Bob Dylan Gives First Major Interview in Years as First Rough and Rowdy Ways Reviews Roll In
Kadir Nelson’s Powerful New Yorker Cover Honors the Black Victims of Police Violence
This week’s issue of the New Yorker features a cover designed by artist Kadir Nelson. The magazine has an interactive version of the cover online that identifies the people shown, along with their stories. Along with George Floyd, there’s Tony McDade, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Rodney King, the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and too many others. The cover also features periwinkles, which have been used to locate the often unmarked graves of slaves.
The Periwinkle Initiative derives its name from the flower that certain scholars believe was the most common wildflower brought to gravesites of enslaved Americans. This perennial flower has guided researchers to many abandoned burial grounds that would have otherwise gone undetected. The resilient Periwinkle is a perfect symbol to represent the endurance of enslaved Americans and their legacy.
One other thing. According to the NYer, the name of the cover is “Say Their Names”. This is a take on the #SayHerName hashtag that was created to bring “awareness to the often invisible names and stories of Black women and girls who have been victimized by racist police violence”. Phrases and associated hashtags like “Say His Name” and “Say Their Names” have been used over the past few weeks, but some activists say that co-opting specifically takes the spotlight away from the victims the original hashtag was meant to highlight. Here’s Precious Fondren for Teen Vogue
LAX TESTING
Poor testing of spinal cord stimulators has put patients at risk, according to new research by consumer rights group Public Citizen. The group accuses the United States Food and Drug Administration of "dangerously subverting the usual regulatory process to get more stimulators onto the market. The FDA told us it was reviewing the report, but stood by the safety of the devices.
BREWERY PROBE
German police have searched a state-owned export bank and seized documents in connection with Isabel dos Santos’ brewery Sodiba. The criminal investigation was sparked by Luanda Leaks reporting and follows allegations that bank employees misappropriated funds when granting a $55 million loan to the brewery. Dos Santos denies any wrongdoing.
PRESS FREEDOM
Our Filipino member and investigative journalist Maria Ressa has been convicted of cyber libel and could face six years in prison, in a case that has been condemned as a politically-motivated attack on press freedom in the country. Ressa, who runs the influential news website Rappler, has vowed to continue the fight. Her conviction comes just a week after ICIJ’s board called for violence against journalists around the world to stop.
Our China Cables investigation was awarded top honors at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Dateline Awards in Washington, D.C. The investigation, which was the work of 75+ reporters in 14 countries, was an “impressive use of records, source trust-building and shoe-leather reporting,” according to judges.