A stimulating, eclectic collection of essays.
A dramatist, dancer, musician, and critic reflectson her career, America, and world affairs in this essay anthology.
Active in some of America’s most cutting-edge dance and theater circles (including Greenwich Village’s Judson Dance Theater) for more than half a century, Blank has established herself as an educator, observer, and critic of the stage. In this collection of two dozen essays, she blends memoir vignettes with sociocultural commentary on topics that range from American history to Jewish-Palestinian relations. The book opens with a dialogue between the author and her partner, acclaimed author Ishmael Reed, as she recalls highlights from her life as a public intellectual. This conversation provides a behind-the-scenes look at the life of the dramatist and dancer, including her collaborations with Reed and others from the 1960s on multidisciplinary performance productions. She also discusses her artistic inspirations, such as dancer Martha Graham, who visited Blank’s hometown of Pittsburgh during the author’s youth. Other essays cover topics like postmodernism and abstract art (she challenges Eurocentric narratives that suggest abstraction began in the 20th century, invented by disaffected white men). Blank is particularly keen on tackling American mythmaking that centers the powerful; many of her historical essays offer fresh perspectives on topics from the Spanish influence on colonial America to her chapter-length analysis of the Black musical tradition that influenced Elvis Presley (“It’s the critics who claim that these White musicians have somehow transcended the efforts of those who inspired them”). The book’s titular essay reflects on Blank’s experience as a Jew living in the West Bank Palestinian city of Ramallah as viewed through the prism of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. The text includes reproductions of her email correspondence that provide an honest, intimate look at her experiences. Blank is unafraid to challenge prevailing norms that center white men, but she is more than just a polemicist in her well-formed, convincing, intellectual critiques. Those interested in the post–World War II counterculture and avant-garde art scene will appreciate this insider’s account that blends memoir with intellectually rigorous commentary.
A stimulating, eclectic collection of essays.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781771863568
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Baraka Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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