Here we are, in the wake of an election that will install, in our nation’s highest office, a twice-impeached former president, a convicted felon, an adjudicated sexual offender, a man who tried repeatedly, in his first term, to end federal funding for the arts.
In that first term, the arts would not be defunded. In the coming years, if Donald Trump succeeds where he previously failed, art won’t end, it will merely become even harder for the people who make it to live in this country. For now, as it always does, art and culture can provide solace or serve as a galvanizing force. Spotify users streamed Billie Eilish’s mournful “What Was I Made For?” 1.46 million times this week. I suspect that Ross Gay’s beautiful “Sorrow Is Not My Name” might make the rounds online, as it did in 2020.
At VF, we asked artists of all kinds to share the work they’re turning to right now and contributed some of our own touchstones.
“I’ve been going back to Nick Cave, both his music but especially ‘Red Hand Files,’ his long-running newsletter in which he answers fans’ questions with a special emphasis on loss, grief, faith, making art in times of crisis, and how hope can be a ‘warrior emotion.’” —Megan Abbott, author of Beware the Woman
“The television series, I, Claudius. Robert Graves wrote the novels. Behind-the-scenes power struggles during the early Roman Empire.” —Margaret Atwood, contributor to Democracy: Eleven Writers and Leaders on What It Is—and Why It Matters
“The new adult coloring book from Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford, Magical Worlds, contains enough pages of delightful flowers, vines, castles, fish, potion bottles, and pumpkins to distract oneself from the stressors of the world. Get instant gratification with the 150 colors of Prismacolor Premier, Derwent Chromaflow, or Holbein Artist Colored Pencils. Maybe layer for days with Faber-Castell Polychromos. Add some sparkle with Caran D’Ache’s new Cosmic Blue metallic pencil set. Or ditch the book and just indulge in some soothing paint swatching of Daniel Smith’s granulating watercolors and the latest Gansai Tambi set by Kuretake.” —Dale Brauner, VF research editor
“I deeply admire Mariame Kaba’s writing. Her work is an invaluable source of hope. Her commitment to justice and collective care reminds me that we are not alone in our struggles. We have the power to create meaningful change, even in the face of overwhelming systems. Let This Radicalize You offers a vision for a world built on empathy, solidarity, and long-term liberation. In a time when it can feel like progress is slipping away, her unwavering belief in people’s capacity to transform society provides a much-needed lifeline. I’m also listening to music that moves my soul and creative practice. The song “We Pray,” by Coldplay, feels like a timely anthem. It features an array of international musical artists including Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna, and TINI. The energy of their voices makes me feel alive and powerful.” —Glory Edim, author of Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me
“I am turning to Virginia Woolf’s inflammatory feminist polemic Three Guineas, published in 1938 as fascism was on the rise in Europe. As if Woolf were peering down the decades to our own fraught moment, she writes of the coming to power of ‘a monstrous male, loud of voice, hard of fist, childishly intent upon scoring the floor of the earth with chalk marks, within whose mystic boundaries human beings are penned, rigidly, separately, artificially; where, daubed red and gold […] he goes through mystic rites and enjoys the dubious pleasures of power and dominion while we, ‘his’ women, are locked in the private house without share in the many societies of which his society is composed.’
