MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• 'Hey, Kiddo' Aims To Help Kids With Addicted Parents Feel Less Alone
  Jarrett J. Krosoczka was raised by his grandparents. The author and illustrator says he got a lot of practice telling stories as a kid — "making up excuses for where my biological parents were."
• Bono, Pharrell, Laurie Anderson And More Memorialize A... Cat
  French artist Sophie Calle's cat died in 2014. To mourn him, Calle asked dozens of musicians — including Michael Stipe, The National and Jarvis Cocker — to memorialize him.
• Novelist Esi Edugyan On Black Genius And What Comes After Slavery
  The author of Man Booker Prize finalist Washington Black began her new book on a plantation in 1830s Barbados. "I really have no idea where my story is going at the outset of it," she says.
• Novelist Esi Edugyan On Depicting The 'Forgotten Figures' Of Scientific History
  Edugyan's latest novel, Washington Black, tells the story of a boy who escapes slavery and embarks on a voyage of scientific discovery. It has been shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize.
• Phoebe Robinson: There's No Excuse For The Lack Of Diversity In Comedy
  "There are so many talented, amazing people and if you're not booking them, it's either out of laziness or the fact you really don't care," says the co-host of the 2 Dope Queens podcast.
• 'Washington Black' Is A Soaring Tale Of Enslavement And Escape
  Esi Edugyan's new novel centers on a boy who escapes slavery via hot air balloon — before crashing down to hard historical realities. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Washington Black "a wonder."
• Getting 'The Band' Together: Questions For Nicholas Eames
  Author Nicholas Eames's series The Band is a joyous mashup of classic rock and fantasy tropes — because if there were monsters, why wouldn't there be bands of celebrity mercenaries to slay them?
• 'Bad Times At The El Royale' Is A Twisty, Neon-Lit Neo-Noir
  In writer/director Drew Goddard's film, several strangers converge at a casino-motel filled with dark passageways and two-way mirrors — a lot like the film's satisfyingly pulpy, B-movie plot.
• Redefining The Bakhu—And The Great American Road Trip—Through Self-Portraiture
  A photographer confronts the childhood discomfort she felt wearing traditional Mustangi clothing in public by traveling across the country and posing for portraits in them.
• U.K. Sets 'Tartuffe' In Birmingham's Pakistani Muslim Community
  In a new take on Moliere's Tartuffe, the original production's "dangerous priest" villain is now portrayed as a manipulative Imam who preys on a Muslim family.