‣ Amardeep Singh draws parallels between the films of Mira Nair and the politics of her son, New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani (ever heard of him?). For the Pittsburgh Review of Books, helmed by Hyperallergic contributor Ed Simon, Singh writes:Zohran was born 34 years ago (October 1991), and his mother’s film was released only a few months afterwards (in the U.S., February 1992). Obviously, one shouldn’t read the politics of one person through the lens of their parents, as some pro-Israel groups have been attempting to do. And in a New York Times interview with both parents from June, Mahmood Mamdani made it a point to differentiate his own ideas and beliefs from his son’s: “He’s his own person,” he said. Strikingly, Mira Nair immediately jumped in to express a contrary point of view: “I don’t agree… Of course the world we live in, and what we write and film and think about, is the world that Zohran has very much absorbed.” I’m curious about what might happen if we take that seriously: What can we learn about Zohran’s approach to politics through his mother’s approach to filmmaking?‣ Kelechi Anabaraonye pens a fascinating architectural history of the Old Secretariat building, the seat of British colonial power in Nigeria, and explores how artists are confronting its legacy today in Africa Is a Country:In July, the project hosted a two-day exhibition at the National Museum Lagos, bringing the Old Secretariat’s layered history into focus. The exhibition featured archival images, historical research, photography, sound design, and an immersive digital experience inspired by the Secretariat’s grand entrance and lobby. Oral histories from those connected to the building’s past added personal narratives to the story, while fireside conversations with architects, historians, and cultural workers invited the public to consider not only what the building once represented but what it could become. This multi-sensory approach sought to preserve the building’s memory while sparking dialogue about how such spaces might be reimagined for artistic activation, cultural education, and civic gathering.In a conversation, Seju Alero Mike, the project coordinator and creative director of The Creative Alliance, highlights that “our work on the Old Secretariat began as both an act of remembrance and a call to possibility; to see this structure not only as a relic of colonial administration but as a living site capable of hosting artistic and cultural activation.”‣ Gendertrash From Hell, an irreverent ’90s trans punk zine, is finally available in a new anthology. Cat Fitzpatrick dug into its old editions and wrote about the emotional experience of flipping through its pages for Defector:It took me a few months to track down all the issues. As I read them, I remember feeling more and more amazed. This zine was rewriting my entire understanding of transsexual history. Sure, some parts felt dated: the terrible poetry about sex, the shameful adverts for mail-order cross-dressing emporia, the overwrought surgery diaries. But other parts were light-years ahead of where I was up to. I wasn’t ready for the critique of queer theory, or the focus on sex work, homelessness, incarceration, race and Indigeneity. I wasn’t ready for how serious it was about organizing, liberation, struggle. Above all, I wasn’t ready for how much it loved trans people.I transitioned shortly after the millennium and was on the trans internet from about 1996, so I can tell you that being trans in the ’90s and 2000s was very uncool. There were a lot of pink websites, butterflies, and “true selves.” The doctors discouraged us from knowing each other, but we could also discourage us from knowing each other. If you had to be friends with other transsexuals, it meant you were not passing, and therefore you were not hot. But that was not what Gendertrash said.‣ Last week, the Rapid Support Forces killed over 1,500 people in El Fasher, Sudan. Journalist Nesrine Malik issues a scathing condemnation of the international leaders who continue to turn their backs on the genocide, writing in the Guardian:Sudan’s war is described as forgotten, but in reality it is tolerated and relegated. Because to reckon with the horror in Sudan is to look into the abyss of regional and global politics. It is to see the growing imperialist role of some Gulf powers in Africa and beyond – and to acknowledge the fact that no meaningful pressure is applied to these powers, including the UAE, to cease and desist from supporting a genocidal militia because the UK, US and others are close allies with these states. As the RSF encircled El Fasher last year, sources told the Guardian that UK government officials were working to suppress criticism of the UAE among African diplomats. Last week it was revealed that British military equipment used by the RSF was found on the battlefields in Sudan.‣ The rollback of DEI initiatives in journalism is in full swing (see the recent dismissal of the entire Teen Vogue team). The Wrap‘s Corbin Bolies reports on its consequences for the media landscape:The Los Angeles Times published annual diversity reports, which broke down its staff’s composition across gender and racial and ethnic lines, between 2020 and 2022, though they have since ceased. Its persistent layoffs in recent years have affected some of the same junior staffers it hired to diversify its newsroom, including those who worked on its Latino-focused De Los section and one of the paper’s only Indigenous editors, Angie Jaime, who ran the 4040 social media content team. Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, also removed mentions of diversity from its website in April and said it would stop publishing data cataloging the demographic makeup of its staff on its website. “A lot of us knew that there was going to be a pendulum swing,” Payne said. “I think, for the journalists of color, we’re not shocked and we’re not surprised. We’re disappointed.”‣ Yet again, Kim Kardashian is commodifying and selling us back another part of our own bodies: the bush. Quispe López of Them breaks down the memes and backlash from lesbians on the internet:With 2025 being recognized as the year of the bush by multiple media outlets — and by no less an authority than lesbian reality TV darling Gabby Windey herself — it isn’t necessarily a surprise that late-stage capitalism has churned out a product like this. However, the idea of buying a wig to produce a look that most people could replicate naturally has been difficult for some queer people online to swallow. They see it as just another way for lesbian aesthetics to be mass marketed and sold without being rooted in the community itself.“this is very sinister to me for reasons i cant articulate properly yet but i feel the same way about this than about the nipple bra. why are the female body’s features only acceptable when they’re imitated by lingerie, packaged and sold,” one X user wrote.‣ Old Testament apocrypha walked so Wattpad could run (iykyk). Sara Ivry maps the millennia-long history of fan fiction, and its intersection with fake news, for JSTOR Daily:This always floors people: the Bible doesn’t actually tell us what Jesus Christ looked like. At all. But there have literally been billions of people over the past two millennia who would have liked to know this. So, in the Middle Ages, somebody decided to fix that, and they wrote the Letter of Publius Lentulus, a fake epistle supposedly written by a Roman in Palestine who was an eyewitness to Jesus’s activities. He ostensibly wrote to the Senate in Rome describing Jesus as having chestnut hair, smooth at the top and curly down to his shoulders, with gray eyes and no blemishes. That’s preserved in over 300 medieval and Renaissance manuscript witnesses and has served as the basis of untold thousands of visual representations of Jesus Christ.‣ Ms. Rachel, brilliant educator that she is, wore a beautiful dress adorned with embroidery based on artwork by Gazan children to the Glamour Women of the Year Awards: @msrachelforlittles I’m so proud of your art ♬ original sound – Ms Rachel ‣ Fend off winter darkness and repurpose fallen leaves with these precious stained-glass creations: View this post on Instagram ‣ It’s just a skit it’s just a skit it’s just a sk— @atsukocomedy I’d like to order the idea of a coffee ☕️ Collab with BK Coffee shop ♬ original sound – Atsuko Okatsuka ‣ Finally, some hope for the future: View this post on Instagram Required Reading is published every Thursday afternoon and comprises a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.