Welcome to the fifty-sixth installation of The Q : your one-stop weekly newsletter of culture recommendations. And….we’re back with a new podcast episode this week!
Album
Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3 by Tkay Maidza
In the past few years, Tkay Maidza has popped up on EDM tracks, been all over TikTok, and linked up with some of the most famous voices in hip-hop. She has improved with each project and continually pushes her sound to new extremes. On her newest project, titled Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3, she both leans into the bangers that carried her last project and evolves into a more multifaceted artist.
Film
The Present directed by Farah Nabulsi
The Present opens with a scene of Yusef waking up at the crack of dawn after a night spent sleeping outside on a cardboard box. He stiffly gets up and checks the time. Suddenly, Yusef finds himself shuffling through a sea of Palestinian men, all trying to cross an Israeli checkpoint to do routine things like go to work, go shopping, and visit their families. In The Present, Yusef’s story may be highlighted, but his is just one of many.
Book
Zong! by M. Nourbese Philip
Some of the most tragic, bizarre, and deeply disturbing stories are left out of history books for us to discover on our own. I don’t believe that it should be that way, but I still find myself discovering books like Zong! as I grow older and further removed from my primary and secondary education. Zong! by M. Nourbese Philip, as told to the author by Setaey Adamu Boateng, a representative of the ancestors affected, is a book-length poetic recapturing that uncovers the complex truth behind the Zong slave ship of 1781.
Playlist
Sam’s “Roots” features Blind Willie Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, and Elizabeth Cotten
Sam’s favorite track: “It Serves You Right To Suffer” by John Lee Hooker
Description: “We’re going for a bit of a vibe switch this week. When I used to do the night shift at our radio station programming country and blues on weeknights, I was done playing happy music once it got past about 1 am. These songs kept me company through the late nights and create the perfect energy for reflection. It’s a mix of blues and country classics and deep cuts that are guaranteed to make you feel something.”
Podcast
Episode #51: Lavender Tea and an Interview with Homer Shew
On this week's episode, Sam and Teresa interview Homer Shew over a cup of lavender tea. Born in Chicago, Homer Shew is a New York-based artist who, since 2015, has been painting portraits of Asian Americans that deal with the re-aestheticisation and de-caricaturisation of Asian faces. A series of Shew's large-scale commissioned paintings will be on view from July 15th in the exhibition Responses: Asian American Voices Resisting the Tide of Racism at the Museum of Chinese in America (New York, NY). Shew will also be premiering his exhibition Backgrounds at the Edouard Malingue Gallery in Hong Kong from July 17th until August 28th. Shew talks to Teresa and Sam about being an artist in New York, his choice of subjects, as well as what a time beyond intensified racial conflict means.