Editor's Message
The People Have Spoken
It has been a summer of striking contrasts. Banks collapsing, inflation skyrocketing, and New Orleans threatened again—yet record audiences for the glittering spectacles in Beijing and Denver. Both carefully stage-managed events emphasized popular participation. Yet while no one would equate China with genuine rule by the people, Obama’s dazzling speech certainly elevated expectations of what his party could do for American democracy. And that’s a good thing.
Here in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg and his city council are contemplating doing an end-run around the will of city voters and abolishing term limits. That’s a bad thing. Term limits were approved by voter referendum in both 1993 and 1996. In the most recent local elections, neither the mayor nor any city councilmember ran with a pledge to overturn the two-term limit. Yet, should the mayor give the implicit green light, those same legislators now could extend the limit to three terms, essentially granting themselves four more years in office. That incumbents almost never lose is, of course, one of the main reasons why term limits arose in the first place.
Not long ago, New York City was at the forefront of democratic experimentation. Consider the city’s system of public campaign financing. Matching funds (currently six to one) have greatly expanded the field of candidates. But now a mayor who doesn’t participate in the public financing system is being encouraged by his big-time developer allies to alter the law so that he can use his deep pockets to win another election. A move toward Chinese-style dictatorship the effort is not. But neither does it fit with American democratic idealism, which has always aimed to prevent dynasty and mitigate privilege.
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Alas, this is the last issue that will feature the handiwork of our very talented designer Nadia Chaudhury. Nadia is headed up to Boston, where she’ll do graduate work at Emerson. Rest assured, you’ll be seeing many future essays, both written and photographic, from Nadia in these pages in the coming years.
—T. Hamm
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
People of the Otherworld: Ken Kiff in Dialogue
By Alfred Mac AdamJULY/AUG 2023 | ArtSeen
Curated by Kathy Battista, People of the Otherworld introduces Ken Kiff’s work to a New York audience unaware of his existence. This it accomplishes in grand style by amassing twenty works produced between the 1960s and 1990s. It also seeks to show Kiff’s affinities with ten younger artists, including some who are not painters.
What Are White People So Afraid Of? Claudia Rankine’s Help
By Alexis ClementsMARCH 2022 | Theater
Alexis Clements reflects on a trio of works by Claudia Rankine—an essay, a book, and a new play starting March 15 at The Shed—dissecting how they circle a question that has caught Rankine’s, and the zeitgeist’s, attention: why is it so hard for white people to confront their whiteness?
The Business of Art is the Business of People
By Lise K. Ragbir and Julia V HendricksonJUNE 2023 | Critics Page
People of the global majority are being invited into predominantly white art spaces like never before. And, at rates like never before, we’re seeing the ways in which many of these institutions are under-supporting employees. Efforts have been made, but “diversity hires” and DEI fatigue shed light on the ways in which stop-gap measures alone can’t upend a system that wasn’t built for everybody. Even if, in our capitalist society, we’re all seen as human resources.
Faith Ringgold: American People
By Ann C. CollinsMARCH 2022 | ArtSeen
Organized by The New Museum’s artistic director Massimiliano Gioni with curator Gary Carrion-Murayari and curatorial assistant Madeline Weisburg, American People is jam-packed with more than forty years of Faith Ringgold’s most prominent work.
