Poet and essayist Clint Smith will start as a staff writer for The Atlantic in September.
Following the recent repeal of a New York state law regarding the secrecy of police disciplinary records, ProPublica has launched a new searchable database of civilian complaints against NYPD officers. The records document misconduct allegations against 3,996 active-duty officers, spanning from September 1985 to January 2020.
The former staff of Deadspin, who quit last year in protest of a “stick to sports” mandate from the site’s bosses, have started a new company, Defector Media. They will begin with a podcast in August and a website in September, run on a subscription model.
In a letter to New Yorker editor in chief David Remnick, members and supporters of the New Yorker Union demand he revisit and accept their just-cause proposal. Signatories note that the magazine has been an at-will institution for ninety-five years, and that Remnick’s proposal for an “editorial exception” to just cause effectively “voids the entire principle.”
The Old Drift author Namwali Serpell will begin a professorship at the Harvard english department in Fall 2021.
Lisa Lucas urges us to read Matthew Desmond’s 2016 book Evicted, which remains deeply relevant during the pandemic. For more on the book, see Gary Rivlin’s Bookforum review from Spring 2016.
Tonight at 8 PM EST, Leslie Jamison and artist Lauren Henschel will discuss “isolation, illness, and creativity in the pandemic era.” You can sign up to attend this virtual event here.