Mark Taper Forum
PROFILE
Kimberly Senior
Guest
FROM Kimberly Senior
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
'Disgraced' Explores Muslim Life in America in Surprising Ways The play Disgraced explores what it means to be Muslim in America today. The playwright, Ayad Akhtar, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for it in 2013, and yet the themes are still incredibly relevant in 2016. Over ninety minutes, four main characters at a dinner party grapple with identity, politics and racism in unpredictable ways. The main character, Amir, is a secular lawyer of Pakistani-Muslim descent. His wife is an artist who happens to be white. They host a dinner party for her Jewish art dealer and his African American wife, who’s a lawyer in Amir’s law firm. The characters both adhere to and undermine stereotypes. And the play raises more questions than it answers.
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Good Food
2018’s best cookbooks and restaurant openings Holiday gift buying is in full swing, and so we’re looking back on a year of stellar cookbooks with Celia Sack of Omnivore Books. We’re also highlighting two great indie food zines you should know about. Plus: chef Anita Lo goes “Solo” and Zach Brooks and Evan Kleiman dissect their favorite restaurants of the year.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
‘If Beale Street Could Talk:’ filmmaker Barry Jenkins adapts James Baldwin’s novel Barry Jenkins’ new movie is “If Beale Street Could Talk,” an adaptation of a James Baldwin novel. It’s a love story in 1970s Harlem, told in flashbacks. When 19-year-old Tish discovers she’s pregnant, her family works hard to get her partner, Fonny, out of prison in time for the birth.