AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our March book club selection is Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. We will be in conversation with Tommy March 21st at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is now open. I hope you can join us!
If you missed our conversation with Kaveh, the recording is now up.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL NEWS
This week in Work Friend, someone stuck in a dead end job, a bigoted colleague, the dilemma of offering a recommendation for a less than stellar colleague, and a toxic coworker.
On March 6th, I will be in conversation with Tommy Orange about his new novel, Wandering Stars at the Union Square Barnes and Noble in NYC.
I’m looking for interesting questions for my Work Friend column. If you have a burning professional query, please do reach out to workfriend@nytimes.com.
My essay series, Roxane Gay Presents, with Everand has launched. First up: Julia Turshen with Built For This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting. The second essay in this series is: You Are a Teen Mom: Instructions by Randa Jarrar.
Megan Pillow and I wrote a little book about power called Do The Work: A Guide About Power and Creating Change. It will be out in June of this year.
Dyke art needs money! Donate, if you can.
The United States is starting to air drop food into Gaza. They dropped 38,000 meals for 2,000,000 people to start. I don’t think they know they should be embarrassed by that.
Very little food or other supplies are making it into Gaza which led to Israeli troops firing on people who rushed at food aid because they were starving. A hundred people are dead and at least seven hundred people are injured and millions remain hungry, without adequate water, without healthcare, and without a ceasefire.
A damning exposé on the NYT reporting on October 7th. I truly don’t understand how this could happen. And, of course, now the NYT is trying to figure out how the story was leaked and they are… racially profiling to do so? What?
U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell self-immolated to protest of the war on Gaza. He did so in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. At n+1, a history of self-immolation. May he rest in peace.
Soho Rep, an incredible theater organization of which I am on the board, is having their annual gala on April 15th. You can learn more and buy tickets here, if you have some extra scratch.
Happy single people of a certain age!
This is complete fiction.
Also, Elizabeth Hoover, pretendian?
A woman said she was injured but then was seen tossing Christmas trees for fun. Cannot make this up.
Robert Jones Jr. on the essential works of James Baldwin.
Did you know that there are still states where a woman cannot get divorced if she is pregnant?
The state of the restaurant industry seems pretty grim and chefs, on the whole, seem pretty miserable.
There is a total eclipse of the sun happening in early April. Delta is offering a couple flights along the path of totality on April 8th.
Women artists to watch at Frieze Los Angeles, this past weekend.
Amber J. Phillips has started a Substack, Toxic Femininity!
Black writers on great Black books.
A look at a unique community of L.A. artists who currently have a show at Jeffrey Deitch.
Anna Holmes has written an excellent essay on dating a man she never met (and much more).
The first insurrectionist to enter the capitol on January 6th has been convicted by a jury of his peers.
NFL coach Andy Reid’s soon had his prison sentence commuted by the Missouri governor. Fascinating.
Some Trump followers believed his Trump Bucks hold… value. There are levels to the stupidity.
This is why Haitian parents don’t believe in sleepovers.
RIP Iris Apfel, fashion icon. RIP Richard Lewis, comedy icon. Larry David paid his longtime friend tribute.
A profile of RuPaul, who hates interviews. A conversation with Jessica Lange.
Will Forte wrote a message to the cast and crew of Coyote vs Acme, the movie Warner Bros is shelving for a tax writeoff.
CVS and Walgreens are going to start dispensing Mifepristone.
A judge in TX tells fascists, no you cannot collect health information on kids seeking gender-affirming healthcare.
Man wears Apple Vision Pro to his wedding. A real catch.
Netflix, passionate about cancelling great shows, has canceled The Brothers Sun.
SSRIs and sexual dysfunction.
Selma Blair fucked around and found out. She made islamophobic comments and has been dropped by her management teams.
Maybe, sometimes, celebrities should say less.
Remember that man in upstate NY who killed a woman for making a wrong turn in his driveway? He has been sentence to 25 years to life.
VPR alert! Jax and Brittany are separating.
The Washington Post is hiring a theatre critic.
Bless her young, enthusiastic heart!
In Glasgow, some organizers used AI to create a Wonka wonderland but the reality… left a lot to be desired.
Why is billionaire Marc Benioff buying up all the land in Hawaii? Why are billionaires so obsessed with Hawaii?
The art of making fictional languages.
Rishi Sunak, the utterly useless British PM, took time out of his busy schedule to get mad about a couple of Black audience-only theatre nights for the forthcoming London production of Jeremy O’Harris’s Slave Play.
Mychael Threets, the charming librarian, is trying to get his groove back. And he’s going to be on PBS.
This guy running for governor in Missouri was only an honorary member of the KKK so it’s totally fine, guys.
The Disney Adult industrial complex.
Do we really have to write essays to sell books after we already wrote the book?
There is some funky business going on with the royals.
A love letter to Shirley Temples. I am personally fond of Roy Rogers.
The Chicago Board of Education voted to remove officers from schools.
Another day, another Diddy lawsuit. A bad boy, indeed.
A professor has donated a billion dollars to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine so that everyone who attends will benefit from free tuition.
I thank you for your roundups, always. This week, I am especially grateful to you for using your platform to highlight Gaza. Thank you. Appreciate you and your always impactful voice.
These roundups are wonderful. Thank you.