The Whitney Biennial Captures the America We Actually Live In
Critics say this year’s Whitney Biennial is too sentimental, too loose, too eager to please. Maybe. But what it actually does is something rarer. It pulls the everyday realities of American life into the same frame and asks us to recognize ourselves in it.
SoHo Playhouse Fringe Encore Series – Aussies Descend on NYC and a One-on-One with Elouise Eftos – by Sarah Wadsley
The SoHo Playhouse’s Fringe Encore series brings standout acts from international festivals to New York for a limited Off-Broadway run. Among them is a wave of Australian comedians, including Elouise Eftos, whose provocative show Australia’s First Attractive Comedian challenges the expectations placed on women in comedy.
Sunshine, Sad Songs, and Celebrity Chaos: Reviewing The Future Saints
A rising band, a dead sister, and the strange theater of the music industry collide in The Future Saints. The novel offers cinematic scenes and California glamour, even if its emotional depth sometimes feels imagined rather than lived.
An Interview With Rachel Lin
In this conversation with Tawk of New Yawk, the creator of Dear John reflects on the real life story behind the work, growing up in Chinatown, the strange intimacy of social media messages, and what it means to finally meet a parent you have never known.
Tarell Alvin McCraney’s New Play Confronts State Violence and the Price of “Blood Money”
In Windfall, Tarell Alvin McCraney asks a devastating question: what happens when a city budgets for your child’s death? Set in a near-future America that feels uncomfortably present, the play follows a father offered a government settlement after state violence takes his child. The money could save his home—but at what moral cost? In this preview, we explore how Windfall turns policy into heartbreak and forces audiences to confront the true price of “blood money.”
The Forgotten Queen of Magic: Adelaide Herrmann in NYC
Adelaide Herrmann spent twenty years performing beside her husband, the legendary magician Herrmann the Great, dazzling audiences across America and Europe. But after his sudden death, she did something no woman had ever done before: she took center stage herself. Known as the Queen of Magic, Herrmann became the first woman to headline her own magic act, performing death-defying illusions, touring internationally, and reshaping the Golden Age of Magic. Her extraordinary and often overlooked story is now featured in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ exhibition Mystery and Wonder: A Legacy of Golden Age Magicians in New York City.
Burns Night Reeling Ball NYC: One of the Best Events I’ve Ever Been To
I’ve been to Broadway shows, rooftop parties, and ball-adjacent spectacles that promised magic and delivered… content. The Burns Night Reeling Ball in NYC actually delivered—kilts, whiskey, live music, strangers spinning into friends, and the kind of joy New York rarely allows itself.
The City While We Wait
Before smartphones, waiting in New York meant sharing space with strangers, on subway platforms, buses, benches, and sidewalks. Boredom was public, attention was communal, and unmediated time felt unavoidable. This essay reflects on growing up before constant connectivity, arriving in New York without a smartphone, and noticing how screens have quietly reshaped waiting, presence, and civic life in a city built on shared downtime.
