‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’: Worth a Good Long Look
Nancy Stokes is a retired religious education teacher, mother of two adult children, and recently widowed. You might think that sex would be low on her list. You’d be wrong.
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New Documentaries Reveal the Horrors Women Face
'The Janes' underscores the dangerous and often deadly threat of unwanted pregnancy pre-Roe v. Wade through one compelling story.
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“Know, Heart” by Elisabeth Murawski
“Know, Heart” ends in a place of utter desolation and loss, with the heart so baffled by suffering that it cannot feel anything or even conceive of a future. All it can do is look blindly back into memory.
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‘Charlotte,’ a Short but Remarkable Life in Art
The full-length animated feature traces Charlotte Salomon’s life from her teens as an art student in Berlin, through her escape to France, and her eventual capture and murder.
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Poetry Sunday:
“Scuppernong Grapes,” by Susan Williamson
I love poems like this one that help me retrieve memories of my childhood in Pennsylvania.
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‘Hacks’ Season Two: On the Road Again
'Hacks' moves into its sophomore season with nary a slump in sight. There are a number of elements that make 'Hacks' work so well.
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Familiar Faces (and Plotlines) in ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’
If you have missed the Crawley households, and the lives they lead (interrupted only by — hmmm, let’s see — World War I, the Spanish Flu, wrongful convictions for murder, illegitimate children), then by all means, clear your calendar and catch the very next showing.
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“On Marriage,” by Meghan O’Rourke
I wrote this poem while thinking about the way that marriage is a form, not unlike a poem, which demands certain kinds of commitments (and identities) from us and in turn shapes us in response to our commitment to it.
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Poetry Sunday: “Theodicy,” by Meryl Natchez
So many events from the past reappear in a different light, and in that light how often my parenting was found wanting. Can any mother escape blame? We are fallen gods. — Meryl Natchez
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‘Happening,’ Sobering — and Timely — Case for Reproductive Rights
'Happening,' a new drama from French writer/director Audrey Diwan spells out, in no uncertain terms, the tragedy and trauma that used to accompany unwanted pregnancy.
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Poetry Sunday: ‘Mozart’s Mother’s Bones,’
by Robin Ekiss
Even the best mother-daughter relationships are necessarily tormented. Some give rise to poems like today’s: fraught, even agonized at times, but also honest and still holding a place for love.
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‘Grace and Frankie’s’ Final Season: More Laughs and a Few Tears
For those fortunate enough to be involved in the series — and for those of us fortunate enough to have watched it — 'Grace and Frankie' has been a unique opportunity to examine the good, the bad, and the cosmetic surgery of getting older
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Poetry Sunday: “You Are a Dark Body,”
by Natalie Scenters-Zapico
This poem is about thirst and how a life of thirst then quenched with a fistful of water can make you contend with all the women you could have been, the children you could have had, and the ever-changing body you are given.
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‘Roar’ Offers Up Fractured Fairytales of Womanhood
'Roar,' a new anthology series on Apple TV+, takes metaphorical experiences of womanhood and builds smart, entertaining, sometimes disturbing, 30-minute fables.
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The Noir Side of Hollywood in ‘Swimming with Sharks’
'Swimming with Sharks' is stylish, edgy, quite deliberately art directed, but beautifully acted. It’s also disappointingly predictable.
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“Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado),”
by Monica Youn
To make a study of something is to contain it. Containment, both physical and figurative, is a prominent concern in Monica Youn’s “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado)."
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‘Julia,’ A New Series Worth Savoring
The best thing about 'Julia' — or should I say, the pièce de résistance — is its formidable cast.
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Poetry Sunday: ‘Bright Stain,’ by Francesca Bell
My poems “Revision” and “Definitions” were both written out of a need to grapple with my experience of being trapped and defined by my female body—by the physical, biological, often excruciating facts of it—in a way that men are spared.
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‘Bridgerton,’ Season 2: I Have Fallen (And I Cannot Get Up)
If you have succumbed to the fever that is 'Bridgerton,' you can rest assured that you are not alone.
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Emotions Ran High at the 94th Academy Awards
The Oscars’ hosts, a triumvirate of funny women, started the ceremony by saying, “This year, the Academy hired three women to host . . . because it’s cheaper than hiring one man.”
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Poetry Sunday:
“Bamboo, the Dance,” by Marilyn Chin
Marilyn Chin, who was born in Hong Kong and raised in Portland, Oregon, has spent a 30-year career fusing cultures, exploring how her ancestry meets her personal, political, and poetic life.
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Pixar’s ‘Turning Red’: Why Some are Seeing Red
'Turning Red' is the first Pixar feature solely directed by a woman, Domee Shi, who started her career as a storyboarding intern a decade ago, worked on 'Inside Out' and 'Toy Story 4,' and earned an Oscar for her 2018 short film 'Bao.'
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Poetry Sunday: “Conservatory,” by Idris Anderson
That’s an effective strategy, choosing a title that multiplies associations in the reader’s mind even before the poem is read. Will the poem involve any of these things, or instead, play off of my expectations and surprise me?
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Designing Women: ‘The Dropout’ and ‘Inventing Anna’
'The Dropout' and 'Inventing Anna' are detailed accounts of complex women and their protracted crime sprees.
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