Audra McDonald Says Theatre Can’t Miss This Moment

Plus: protest and the Nineteenth Amendment; Trump tries to create a federal police force; and how Talking Heads got started. View in browser | Update your preferences The New Yorker Interview “Theatre Can’t Miss This Moment”: An Interview with Audra McDonald The actress on color-blind casting, virtual performance, and learning how to trust her own power. By Michael Schulman Comment Protest Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment The amendment, ratified a century ago, is often described as having “given” women the right to vote. It wasn’t a gift; it was a hard-won victory. By Margaret Talbot Q. & A. Trump’s Dangerous Attempt to Create a Federal Police Carrie Cordero, a specialist in homeland-security law, on the shaky legal basis of the President’s deployment of the D.H.S. against protesters. By Isaac Chotiner Daily Comment J.F.K.’s “Profiles in Courage” Has a Racism Problem Kennedy defined courage in a U.S. senator as a willingness to take an unpopular stand in service of a larger cause. But what cause? By Nicholas Lemann Letter from the U.K. Swifts and the Fantasy of Escape During the coronavirus pandemic, birds are doing the travel that we can’t. By Sam Knight PAID POST New from Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey A chillingly personal and exquisitely wrought memoir of a daughter reckoning with the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and the moving, intimate story of a poet coming into her own in the wake of a tragedy. Culture and More Personal History The Two Sides of the Bowery In the nineteen-seventies, you would see crime, drugs, and dead bodies on the infamous strip; you might also spot Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger, or the founding members of Talking Heads. By Chris Frantz The Front Row “Yes, God, Yes”: A Remarkable Film About a Catholic Girl’s Sexual Rebellion The director Karen Maine uses composed yet imaginative visual and sonic textures to develop her film into a vivid comedic drama. By Richard Brody Humor and Puzzles Daily Shouts Space Cats in Space “The time we’ve spent together on this mission has been eye-opening.” By Alaina Ewins Cryptic Crossword The Cryptic Crossword: No. 74 Agitate and lobby for folk-rocker (3,5). By Joshua Kosman This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.