Black Panther

Monday

Corey DeAngelis

Why Chicago Teachers Union lionized a terrorist

When I first saw the Chicago Teachers Union's post honoring Assata Shakur, I thought it was a headline from the Babylon Bee. But no, this one was real, and beyond parody. The union, entrusted with educating Chicago's children, used its official social media account to mourn the death of a convicted cop killer, calling her a "revolutionary fighter" and "leader of freedom." Shakur was found guilty of murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973 and later escaped prison, landing on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List with a $2 million bounty. To make matters worse, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter doubled down, declaring on X that "Assata was a freedom fighter!"The tone-deaf post is a glaring sign that the CTU can't be trusted to educate children.

Assata Shakur

Wednesday

Alexander Larman

Zach Cregger’s Weapons is a new kind of cinema

Weapons, Zach Cregger’s sophomore picture after the acclaimed Barbarian, was a conspicuous success story in its opening weekend: brilliant reviews, an A- CinemaScore from audiences (rare for the horror genre, in which anything above a B is considered a major hit) and, of course, a massive box office. Its first weekend gross was $43.5 million, an astonishing amount for a film without an existing intellectual property, A-list stars (although Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich and Julia Garner are hardly unknowns) or big-name director.

Weapons

Friday

Doug Blair

How game developers could kill the industry

In the golden age of video games, developers and players built relationships through a shared celebration of creativity. Many developers were gamers themselves, which helped foster mutual trust and respect with their audiences. Players assumed developers would prioritize their desires and craft experiences centered on their enjoyment. That mutuality is now gone as many creators have grown more concerned with pushing political ideology and show disdain for their consumers. Many game developers now treat their users not as collaborators in a shared passion but as adversaries, accusing them of bigotry and hate.

game

Monday

Peter Wood

Shakespeare in black and white

Sarah Karim-Cooper first came to public attention at the cosmetics counter. Her book on makeup in Renaissance theater, Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama, was published in 2006. Its enduring popularity is not so much a testament to her scholarly insights on powdered hogs’ bones mixed with poppy oil — the old stage recipe for pale skin — or Shakespeare’s sardonic references to the kind of beauty “purchased by the weight” in The Merchant of Venice, as to Karim-Cooper’s celebrity: for more than a decade she’s been one of the leading racializers of Shakespeare’s work. Perhaps the key moment in her rise to fame was her 2018 curation of the Globe Theatre’s first “Shakespeare and Race Festival,” now held annually.

shakespeare

Friday

John Ehrett

Black Panther’s claws are still sharp

Heading into this film, director Ryan Coogler confronted a virtually impossible situation: the sudden, tragic passing of his franchise’s leading man. Chadwick Boseman’s untimely 2020 death casts a long shadow over Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The fact that the movie is coherent at all is remarkable. That’s probably underselling things, though. From an action standpoint, Wakanda Forever is a serviceable — if somewhat less inspired than its predecessor — Marvel epic. Beneath all the CGI, it’s a surprisingly meditative passing of the torch. Following the death of King T’Challa (Boseman) from an unspecified illness, the cloistered Afrofuturist nation of Wakanda reels.

black panther wakanda forever

Saturday

Will Lloyd

The art of the presidency

The Obamas loved Hamilton. It was the biggest show to hit Broadway since Cats or Rent, with ticket prices reaching four digits. Michelle, who urgently needs to read Buddenbrooks or visit the Sistine Chapel, called Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical the ‘best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life’. Hamilton was present at the dawn and eclipse of the Obama years. Miranda first publicly shared material from the musical at the White House’s inaugural Spoken Word evening in 2009. Seven years later, Lin-Manuel joined Barack for a cringe-inducing freestyle rap in the Rose Garden.

art presidency