Namwali Serpell

3 weeks 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.

Oct 24, 2024 | internazionale.it | Namwali Serpell

Questo articolo è stato pubblicato il 20 novembre del 2020 nel numero 1385 di Internazionale. La diga di Kariba sta cedendo. Dalla fine degli anni cinquanta siede sul fiume Zambesi, al confine tra Zambia e Zimbabwe, in una delle gole tortuose che increspano quelle terre. Fornisce ai due paesi 1.830 megawatt di energia elettrica e racchiude le acque del bacino artificiale più grande del mondo.

Jun 10, 2024 | yalereview.org | Namwali Serpell

Namwali Serpell You can find a lot in a navel. Lint. Grime. The meaning of life. This is the uncanny remainder of the cord that once bound me to my mother? Incredible. Why not gaze at it? Why not let sight spin into its depths the way water twists down the drain that becomes an eye in the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho? Yes, you can find all sorts of things in a navel. A flower. A button. (Tender button?) A tiny vortex. The knot at the end of a balloon.

Nov 2, 2023 | nybooks.com | Namwali Serpell

Lately there’s been a spate of novels written by young women that have a remarkably similar plot. I’ve been calling them the “hit me” books. Let’s be less incendiary: let’s call them the “remaster novels.”They go like this.A woman in her twenties drifts into a relationship with an older man. She lives with roommates, by necessity. She works an entry-level job involving the food or culture industry, but she has artistic aspirations.

Oct 12, 2023 | nybooks.com | Namwali Serpell

I learned a new word the other day: clocky. It describes someone who doesn’t pass as their (chosen) gender. It originated in the trans community and comes from the idea of “clocking” or recognizing something. Its use can be dysphoric or derogatory, a way to express the disappointment of missing the mark or to throw an insult back at transphobes. But lately, as the gender spectrum expands to include more ambiguous varieties, clocky has become a bit of a compliment. What a great word! I thought.