Market Log #3
Books, art shows and movies in the first half of 2026
This normally paywalled post is brought to you by GAP. Here I am wearing the summer sports collection.
Buongiorno!
I write to you from our hotel in Venice where it’s warm and mostly sunny. My husband and I landed on Tuesday after a tedious weekend spent trying to attend to our normal activities while battling a very bad cold. But here we are now, the 61st Venice Biennale is on and breathing in the Mediterranean sea feels healing.
On our first day, I sat on a bridge over a canal and lost myself in the clinking of glasses and tipsy chatter of the locals and tourists around. Here I can gloriously live out the concept of “dolce far niente,” doing nothing but wander aimlessly, drinking copious amounts of wine and chewing chichetti while watching people spill out of bacaris, wine glasses in hand.
Needless to say: Venice has already charmed me.
This is the third edition of Market Log, where I highlight the books, movies, shows, podcasts and other media I consume. Despite my lapse in publishing this specific series, I have a lot to share. I’ve watched a record number of movies and documentaries so far (as my Letterboxd would tell you), made some progress towards my reading goal (6 books down, 30 more to go LOL), attended some great film festivals, and seen some good art. Here’s a very condensed summary of what I’ve watched, read, seen and experienced this year.
Some highlights:
Screening of Freda during Lakay: A Celebration of Haitian Cinema
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone on Broadway
World premiere of The Tropic Sun and His Eyes at Tribeca Film Festival
Screening of I Love Boosters followed by a Q&A with Keke Palmer, Boots Riley and Jeremy O. Harris.
Around Town
Lots of new shopping discoveries this month. Now that it’s warm in New York, I’ve been walking quite a bit, which means ending up at the stores I’d been meaning to check out and those I discover on the spot.
Fashion and lifestyle:
Vowels – Very cool store concept merging literature with fashion. You can shop Japanese streetwear labels, make a research appointment and scan pages.
ROOME – Y2K-leaning styles, mix of vintage and new.
313 Vintage – ‘90s minimalism and Rick Owens core come together.
Pilgrim New York – If the ‘90s is your favorite fashion era, you’ll love this place.
Lara Koleji – Fun shop with big-name vintage luxury finds.
Y-Y New York – newly opened Korean-inspired (according to me) boutique.
Silence Please – Japanese tea house for the audiophiles.
Arts & Culture:
Taraji P. Henson was phenomenal in her Broadway debut. The playwright August Wilson tackles trauma in a deeply human way through the character Herald Loomis (played masterfully by Joshua Boone). This is a powerful reminder of the strength of community in the face of extreme hardship.
Oh to be a Seydou Keïta sitter in 1960-era Bamako! In step with the great Malick Sidibé, Keïta captured everyday people (primarily fellow Malian citizens) with dignity, creating a vivid record of the newly emancipated nation as it grappled with tradition and modernity.
Ideas of Africa Portraiture and Political Imagination
Seeing this shortly after the Seydou Keïta exhibition felt so right (not surprisingly, Keïta featured prominently in the show). Both exhibitions examine how African identity is constructed and personal agency represented in photography.
New York African Film Festival
I make it a point to attend a few screenings whenever the NYAFF is happening. This year kicked off at the Lincoln Center where I watched the 1983 gem of a documentary Caméra d’Afrique, chronicling the first twenty years of cinema in Sub-Saharan Africa. I also had the pleasure of hearing the director Férid Boughedir talk about his process and the making of the film. The Q&As are always the best part!
Lakay: A Celebration of Haitian Cinema
My sister Christy and her friend Abigail gathered a crowd at the Roxy Hotel last month for a two-day Haitian film festival. The theme was Lakay (creole for home), projecting a series of Haitian-made shorts and features that delve into experiences of displacement, alienation, and spiritual despair.
On opening night, we watched the movie Freda by Gessica Geneus, one of the greatest Haitian filmmakers working today. It was affirming in more ways than one. I get into why in the movies section below.
On the topic of Haitian cinema, I put on a mask last Friday and headed to the AMC on 19th Street to watch filmmaker Elisee Junior St Preux’s feature debut, The Tropic Sun and His Eyes. It was beautiful! These two experiences in conjunction with the many Haitian events I attended last year signal that there’s something of a cultural renaissance happening, and this Haitian girl is here for it.
Food:
Kin Ramen – Bring all your ramen-obsessed friends here. Rich broth and perfect noodle texture.
Cocoron – If, like me, you occasionally get hit with a sudden, intense and peremptory craving for soba noodles…
On my TV screen:
Shows:
Beef
The acting is phenomenal and the storyline explosive, just how I like it. Sure the ending was cynical especially when compared to season 1, but it also felt real and of the moment?
Your Friends & Neighbors
I don’t know what John Hamm’s obsession with murder is about, but to me it took away from the narrative potential of the second season. The show, which trades in the vanities of the elite, would be better if Hamm explored the “eat the rich” theme to the fullest without making awkward detours into forced murder plot points (it’s not like the rich just drop dead in reality anyway). That said, his show is a delight; he’s a fantastic narrator and everyone’s acting is great!
