PRICE $8.99 MAR. 29, 2021 THE STYLE & DESIGN ISSUE MARCH 29, 2021 7 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 15 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Jelani Cobb on Georgia’s fight over voting rights; curating family photographs; solidarity at Amazon; records are for playing; N.Y.C.-parking hardball. AMERICAN CHRONICLES Carrie Battan 22 The Unravelling What happens when knitting and politics collide. SHOUTS & MURMURS Eli Grober 29 Things Vaccinated People Still Should Not Do ON AND OFF THE AVENUE Patricia Marx 30 Stand Up Straight! Pushing and pulling our way to better posture. THE WORLD OF TELEVISION Ian Parker 34 Fixer-Upper Can HGTV renovate itself in a time of crisis? ANNALS OF FASHION Judith Thurman 44 Eye of the Needle A Black designer’s vision and the fabric of history. FICTION Ayşegül Savaş 56 “Future Selves” THE CRITICS BOOKS David Remnick 62 Philip Roth, revealed. 69 Briefly Noted Hannah Fry 70 The limits of statistics. A CRITIC AT LARGE Jill Lepore 74 Where constitutions come from. PODCAST DEPT. Rachel Syme 80 Wellness made weird. POP MUSIC Hua Hsu 82 Pharoah Sanders keeps transcending. ON TELEVISION Alexandra Schwartz 84 Art and faith in “Shtisel.” POEMS Aria Aber 41 “Dirt and Light” Robert Pinsky 58 “At Mt. Auburn Cemetery” COVER Reyna Noriega “House Style” DRAWINGS Yasin Osman, Harry Bliss, Joe Dator, Jon Adams, Maggie Larson, Liana Finck, Emily Flake, Edward Steed, Frank Cotham, Jason Adam Katzenstein, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Johnny DiNapoli SPOTS JooHee Yoon CONTRIBUTORS Ian Parker (“Fixer-Upper,” p. 34) con- Judith Thurman (“Eye of the Needle,” tributed his first piece to The New p. 44), a staff writer since 2000, began Yorker in 1994 and became a staff writer writing for the magazine in 1987. Her in 2000. most recent book is “Cleopatra’s Nose,” a collection of her New Yorker essays. Patricia Marx (“Stand Up Straight!,” p. 30), a staff writer, published “You Greg Clarke (Sketchpad, p. 21) is an il- Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing lustrator. He co-authored, with Monte at a Time: Rules for Couples,” illus- Beauchamp, “A Sidecar Named Desire: trated by Roz Chast, last year. Great Writers and the Booze That Stirred Them.” Robert Pinsky (Poem, p. 58) most re- cently edited the poetry anthology Naila Ruechel (Photographs, p. 44-54), “The Mind Has Cliffs of Fall.” His a photographer and a director, is based latest collection is “At the Foundling in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Hospital.” Patrick Berry (Puzzles & Games Dept.) Carrie Battan (“The Unravelling,” p. 22), began constructing puzzles in 1993. He a staff writer, has been contributing to lives in Athens, Georgia. the magazine since 2015. A Family Aria Aber (Poem, p. 41), the author of Eli Grober (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 29) “Hard Damage,” won a 2020 Whiting Tradition for writes “Here’s Something,” a weekly Award. She is a Wallace Stegner Fellow Generations humor newsletter. at Stanford University. Reyna Noriega (Cover), a visual artist, Ayşegül Savaş (Fiction, p. 56) has writ- published “In Bloom: A Poetic Doc- ten the novels “Walking on the Ceiling” Situated on 2,500 acres of unspoiled umentary of the Journey to Higher and “White on White,” which will paradise, Ocean Reef provides a long list Self ” in 2019. come out in the fall. of unsurpassed amenities enjoyed by generations of Members, including a 175-slip marina, two 18-hole golf courses, tennis facilities, state-of-the-art THIS WEEK ON NEWYORKER.COM medical center, K-8 school, private airport and more. There are only two ways to experience Ocean Reef Club’s Unique Way of Life – as a guest of a Member or through the pages of Living magazine. Visit OceanReefClubLiving.com or call 305.367.5921 to request your complimentary copy. N EWS DESK DAILY COMMENT Ronan Farrow on Lindsey Boylan’s Jiayang Fan on the Atlanta shootings account of harassment and bullying and the escalation of anti-Asian under Andrew Cuomo. discrimination and violence. Download the New Yorker app for the latest news, commentary, criticism, and humor, plus this week’s magazine and all issues back to 2008. / GETTY VARNER MEGAN RIGHT: YORKER; THE NEW FOR WIDLINE CADET LEFT: THE MAIL How will you be THE HEART OF THE MATTER and shift to ones that are more sustain- able for marine life and humans alike. remembered? Joshua Rothman brings much-needed Rebekah Staub attention to artificial hearts and to the 1Denver, Colo. challenges faced by the engineers, doc- tors, and patients who are invested LEARNING TO LET GO in this technology (“Missing a Beat,” March 8th). I am a co-founder of a na- Ann Patchett’s personal history about tional coalition for women with heart coming to terms with surrendering ma- disease. It is