The poet and memoirist Maya Angelou died on May 28th, at the age of eighty-six. A civil-rights activist and a professor at Wake Forest University, Angelou—born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri—was the author of works including “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and received awards including the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her public life spanned decades and included a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize, as well as dozens of honorary degrees.
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Postscript
Remembering William Whitworth’s Editorial Eye
An editor who could see around corners and deep into thorny manuscripts.
By Ian Frazier
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Judith Butler Can’t “Take Credit or Blame” for Gender Furor
The philosopher popularized new ideas about gender—and has been burned in effigy for it. They talk with David Remnick about “Who’s Afraid of Gender?” Plus, a little March Madness.
Culture Desk
At the “Oppenheimer” Oscars, Hollywood Went in Search of Lost Time
After the pandemic, the strikes, and years of small-scale pictures in the spotlight, the triumph of a brainy blockbuster seemed like a nod to a bygone heyday.
By Justin Chang