Jane Bua

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Hilton Als |Dan Stahl |Jane Bua |Vince Aletti

I met Alva Rogers years ago, through a mutual friend, and her various incarnations—actress, singer, artistic director, writer, puppeteer—have always been remarkable to me. As a young woman, Rogers posed for the artist Lorna Simpson, and is the subject of Simpson’s photograph-based piece “Waterbearer” (1986), along with other early works, and, of course, she was the nominal star of Julie Dash’s film “Daughters of the Dust” (1991), a fascinating evocation of Gullah culture in South Carolina.

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Jane Bua

The rehearsal space for the Metropolitan Opera’s orchestra is three levels below a parking garage, amid a labyrinth of dingy hallways and exposed ceiling pipes. The room has the air of a high-school gym: scuffed wood floor, unyielding lights, and a big analog clock. One recent afternoon, something new and peculiar showed up there.

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Rachel Syme |Helen Shaw |Jane Bua |Jillian Steinhauer

New York City and roller-skating go way back. In 1863, a part-time inventor named James Leonard Plimpton, who ran a furniture store in the East Village, filed the first American patent for quad skates. Plimpton, who struggled with weak ankles, loved to skate but hated to wobble; his newfangled creation featured four squat, spread-out wheels, an innovation that allowed even novice skaters to conquer balance.

2 months ago | newyorker.com | Sheldon Pearce |Jane Bua |Vince Aletti |Helen Shaw

From the start, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s history has been a cycle of struggle and triumph. The dancer Arthur Mitchell founded it in 1969, in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The company thrived, until it didn’t, and was forced to shut down, in 2004, for almost a decade.

2 months ago | newyorker.com | Sheldon Pearce |Helen Shaw |Jane Bua |Vince Aletti

The musician Tamara Lindeman founded the Canadian folk band the Weather Station in 2006, but it could be argued that she didn’t truly find the project’s calling until 2021, with the band’s majestic album “Ignorance.” One of the best LPs of that year, the music explored our ongoing ecological emergency, mustering up personal meditations from inside the climate crisis.