Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture | Video Games
My Mental Health Is Like Playing a Metroidvania Game—I Take It One Step at a Time

When the try-fail cycle gets to be too much, I know I can save my progress and walk away. I know I can always try again.

Jul 18, 2022
Arts & Culture | Housing
Buying a House As a Queer Single Mother

Despite my newfound independence, I struggle with the notion that I’m buying into a privileged system of inequity.

Jul 13, 2022
Columns | Arts & Culture | I’ll Have What She’s Having
The Fantasy of the Nancy Meyers Kitchen

At the height of the pandemic, all I wanted was control and counter space and an empty freezer. I wanted a kitchen from a Nancy Meyers movie.

Jul 11, 2022
Arts & Culture | Video Games
Video Games Are for Everyone—And That Should Include Disabled People

Accessibility features open up a world of possibility for fun to be had, which is exactly what video games should do. For all of us.

Jul 7, 2022
Arts & Culture | Video Games
‘Final Fantasy XIV’ Taught Me About Care and Connection During the Pandemic

My online relationships remain heartfelt and cherished ones, even as I’ve reconnected myself with whatever it is we call “real life.”

Jun 22, 2022
Arts & Culture | Television
Through Fanfiction, I Learned the Machinery of My Mind

On the page, I was intact. I was smart and forceful. I had a comeback for every spar.

Jun 21, 2022
Columns | Arts & Culture | Superhero Girlfriends Anonymous
Black Women in Fantasy Saved Me Where Academia Failed

What I needed was a lifeline—a project that would make this whole thing feel worthwhile. Monica Lynne led me to that answer.

Jun 16, 2022
People | Arts & Culture | Rekindle
Why I’m Still Dreaming of a Brown Percy Jackson

BIPOC kids can be the heroes, the fighters who push back against impossible odds. We, too, should be the stuff of legends and prophecies.

Jun 14, 2022
Arts & Culture | Television
‘Lost’ Fans Gave Me a Safe Place on the Internet. Is Such Fandom Possible Now?

Fan culture’s veer into the mainstream saw it lose its sense of protection and gain an abundance of entitlement, even cruelty.

Jun 2, 2022
Arts & Culture | Movies
A Woman Walks Home Alone At Night

In a horror film, the sight of a woman alone fills us with dread. We expect terrible things to happen to her. But she also fills us with a sense of supernatural expectation.

Jun 1, 2022