At The Atlantic, Keisha N. Blain looks back at the long tradition of Black women’s activism and organizing.
Anna Wintour has sent a memo to staff admitting that Vogue has published material that is “hurtful and intolerant” and that her magazine “has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators.” Meanwhile, The Wrap reports on current and former Condé Nast employees’ reactions to a town-hall meeting on diversity held yesterday. CEO Roger Lynch claimed that the company was unaware of staff concerns about a lack of diversity and unequal pay at the company.
The Paris Review has moved their interview with Edward P. Jones from behind the paywall. Hilton Als spoke to Jones for the magazine in 2013.
A Burning author Megha Majumdar tells Literary Hub that if she weren’t a writer and editor, she would be a surgeon. “I like how useful it is, how you have the power to concretely improve someone’s life, and how the stakes couldn’t be higher every day you go to work,” she explained. Also at Literary Hub, Parakeet author Marie-Helene Bertino said that while she doesn’t like when reviewers describe her work as “sassy,” she has “been called a hell of a lot worse.” Tonight, for Green Apple Books, Bertino and Majumdar discuss their new books on Zoom.
At Columbia Journalism Review, Bill Grueskin writes that journalists should stop allowing Trump to use them “as props.” At a recent White House press event, reporters were intentionally seated less than six feet apart. Despite continuing concerns about COVID-19 and social distancing, reporters did not push back until afterward. “After Trump is gone and historians try to figure out the role of the press in his ascendancy and reign, this incident will be remembered,” he writes. “What was stopping White House reporters from moving the chairs six feet apart? What was preventing the press corps from refusing to sit so close to each other? Would the White House have revoked their credentials? Would the Secret Service have intervened?”
Tonight, Politics and Prose bookstore will host a virtual event with Porochista Khakpour to discuss her new essay collection, Brown Album.