Yves Jarvis has gone by many names. Born Jean-Sebastien Audet, he then adopted the stage name Un Blonde, but that only fit his artistic persona for so long. This man is constantly becoming, and Yves Jarvis is the moniker that suits the “warm, haunting, and unfamiliar” indie-pop that’s currently springing from the Canadian artist’s mind. In spite of its wonk, he also wants the music to feel “singularly inviting and kind—a mélange that reflects both comfort and its counterpart.” These days, he does a lot of dancing between opposites: “Victim,” on his latest album, is about the pull between being victim and victor, and the the endless cycles of progress and sameness that stick people in the middle. It’s a soft, somber listen; find it here (and watch the jarring illustration do and undo itself on loop).
Either you’ve spent the last week ensconced in Ziwe Fumudoh’s “Baited” interviews or you have something zingy ahead of you. (Third option: you’ve been watching since she started in 2017.) On the most recent episodes of her instagram live show, the Desus & Mero writer has been grilling problematic white celebrities about racial literacy, and it is rough. Viral hits include conversations with scammer-influencer Caroline Calloway and disgraced domestic goddess Alison Roman, both of whom performed much as you would expect. When asked to identify various civil rights leaders, Roman cites only the streets named after them, before saying she had no Black coworkers at Bon Appétit (in reality, she worked there with the extraordinary culture writer Doreen St. Félix, who is now on staff at The New Yorker). Caroline Calloway, also unable to identify Marcus Garvey etc., repeatedly interrupts Fumudoh, asks for an “ally cookie” as a reward for ordering books from Black-owned shops, and denies a relationship between her privilege and success. Some viewers will feel like Fumudoh is targeting poor white celebrities who don’t know any better (and if that’s the story, that also seems fine). But as Fumudoh explained in a Vanity Fair interview, she’s had to grit her teeth through cringey racial subtext in conversations with white people her whole life, so she’s making an opportunity to bring that discomfort to the fore. Watch and squirm.
The above is an excellent argument for rigorous education, so thank goodness for that run on anti-racist books, right? That new wave of allyship can’t come too soon— or at least, that’s how some aspirational readers feel. Frugal Bookstore, Boston’s lone Black-owned book shop, has been overwhelmed by demand for books by Black authors, and, like everyone, they’ve got most of the big titles on back-order (see their homepage, where they clearly and gently manage expectations). Some customers, chomping at the bit to become anti-racist by way of literary absolution, feel they are much too important to wait, and as a result, they’re going full-on Karen. Along with requests to speak with the manager, people have emailed asking for refunds and complaining about “poor customer service” when their orders aren’t immediately addressed. Wonder what would happen if folks fought as hard for justice as they will fight for a wokeness trophy.
