Art Basel Qatar's Complicity
Art Basel's complicity in Qatar's persecution of queer people, the US and Israel bomb another Iranian historic palace, protest against the Venice Biennale, Beer With a Painter, and more.
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The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Julian Brave NoiseCat
The author of We Survived the Night and co-director of Sugarcane responds to our 25 questions on writing, reading, and creativity.
The Knot: My upcoming new book (and a course that’s already here)
The Knot, Problems Can Be Solved, will be available in September. And this week, I’m launching a video course that covers the ideas in the book. You can find the course, and how to get it at no extra cost, here. We’re surrounded by problems. Problems create the arc of our days,
Trauma, Transformation, and the Courage of Uncertainty: Prentis Hemphill on the Key to Breaking Our Patterns
“There is no description of a life without an account of the changes that are possible within it,” Adam Philips writes in his superb meditation on our ambivalent desire for change — ambivalence brilliantly rendered in the Vampire Problem thought experiment, illustrating the
The Whitney Biennial Is Here
Our first impressions, Chinatown storefront art, and things to do on a glorious spring day.
Please, No More Disaffected White Girls
Anika Jade Levy’s “Flat Earth” is navel-gazing, ouroboric, masturbatory — a Dimes Square novel for Dimes Square people.
Amount Of Water Man Just Used To Wash Dish To Be Prize...
Amount Of Water Man Just Used To Wash Dish To Be Prize Of Hand-To-Hand Combat Match In 2065 .
US and Israel Strikes Damage 17th-Century Palace in Isfahan
The Safavid-era Chehel Sotoun palace, known for its richly detailed frescoes, is among several landmarks impacted in the recent attacks.
What I Found When I Tried to Walk Across Dallas in a Day
"Determined to find adventure in my own backyard, I tramped across my famously pedestrian-averse hometown. The most memorable part turned out to be the serendipitous encounters with neighbors I met along the way."
Lost for More Than a Century, the First ‘Sci-Fi’ Film Ever Made Resurfaces
"Gugusse et l'Automate" is a 45-second slapstick film featuring a magician and a Pierrot-styled robot as they duke it out. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The
Syndicates of Capital
Jessica Burbank : A new world order is here. States (countries) are no longer the highest form of power globally. Power has shifted to wealthy individuals who work in groups and operate across borders: syndicates of capital. Syndicates of capital cannot be categorized as legal
Over 6,000 Sign Letter Opposing Russia’s Venice Biennale Pavilion
The petition, signed by cultural figures such as Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova, comes as the European Union threatens to pull Biennale funding over Russia's inclusion.
Don't Believe What Art Basel Qatar Is Trying to Sell You
I fled Qatar to live freely as a queer person. A country that criminalizes LGBTQ+ existence should not be celebrated as a global hub of creative freedom.
7 Art Books for Your March Reading List
Read up on the hidden history of occult influences on modernism, French sign painters, the Finnish painter who bucked convention, incarcerated artists, and more.
Epstein and Trump Portrayed as Titanic Lovers in New Anonymous Artwork
The sculpture on the National Mall comes in the wake of the release of previously withheld documents detailing abuse allegations against Trump.
This Sixties Musician Died Mysteriously. Was He the Victim of a Serial Killer?
"The murder of O’Jays member Frankie Little Jr. has been a cold case for more than 50 years. Now, a retired journalist believes he may have found the culprit."
Everyone knows Yuri Gagarin was the first person to go to...
Everyone knows Yuri Gagarin was the first person to go to space. What this article presupposes is…maybe he wasn’t? It all boils down to what your definition of space is.
Another recent HyperCard discovery (that isn’t...
Another recent HyperCard discovery (that isn’t somehow in the Internet Archive): an “expanded book” version of William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive).
“Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues...
“Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues invented a new vaccine that protects mice from respiratory viruses, bacteria and allergens — the closest yet to a universal vaccine.”
Ghost Elephants
Ghost Elephants is a new documentary film directed by Werner Herzog for National Geographic. Here’s the trailer . For over a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes, conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in
Beer With a Painter: Hilary Harkness
If paint doesn't feel good coming off the brush, you pretty much have nothing,” said the artist, whose canvases depict humanity in all its rollicking riot and contradiction.
The Other Significant Others: Living and Loving Outside the Confines of Conventional Friendship and Compulsory Coupledom
"While we weaken friendships by expecting too little of them, we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them."
An Introvert’s Field Guide to Friendship: Thoreau on the Challenges and Rewards of Candid Connection
"We only need to be as true to others as we are to ourselves that there may be ground enough for friendship."
Dueling Hares and Leaping Toads Top the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards
Paul Hobson’s black-and-white image of a leaping, silhouetted toad takes top honors this year. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Dueling Hares and
“Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported...
“Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024, a Times analysis shows, and even more in some local elections.” The Scale of Billionaires’ Campaign Donations is Overwhelming U.S. Politics .
The Shape of Paris
The Shape of Paris is a balletic short film of skateboarder Andy Anderson zooming, grinding, spinning, and floating around Paris in the summertime. It is also beautifully shot by Brett Novak ; Paris has never looked better. As a YT commenter put it: “bro wtf this is the
The Modern Times cafe moved to a pay-what-you-want model...
The Modern Times cafe moved to a pay-what-you-want model during the ICE occupation of Minneapolis. Now the cafe is making it permanent (and pivoting to a nonprofit) . “Some had come for a free meal; others were there to pay double or triple their tab.”
“A group of runners starts jogging around a...
“A group of runners starts jogging around a circular track, with each runner maintaining a unique, constant pace. Will every runner end up ‘lonely,’ or relatively far from everyone else, at least once, no matter their speeds?”
An Animated Look at Noguchi’s Experimental Playgrounds That Were Never Built
"I think of playgrounds as a primer of shapes and functions; simple, mysterious and evocative; thus educational," Isamu Noguchi said. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per
Jay Graber is stepping down as CEO of Bluesky to...
Jay Graber is stepping down as CEO of Bluesky to “transition to a new role as Bluesky’s Chief Innovation Officer”. And they’re looking for a new permanent CEO.