Doreen St. Felix

Writer at The New Yorker

work in a lot of places / writer @newyorker.

Articles

“The Encampments” and the American College Student

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Doreen St. Felix

The institution has not neglected to commemorate the history of agitation against it. The year 2018 marked five decades since students occupied the halls of Columbia University, demanding that the school’s board sever ties to the defense industry during the Vietnam War, and also that it cease construction of a gymnasium—“Gym Crow”—which would have segregated access to Harlem residents. Columbia retaliated by shutting down the shutdown.
“The Encampments” and the American College Student

3 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Doreen St. Felix

They All Signed the Harper’s Letter. Where Are They Now? They All Signed the “Harper’s” Letter. Where Are They Now? Many of those who were loudest in denouncing cancel culture then are now curiously silent …
Goings On Newsletter

1 month ago | link.newyorker.com | Inkoo Kang |Doreen St. Felix |D. T. Max

Our theatrical spring continues to be a bright one, with a bounty of audacious, boundary-breaking work emerging Off Broadway in the coming weeks. At the Atlantic Theatre Company, Mona Pirnot’s tribute to the downtown theatre scene, “I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan,” is at Atlantic Stage 2, through April 30, and Eliya Smith’s kid-bereavement drama, “Grief Camp,” will be on the mainstage, through May 11.
The Shameless Redemption Tour of Jonathan Majors

2 months ago | newyorker.com | Doreen St. Felix

What decade is “Magazine Dreams,” a spiritually stifled drama about a bodybuilder driven to fits of chemically induced rage, set in? In the early moments of the film, written and directed by Elijah Bynum, everything about the fashion, the setting, and the subject suggests the late seventies. Standing in the gaping maw of a garage is an Adonis, the bodybuilder Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors).
The Shameless Redemption Tour of Jonathan Majors

2 months ago | flipboard.com | Doreen St. Felix

1 day agoThe actor wants back in the industry’s good graces, but his new movie, Magazine Dreams—and the surrounding press tour—isn’t enough. The athlete’s physique is both a marvel and a weapon. Witness Killian Maddox, a bodybuilder whose formidable muscles gleam under golden light. He is a violent man—some …
Goings On Newsletter

2 months ago | link.newyorker.com | Helen Shaw |Namwali Serpell |Doreen St. Felix

Plus: Baz Luhrmann’s medieval Monsieur; Black femininity Off Broadway in “Wine in the Wilderness”; and the havoc of “The Threepenny Opera.” View in browser | What we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. In today’s newsletter, up-and-coming film directors take the screen.
The Flawed Heart of “Adolescence”

2 months ago | newyorker.com | Doreen St. Felix

Netflix is currently ranking the British miniseries “Adolescence” as its most-watched television show among Americans. The streaming service shrouds the methods by which it reaches these metrics in a lot of mumbo-jumbo. But this drama, about a thirteen-year-old boy who is suspected of killing a girl at his school, is, by my observations, creeping toward critical and fan consensus. Are Americans stunned by “Adolescence” because of the culture shock it offers?
“Paradise” Is Manna for the Moment

Mar 1, 2025 | newyorker.com | Doreen St. Felix

“Paradise,” on Hulu, is a political thriller with a vintage feel. Surely Hollywood’s obsession with the Presidency has produced this kind of drama before? There is the handsome white Commander-in-Chief, President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), shuttled to the high office through the maneuvers of his emotionally abusive baron of a father. And there is his Black sentinel, Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K.
Kendrick Lamar and the Messy Art of Meta-Performance

Feb 10, 2025 | newyorker.com | Doreen St. Felix

A sense of abasement hovers over the performer of the Super Bowl halftime show. It is slight, but it is there. The musician selected must be an internationally recognized star, and yet that star also has to submit to stipulations and standards set by a conservative sports organization. (The Jay-Z of it all notwithstanding.) The production team is allotted mere minutes to erect the stage setup, and, after the spectacle is wrapped, they’ve got to disassemble it just as quickly.
“Eusexua,” the Dance-Floor Album That Doesn’t Need Berlin or Prague

Feb 1, 2025 | newyorker.com | Doreen St. Felix

This past fall, the artist FKA Twigs promoted her then forthcoming album, “Eusexua,” with a series of international raves. Londoners were told to meet her at the Cause, Angelenos at the Reserve, New Yorkers at the Chocolate Factory. The guests abided by the dress code—“scorched soil and steel”—even if it meant bribing a stylist friend to lend out the archival Rick Owens. Natural pupils were buried under starburst contacts; geometric symbols were painted on faces, mimicking Twigs’s style.