Mad Men (rewatching)
Your Friends & Neighbors made me nostalgic for Mad Men, which I watched when I was way too young to fully grapple with the themes.
Funny AF with Kevin Hart
Don’t let that stupid roast overshadow the greatness of this show. It’s hilarious, well-produced, and the contestants are all, for the most part, professional comedians. I’m planning to see several of them live. They’re really that good.
Hacks
Great writing and genuinely funny characters. They leaned too much into Black culture for my taste this last season though (what’s with Deborah saying “y’all” or bopping to Glorilla’s Let Her Cook on The Breakfast Club?) It was cringe and unnecessary.
Movies & Documentaries:
A very abbreviated list of everything I’ve watched this year:
Losing Ground
Kathleen Collins’ study of Black women’s interiority here should be part of every film class curriculum.
Killer of Sheep
So the story goes: a father works at a slaughterhouse and struggles to provide for his family. Killer of Sheep is a mediation on the alienation of the working poor and an acknowledgement of their capacity to keep showing up. The movie is haunting not so much for what it says but for what it lets us read between the lines. Charles Burnett, you will always be famous!
Freda
Freda filled a void I didn’t know was there. Seeing Haitian people onscreen acting out their true, deeply funny selves was so affirming, I felt emotional. The movie explores the inner lives of Haitian women as they grapple with growing violence in Port-au-Prince. A beautiful watch.
The Tropic Sun and His Eyes
Set in Cap-Haitian, consider this a love letter to Haiti. The movie tells a heartwarming story about the redeeming power of family.
Jim Crow Goes to Haiti: The Forgotten Occupation
Not enough people know about the U.S. occupation of Haiti in 1915. Director Alain Martin is keeping the history alive with his deeply researched documentary that features previously unseen footage of this painful chapter in our country’s history.
I Love Boosters
I want to live in Boots Riley’s mind! His movies tend to take extreme detours into absurdity in order to make a greater point about our humanity, and I Love Boosters is no different. It’s a lighthearted, entertaining watch rooted in a simple truth: we’ve only got each other.
Sembène: The Making of African Cinema
From his first short Borom Sarret to his feature Black Girl, Ousmane Sembène has consistently delivered cinematic treasures. His movies are living documents of African history (particularly Senegal’s).
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Funny, nostalgic and excessive, I liked itl! Read my review here.
Orwell: 2+2 = 5
George Orwell’s premonitions are as relevant today as they were in the 1900s (unfortunately). I came out inspired to reread Animal Farm. The documentary director Raoul Peck doesn’t shy away from difficult topics or “complex” figures and I love him for that.
George Carlin’s American Dream
I don’t know that there are many documentaries made about comedians or their process so this was an inspiring watch. Carlin was a larger than life character whose class commentary still resonates today.
Palestine 36
When the movie ended, everyone sat in the theater for a second and sobbed. What a gut punch of a movie and an absolutely necessary watch!
My Father’s Shadow
A visual poem.
Tokyo Sonata
As you can probably tell by now, I’m really invested in how filmmakers narrate vulnerability within the context of strained family relationships. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa does this masterfully here.
On My Book Shelf:
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
I often find myself grieving the tragic loss of Anthony Bourdain (that’s because I watch No Reservations or Parts Unknown at least every three months). In one such instance in January, I picked up Kitchen Confidential and enjoyed every word.
Here are just a few snippets I wrote down from his bitingly funny, colorful and raw language:
And I had my first oyster. Now, this was a truly significant event. I remember it like I remember losing my virginity—and in many ways, more fondly.
Unlike them, I’d actually worked in the industry—and I’d had sex with a woman.
To want to own a restaurant can be a strange and terrible affliction. What causes such a destructive urge in so many otherwise sensible people?
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - Deesha Philyaw
Thank you to Nneka Julia for introducing me to Deesha Philyaw (and getting me back to reading short stories)! This is a lovely collection about the inner worlds of Black women. If you read anything from it, make sure it’s “The Peach Cobbler.”
Downtown: My Manhattan by Pete Hamill
Downtown is poetic and rich in Manhattan histories, perfect for those who—to quote Hamill—have “the native son’s irrational love of the place [New York].”
Picked this up after watching the documentary about Pete Hamill and his best friend Jimmy Breslin, Deadline Artists, which I’ll recommend to any wordsmith or aspiring journalist.
Cécé - Emilie Prophète
I received this as a birthday gift and my interest was immediately piqued. Cécé tells the story of a girl who lives in an impoverished neighborhood of Port-au-Prince that is plagued by gang violence. To make ends meet, she decides to sell her body. This is a devastating read that fictionalizes the darkness that has befallen Haiti.
Capitalism and the Death Drive - Byung Chul-Hun
Just some light reading (kidding) from my new favorite philosopher.
Hooked - Asako Yuzuki
I’m grateful to the translator who brought us this clear-eyed exploration of friendship in the age of social media. Excellent character development!
The Paris Review
I became a subscriber this year. The “Art of _” series is excellent, a masterclass in interviewing.
Until next time,
Shelcy