Oscar Winner ‘Women Talking’ on Amazon Prime
A movie with so little plot, so constricted a setting relies on the talents of its cast. This ensemble is nothing less than superb.
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Happily Ever After — Rom-Coms to Stream
this Spring
Whether love is at the center or not, there seem to be fewer romantic comedies in movie theaters than there once were.
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‘No Small Gift’ by Jennifer Franklin
In these sometimes-painful poems, beauty is the balm that allows readers to understand what the speaker has experienced and to approach those experiences close-up but without getting overwhelmed.
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‘Alice, Darling’ Exposes Emotional Abuse On and Off the Screen
What makes 'Alice, Darling' so engaging is the central theme of women supporting women, and just how powerful friendship and community can be.
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Leticia Hernández-Linares:
“One Million Minus One” and “Despierta”
The poems in 'Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl' paint their own murals in words glowing with passion and conviction. There is also a good dose of sass, a quality visually captured in book’s cover photo.
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Celebrating Fierce, Forgotten Figures in
‘African Queens: Njinga’
Njinga’s forgotten story is brought to life with tremendous skill and artistry, making it as entertaining as it is important.
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Susan E. Gunter: “Sestina for Esther”
You could call this poem an elegy to a lost mother, but I read it more universally as an elegy to the lost kingdom of childhood.
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Love in Black and White — Onscreen Romance
'You People' alternates between its rom-com set-up and decidedly un-funny observations on racism.
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Lucille Clifton: “blessing the boats,” “homage to my hips,” and “won’t you celebrate with me”
These three Lucille Clifton poems are ones I love for their fresh, fierce, and sassy voice; compression; deceptively simple diction; rejection of punctuation and other conventions; humor and honesty; and above all, their joyous message of female empowerment, agency, and strength.
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‘The 1619 Project’ — Our Past is More Than Prologue
The docuseries divides the African-American experience into six thematic one-hour episodes.
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Yona Harvey: You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love
Yona Harvey’s 'You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love' is an astounding book that reminds us that we don’t have to undertake extraordinary measures for love or realization.
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Elisabeth, The Austrian Empire’s “It Girl”
— ‘Corsage’ and ‘The Empress’
Whether depicted at 16 or at 40, Empress Elisabeth was very much a woman limited by the confines of her time
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Welcome to Murder Island: ‘Glass Onion’ and ‘The Menu’
Both 'Glass Onion' and 'The Menu' owe some of their success and much of our enjoyment to the late, great Lady Mallowan. We are deep into Agatha Christie territory here.
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Barbara Crooker:
“Poem with an Embedded Line by Susan Cohen”
It will help, the poem seems to suggest, if we focus on family and the world of nature rather than the world of the human. Some aspects of that world are just too unbearable right now for a sustained gaze.
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Barbara Walters: From “Today Girl” to Glass Ceiling Shatterer
Barbara Walters blazed trails for future female journalists with intelligence, grace, and — sometimes — even a sense of humor.
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2022’s Movies Directed by Women
Here are some of the best movies — across several popular genres — directed by women this past year.
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It’s the Most Wonderful Television of the Year
With the season in full swing, here are some favorite holiday titles.
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‘Disenchanted’ and the Trouble With Sequels
The conundrum with sequels: Is it better to risk tarnishing a beloved original in order to make more money?
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Poetry Sunday: “lifeline,” Evie Shockley
The poem is more broadly about the struggle of the speaker to separate from her mother and be born as an individual, and of course, about the same conflict confronted by all mothers and daughters throughout time.
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Poetry Sunday: “Ink on Paper,” by Judy Halebsky
“Ink on Paper” seems to prioritize unarticulated feeling over rational thought and movement and communication over holding things tightly and trying to preserve their physical manifestations.
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‘Call Jane,’ A New Look at a Timely Topic
Recently, we’ve seen the emergence of a new film genre, as a number of movies — mostly thoughtful and impeccably well-made by women — tackle a topic that’s uniquely female.
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Poetry Sunday: “All Hallows Night,”
by Lizette Woodworth Reese
I love Lizette Woodworth Reese’s “All Hallows Night” because it bridges religions and cultures as a remembrance of people—family members, community heroes, saints, and martyrs—who have died.
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Scream Queens: Horror Movies Led by Women
Women have been creating scary movies, writing and/or directing as well as starring in them, for the past 120 years. Here are thirteen titles to explore, just in time for Halloween.
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