important to remember terial possessions should be required read- that artificial-heart research has dis- ing for anyone who would like to avoid proportionately focussed on male pa- leaving chaos and heartache to their heirs tients and that, at this stage, experi- (“How to Practice,” March 8th). Now well mental hearts often only fit the chests into my eighties and having downsized of large men. Yet heart disease is the twice, I find myself sorting and tossing leading cause of death for women in almost daily. The best gift I’m leaving my the United States, and almost as many out-of-state children is contact informa- women as men die of it each year. Gen- tion for the professional organizer who der bias in cardiac clinical trials and in has been invaluable to me since my hus- access to advanced medical technolo- band died, two years ago. Once every- gies persists, owing to sexism, misin- thing designated in my will has been dis- formation about the extent to which tributed, and my kids and friends have women experience heart disease, and chosen any other stuff they might enjoy, medical negligence, intentional or not. the organizer will swoop in and haul the Women—and their doctors—need to remainder away. She will auction, sell, do- demand their rightful place in this crit- nate, or otherwise dispose of it, so that ical area of cardiac research. my loved ones, without a care, can throw Nancy Loving a party—and a few ashes. Co-founder, WomenHeart Fran Moreland Johns Through a charitable Corvallis, Ore. San Francisco, Calif. 1 gift in your will, UNDER THE SEA Patchett’s piece brought me to tears. Last your name can live summer, I helped my parents move out on as a champion Ian Urbina’s revealing report on fish farm- of our family home of fifty-four years. My ing in Gambia observes that aquacul- sister midwifed their winnowing while I of the causes and ture “reduces the problem of bycatch— sifted through family history, embodied communities dear to the thousands of tons of unwanted fish in our belongings. There wasn’t enough you—for generations. that are swept up each year by the gap- time—there is never enough time— ing nets of industrial fishing boats” to honor the memories, longings, and (“The Smell of Money,” March 8th). unrealized lives that those things carry It’s worth noting that bycatch often in- with them. We donated objects by the car- cludes other forms of marine life, such load, trusting that they would be loved by as sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, and sea- someone else, somewhere else. More layers birds. These species are routinely cap- remain to excavate. Patchett gives me hope tured and killed by industrial fishing that, somehow, we will continue to move on. Contact us at methods; even large whales become en- Rachel Hershfang giving@nyct-cfi .org or tangled in gear, as their feeding grounds Newton, Mass. often overlap with commercial-fishing (212) 686-0010 x363 areas. From my experience working in • to start your legacy today. ocean conservation, I believe that, if we Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, want to fulfill our increasing demand address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited www.giveto.nyc for seafood, reverse climate change, and for length and clarity, and may be published in achieve justice for workers at sea, we must any medium. We regret that owing to the volume stop using destructive fishing methods of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, MARCH 29, 2021 5 $ Also available in 20 $189 Ross-Simons Item #933957 To receive this special offer, use offer code: WILD5 1.800.556.7376 or visit ross-simons.com/wild In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many New York City venues are closed. Here’s a selection of culture to be found around town, as well as online and streaming. MARCH 24 – 30, 2021 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Since 2016, the Baltimore-raised experimental musician Josiah Wise has been warping the dimen- sions of soul music as serpentwithfeet. His début, “soil,” from 2018, was packed with quietly knock- ing, R. & B.-tinged electronic music. With his new album, the more refined yet more ambitious “DEACON,” he dares to make gospel pop. Inspired by his move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, Wise sets songs about heartbreak aside, centering his voice in search of gentler, more sensuous sounds. PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL JACK LYONS 1 ers as well as all the characters. The director, Joe both P.R. executives (who belatedly realize that THE THEATRE O’Byrne, intercuts film of Conroy performing “The Chairs” ends with a double suicide) and in a small theatre in Dublin with footage of the visionary theatre directors. Boosted by a terrific Aran Islands.