All posts tagged: margins

Street Artist Jimmy Mirikitani Rises from Art History’s Margins

Street Artist Jimmy Mirikitani Rises from Art History’s Margins

After decades on the margins of art history, Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani—a collagist of singular, inimitable vision—is finally having his story told, though not in any linear fashion.  The late artist is currently the subject of a solo exhibition on view through June at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas City—among the first serious institutional examinations of his practice. Co-curators Maki Kaneko and Kris Imants Ercums have organized the exhibition thematically rather than chronologically, echoing Mirikitani’s collage-like life: an accumulation of pivotal events in which the past continually presses upon the present, from the atomic bombing of his hometown, Hiroshima, to his incarceration at Tule Lake following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and finally to his arrival in mid-1950s New York, on the cusp of a changing art world; multiculturalism was gaining currency and street art would soon enter the city’s galleries.  Related Articles For much of her curatorial career, Kaneko has focused on researching art made during World War II, with an eye toward Japanese artists. “But Jimmy’s art told me something I had never heard,” she said. “The way he narrated his …

Alice Coltrane and No Wave’s overlooked women step out of the margins

Alice Coltrane and No Wave’s overlooked women step out of the margins

2026 is shaping up to be a year for incredible music books. Some of the best non-fiction books are projects where the writer is stepping up to fill a gap, to document the undocumented (or insufficiently chronicled), to tell a story that hasn’t been told adequately, to share a subject the writer is insanely passionate about. All of the above are true in two new fantastic books: Andy Beta’s “Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane” and Adele Bertei’s “No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene.” In both cases, these are sprawling, immersive volumes, authored with obvious knowledge and deep understanding, but written in an engaging, open style that’s clearly meant to engage readers and bring them closer to each book’s respective subjects. “Cosmic Music” author Andy Beta was a teenage punk rock kid bragging about his diverse musical tastes — he was into John Coltrane  — when someone tipped him off to Alice Coltrane’s “Journey In Satchidananda,” telling him, “‘You’ve got to hear …

Democrats romp in Wisconsin Supreme Court race, narrow Georgia margins

Democrats romp in Wisconsin Supreme Court race, narrow Georgia margins

University of Wisconsin-Madison master’s student Cassie Semenas casts a ballot at Lowell Center residence hall in Madison, during Wisconsin’s spring election, which included a state Supreme Court contest, April 7, 2026. Joe Timmerman | Wisconsin Watch | Getty Images Democrats romped to a 20 percentage point victory in a race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, while Republicans won a special election for a House seat in Georgia by a far less comfortable margin than in 2024. The elections Tuesday underscore strong headwinds for President Donald Trump and his Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which could shift the balance of power in Washington and loosen Trump’s grip on power. Democratic-backed Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor won a 10-year term on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, defeating conservative Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar by roughly 20 percentage points, according to the Associated Press tally. The race was far more subdued than last year’s Supreme Court contest in Wisconsin, which turned into the most expensive state supreme court race in history after Tesla owner Elon Musk injected …

Pope Leo XIV’s African visit a journey to the margins — and the heart of Christianity

Pope Leo XIV’s African visit a journey to the margins — and the heart of Christianity

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to travel to Africa, its Catholic leaders are underlining the significance of the visit to the continent, where Christianity is on an upsurge. Leo will visit Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April 13-23. It will be his third foreign trip since being elected in May of last year, after his November visit to Turkey, where he marked the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, and his upcoming one-day visit on March 28 to Monaco, the world’s second smallest state after the Vatican. The African visit will begin in Algeria, where the pope will tour the Great Mosque of Algiers, the world’s largest Islamic house of worship, and address Algerians from the city’s Catholic cathedral. In the following days he will go to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. According to some Catholic scholars, the mix of countries of his initial visits suggests a focus on interreligious dialogue, peace and the social mission of the Catholic Church, as well as a recognition of Africa’s …