Category: Culture

  • The Alphabet of Keith Haring

    The Alphabet of Keith Haring

    My first summer in New York, Keith Haring’s yellow men seemed to be everywhere I went, especially on the Lower East Side and in Soho, where I spent most days. I hadn’t understood their appeal nor their meaning. At 19, I didn’t understand why this was considered such influential art. I was hanging out with…

  • On Swearing (and Why Germans Love the F Word)

    Perhaps one of the most shocking things about globalization has been how widely spread English swear words have become. The words that were banned from my mouth as a child are not censored out on the radio in Germany and as American culture infiltrates everything, they’ve made their way into the average German’s mouth without…

  • On Roxane Gay’s “Hunger”

    On Roxane Gay’s “Hunger”

    Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay My rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this book. The very brief chapters, all focused on one particular aspect of the writer’s life and her relationship to her body, her weight, food, family and how they intertwine was a brilliant format for our attention-deprived age.…

  • #museumselfie

    #museumselfie

    The ways museums have tried to increase their visibility and use social media to their advantage in recent years is endlessly fascinating to me. One of the most original — and effective — global campaigns I’ve seen yet is the #MuseumSelfie so I wrote about it briefly on January 17 (now officially Museum Selfie Day):…

  • Achtung Baby: On German parenting

    Achtung Baby: On German parenting

    I’ve been waiting for years for someone to write about the German laissez faire style of parenting, and finally, Sara Zaske has. I got my hands on Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children and reviewed it for The Cut. Ever since journalist Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bébéhit the…