HD video, 16:4.5, color with sound, 37min 38sec © Cao Fei, 2023. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space and Sprüth Magers

Art has long looked to the recent past for inspiration, but might the return of post-Internet art just be too much, too soon?

Frida Orupaboon the cover of ArtReview May 2023, mines images sourced from colonial archives, film, fashion and family albums to create collages that carve representation and empowerment from stereotype. Her visual references, ranging from clips of singers like Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, to the art of Carrie Mae Weems and Kara Walker, are incorporated into multilayered works, some pinned with metal tacks to look like the kind of vintage paper doll whose appendages are manipulable. The sense of ‘reclaiming the power to choose how a woman’s body, and more specifically Black female sexuality, is presented and received’, writes Fi Churchman, ‘is a central theme of Orupabo’s work’. 

Italian Villas: A Tour Of Santa Margherita Ligure

Immobilinvolo Milano (May 7, 2023) – Santa Margherita Ligure is one of the best known and most renowned tourist resorts in all of Liguria. This coastal town, located in a protected bay in one of the most beautiful stretches of the coast, is considered the Pearl of Tigullio.

Its history is very ancient and dates back to Roman times. Since then it had a troubled history and over the centuries it was destroyed, rebuilt then conquered several times by the Saracen pirates.

Santa Margherita began to transform into the beautiful coastal town we know from the second half of the 1800s, when the nobility from all over Europe began to discover the wonderful cities of Liguria. Similarly to what happened in Bordighera and Alassio .

May 2023 Exhibition Views: ‘Stephan Hostettler Solo’ In Bern, Switzerland

VernissageTV (May 8, 2023) – The opening reception of the Swiss artist Stephan Hostettler. Stephan Hostettler was born in 1988 in Unterseen, Switzerland.

After training as a metalworker, he attended the preliminary design course in Bern and graduated from the specialist class for graphics in Biel. He presented his works for the first time in 2019 at the Jungkunst exhibition in Winterthur. Hostettler lives and works in Bern.

“At its core, my work is about how we humans live or could live in this world. It offers a humorous but critical perspective on our actions as a society and aims to trigger discussions that contribute to a positive development. I wish for a world in which we treat each other with respect, we live with nature, take care of it and in which no one has to live in fear.”

Stephan Hostettler Solo Exhibition in Bern (Switzerland). Vernissage, May 6, 2023.

BBC Tributes: Sir David Attenborough Turns 97

BBC (May 8, 2023) – Sir David Attenborough was born in London on May 8, 1926 and educated at Wyggeston Grammar School, Leicester, and Clare College, Cambridge where he took an honours degree in Natural Sciences. He did two years National Service in the Royal Navy and then spent some time on the editorial side of the University of London Press.

Sir David’s broadcasting career spans over 50 years. It began in 1952 when he joined BBC Television as a trainee and then became a producer working in the studios of Alexandra Palace in north London, from which the world’s first television service was broadcast. 

News: Russia Strikes Kyiv Ahead Of ‘Victory Day’, U.S. – South Korea Alliance

The Globalist, May 8 2023: New drone attacks from Russia ahead of May 9 ‘Victory Day’ celebration, U.S. and South Korea bolster nuclear deterrence against North Korea, and other top news.

Front Page: The New York Times -Monday, May 8, 2023

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After Mass Killings in Texas, Frustration but No Action on Guns

Volunteers erected a memorial outside the entrance to Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas, a day after a gunman killed eight people and wounded seven others.

The drumbeat of mass murder has fueled a new openness to gun regulation among some Texans, but it has done little to reshape the political realities in the State Capitol.

Ukrainians Return Home, Renewed and Resigned

Passengers on a train from Lviv and Kyiv arrive in town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, last week.

More than 5.5 million people who left after the war began in February 2022 have gone back home — and not just to large cities like Kyiv or Dnipro, but to small places near the front line, as well.

The Dnipro River, Axis of Life and Death in Ukraine

The river has helped to define Ukraine’s history and culture, and remains vital to daily sustenance, even as it also serves as a front line in war — as it has countless times over thousands of years.

Twitter Criticized for Allowing Texas Shooting Images to Spread

Graphic images of the attack went viral on the platform, which has made cuts to its moderation team. Some users said the images exposed the realities of gun violence.

Touring Japan: A ‘Kyoto + Osaka Weekend’ (2023)

Brandon Li Unscripted (May 7, 2023) – Kyoto, once the capital of Japan, is a city on the island of Honshu. It’s famous for its numerous classical Buddhist temples, as well as gardens, imperial palaces, Shinto shrines and traditional wooden houses. It’s also known for formal traditions such as kaiseki dining, consisting of multiple courses of precise dishes, and geisha, female entertainers often found in the Gion district. 

Osaka is a large port city and commercial center on the Japanese island of Honshu. It’s known for its modern architecture, nightlife and hearty street food. The 16th-century shogunate Osaka Castle, which has undergone several restorations, is its main historical landmark. It’s surrounded by a moat and park with plum, peach and cherry-blossom trees. Sumiyoshi-taisha is among Japan’s oldest Shinto shrines.

Africa: The Potentials Of Nigeria Cassava Farming

Insider Business (May 7, 2023) – Nigeria grows 63 million metric tons of cassava (also known as yucca) every year, but most of the country’s supply is eaten locally as fufu or garri. Experts say Nigeria could be missing out on billions in exports of lucrative cassava products like bubble tea pearls, starch, or ethanol.

Video timeline: 0:00 Intro 1:48 History of cassava 2:58 Growing issues 5:42: How garri and fufu are made 6:54 Transportation issues 7:36 How cassava is processed 10:06 Global demand is so high for cassava

Challenges along the country’s entire supply chain have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in cassava spoilage. But one entrepreneur, Yemisi Iranloye, thinks she has the solution. She’s introduced higher-yielding seed varieties and moved processing plants closer to farms.

Now, her farmers earn four times more for their product, and her cassava starch and sorbitol have landed her clients like Nestle and Unilever. Could Yemisi’s model be the way for Nigeria to feed itself and cash in on exports?

Food: How The Michelin Guide Rates Restaurants

CBS Sunday Morning (May 7, 2023) – First published in France in 1900, The Michelin Guide has been awarding stars to restaurants for about 100 years. Today, it rates the work of chefs around the world, including in the United States.

Correspondent Kelefa Sanneh talks with an anonymous Michelin restaurant inspector, and with chefs at a restaurant with a coveted Michelin star.

News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious