Arts

December 20, 2024 0

Opinion/Review: Coates Summons Wisdom of Orwell and Experience in ‘The Message’

The epigraph that Ta-Nehishi Coates chose to introduce The Message, his latest collection of linked essays, is a perfectly apt reflection of the writer as provocateur and didactic secular missionary. It’s a passage from George Orwell’s “Why I Write,” a 1948 reflection whose title identifies its contents. Orwell (real name Eric Blair) is best known as the author of Animal Farm and 1984, both benchmarks of political allegories and speculative fiction. In “Why I Write,” Orwell’s reflections perfectly mirror where […]

December 6, 2024 0

Artist, Writer Shaina Lu Draws From Life Stories in Chinatown

by Yuchen Hong

In her debut graphic novel “Noodle & Bao,” artist and writer Shaina Lu offers a heartwarming and powerful story of friendship, community, and fighting against gentrification. Set in the fictional Town 99, the book follows Momo and her best friend Bao as they work to save their beloved neighborhood food cart from displacement. Lu, a queer Taiwanese-American artist and educator based in Boston, draws deeply from her experiences working with youth in Chinatown.“I wanted to write and draw a story […]

December 6, 2024 0

Jon M. Chu’s ‘Wicked’ Is a Blockbuster Queer Romance Film for Our Times

by Harmony Witte

“Wicked” is a blockbuster-bound love story for the ages in the grand style of Old Hollywood. This queer-coded romance tells the classic story of two enemies to lovers whose chemistry and complicated love for each other is so well known in the intimate world of female friendship. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) was born with green skin in the land of Oz and must fight to find her place in society. Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) is also looking to find herself and establish […]

December 6, 2024 0

Review: Haruki Murakami’s ‘The City and Its Uncertain Wall’ Lacks Magic Touch

by Christopher John Stephens

Sometimes it’s difficult to witness the precipitous quality drop of a great writer. In the case of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the drop in quality is less disastrous than it is tedious. Murakami’s new novel “The City and its Uncertain Walls” comes six years after “Killing Commendatore,” itself an excessive mixture of perversity and magic realism. Murakami’s new novel has its origins in a short story published in 1980 and his 1985 novel “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the […]

December 6, 2024 0

Playfest 7 Looks at Generational Divide, Grief and AI Through Lens of Asian America

by Virginia Sun

Playfest 7’s show at The Foundry in Cambridge last month told familiar stories of dealing with grief (and landlords), stumbling over artificial intelligence technology, and trying to get a point across the gap of generations within a family. And the all-Asian American Pacific Islander cast did so with humor, poignant dialogue and resonant performances. Written by different Asian-American Pacific Islander playwrights, the eight short plays at the seventh annual Asian American Playwright Collective Playfest built a diverse set of worlds. […]

December 6, 2024 0

Artist, Writer Shaina Lu Draws From Life Stories in Chinatown

by Yuchen Hong

November 22, 2024 0

MIT ‘Bans’ Student Over Essay

by Ava Belchez and Harmony Witte and Adam Smith

Attorney Calls Action ‘Chilling’ Threat to Free Speech The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has banned a South Asian American grad student from campus and is threatening to boot him from the university for an article he published related to pro-Palestinian protesting, according to the student and his lawyer, who calls the punishment a threat to free speech. MIT banned Prahlad Iyengar, a second-year electrical engineering doctoral student, earlier this month for an academic essay he penned in “Written Revolution,” a […]

November 22, 2024 0

AAPI Arts Summit Inspires ‘Hope’

by Harmony Witte

Organizers of the 2nd Annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Arts & Culture Summit on Nov. 15 at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston say they see the event as bigger than enhancing the arts community itself: It’s about providing hope. “I think in times of uncertainty and crisis, people have always looked to the arts as a source of light and hope,” Danielle Kim, executive director of the Asian Community Fund, told the Sampan during the event.Hosted by […]

November 22, 2024 0

Remembering the Life and Work of N. Scott Momaday, First Native American to Win Pulitzer

by Kristen Si

N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist and poet, was a leader and trailblazer for modern Native American literature, with his award-winning novel, “House Made of Dawn” — the first work written by a Native American author to win the Pulitzer Prize. The book inspired a generation of Native American writers. As the U.S. celebrates the contributions of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples for National Native American Heritage Month, we reflect on Momaday’s life, work, and lasting impact both on […]

November 8, 2024 0

Author Charles Yu Talks About His Work on ‘Interior Chinatown,’ His Start as a Lawyer

by Harmony Witte

Writer Charles Yu has seen his career transform from law, to book author and now to television. That latter shift will be further proven when “Interior Chinatown” – his award-winning book – airs on Hulu and Disney Plus on Nov. 19. Produced by Taika Waititi, with a pilot that is also directed by Waititi, the edgy, fast-paced show tackles weighty themes of race, class, and immigration with a sense of humor that left the audience at the recent screening at […]

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