Julian Lucas
Julian Lucas is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His writing for the magazine includes an exploration of slavery reënactments, as well as profiles of artists and writers such as El Anatsui and Ishmael Reed. Previously, he was an associate editor at Cabinet and a contributing editor at The Point. His writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Magazine, Art in America, and the New York Times Book Review, where he was a contributing writer.
How Dorothy Ashby Made the Harp Swing
Her virtuosity won the instrument a place in jazz, but her achievements have long been overlooked.
Giancarlo Esposito Controls the Chaos
The “Mandalorian” and “Breaking Bad” villain credits his menacing poise to mindfulness and military school—and yearns to play an everyman.
Samuel Fosso’s Century in Selfies
The photographer uses his own body—and a little help from the Pope’s tailor—to chronicle Black history.
How the Artist Kehinde Wiley Went from Picturing Power to Building It
His portrait of Obama sparked a nationwide pilgrimage. Now he’s establishing an arts empire of his own.
The Photographer Who Immortalized a Pan-African Pageant
At FESTAC ’77, a fifty-nine-country festival in Lagos, Marilyn Nance created “a giant family album” for Africa and its diaspora.
A Nobel Laureate Revisits the Great War’s African Front
Abdulrazak Gurnah vividly captures colonial and post-colonial histories of abuse and dispossession, but also startling acts of reclamation and renewal.
Sisterhood and Slavery in “The Woman King”
Viola Davis’s new feature is a rousing tribute to the world’s only all-female army. But how true is the story it tells?
The Monks Who Took the Kora to Church
Sixty years ago, a Senegalese monastery gave up the organ for the kora, a traditional calabash harp. The monks’ innovations brought the instrument to the world stage—and transformed sacred music.
A Black British Artist Asks, “What Was Africa to the Harlem Renaissance?”
The video artist Isaac Julien and the cultural theorist Kobena Mercer explore “primitive” sculpture and the queering of the New Negro.
A Visionary Show Moves Black History Beyond Borders
“Afro-Atlantic Histories,” now at the National Gallery of Art, offers an epic survey of the diaspora.
The Forgotten Movement to Reclaim Africa’s Stolen Art
A new book explores the first campaign to decolonize Europe’s museums—and exposes the conspiracy that smothered it.
The Novelist Yoko Tawada Conjures a World Between Languages
Writing in Japanese and German, Tawada explores borderlands in which people and words have lost their moorings.
Angélique Kidjo Has Heard It All
At sixty-one, the doyenne of African pop is recording with everyone from Burna Boy to Philip Glass—and still searching for new rhythms.
Mapping Climate Grief, One Pixel at a Time
Norco, an indie adventure game about an oil town menaced by global warming, is a striking contribution to American landscape art.
Can “Distraction-Free” Devices Change the Way We Write?
The digital age enabled productivity but invited procrastination. Now writers are rebelling against their word processors.
When “Foundation” Gets the Blockbuster Treatment, Isaac Asimov’s Vision Gets Lost
The TV version of the classic sci-fi saga sidelines its source’s most pressing questions about power and precarity.
Percival Everett’s Deadly Serious Comedy
The novelist has regularly exploded our models of genre and identity. In “The Trees,” he’s raising the stakes, confronting America’s legacy of lynching in a mystery at once hilarious and horrifying.
Ishmael Reed Gets the Last Laugh
America’s most fearless satirist has seen his wildest fictions become reality.
How Octavia E. Butler Reimagines Sex and Survival
The parasites, hybrids, and vampires of her science fiction make the price of persisting viscerally real.
How El Anatsui Broke the Seal on Contemporary Art
His runaway success began with castaway junk: a bag of bottle caps along the road. Now the Ghanaian sculptor is redefining Africa’s place in the global art scene.
How Dorothy Ashby Made the Harp Swing
Her virtuosity won the instrument a place in jazz, but her achievements have long been overlooked.
Giancarlo Esposito Controls the Chaos
The “Mandalorian” and “Breaking Bad” villain credits his menacing poise to mindfulness and military school—and yearns to play an everyman.
Samuel Fosso’s Century in Selfies
The photographer uses his own body—and a little help from the Pope’s tailor—to chronicle Black history.
How the Artist Kehinde Wiley Went from Picturing Power to Building It
His portrait of Obama sparked a nationwide pilgrimage. Now he’s establishing an arts empire of his own.
The Photographer Who Immortalized a Pan-African Pageant
At FESTAC ’77, a fifty-nine-country festival in Lagos, Marilyn Nance created “a giant family album” for Africa and its diaspora.
A Nobel Laureate Revisits the Great War’s African Front
Abdulrazak Gurnah vividly captures colonial and post-colonial histories of abuse and dispossession, but also startling acts of reclamation and renewal.
Sisterhood and Slavery in “The Woman King”
Viola Davis’s new feature is a rousing tribute to the world’s only all-female army. But how true is the story it tells?
The Monks Who Took the Kora to Church
Sixty years ago, a Senegalese monastery gave up the organ for the kora, a traditional calabash harp. The monks’ innovations brought the instrument to the world stage—and transformed sacred music.
A Black British Artist Asks, “What Was Africa to the Harlem Renaissance?”
The video artist Isaac Julien and the cultural theorist Kobena Mercer explore “primitive” sculpture and the queering of the New Negro.
A Visionary Show Moves Black History Beyond Borders
“Afro-Atlantic Histories,” now at the National Gallery of Art, offers an epic survey of the diaspora.
The Forgotten Movement to Reclaim Africa’s Stolen Art
A new book explores the first campaign to decolonize Europe’s museums—and exposes the conspiracy that smothered it.
The Novelist Yoko Tawada Conjures a World Between Languages
Writing in Japanese and German, Tawada explores borderlands in which people and words have lost their moorings.
Angélique Kidjo Has Heard It All
At sixty-one, the doyenne of African pop is recording with everyone from Burna Boy to Philip Glass—and still searching for new rhythms.
Mapping Climate Grief, One Pixel at a Time
Norco, an indie adventure game about an oil town menaced by global warming, is a striking contribution to American landscape art.
Can “Distraction-Free” Devices Change the Way We Write?
The digital age enabled productivity but invited procrastination. Now writers are rebelling against their word processors.
When “Foundation” Gets the Blockbuster Treatment, Isaac Asimov’s Vision Gets Lost
The TV version of the classic sci-fi saga sidelines its source’s most pressing questions about power and precarity.
Percival Everett’s Deadly Serious Comedy
The novelist has regularly exploded our models of genre and identity. In “The Trees,” he’s raising the stakes, confronting America’s legacy of lynching in a mystery at once hilarious and horrifying.
Ishmael Reed Gets the Last Laugh
America’s most fearless satirist has seen his wildest fictions become reality.
How Octavia E. Butler Reimagines Sex and Survival
The parasites, hybrids, and vampires of her science fiction make the price of persisting viscerally real.
How El Anatsui Broke the Seal on Contemporary Art
His runaway success began with castaway junk: a bag of bottle caps along the road. Now the Ghanaian sculptor is redefining Africa’s place in the global art scene.