Music

Jazz Camp for Girls, a four-day program in Denmark, has expanded to Finland, Poland and Sweden this year, giving young musicians a space to play music and build friendships.COPENHAGEN — On a morning in late June, 16 girls arrived at an urban courtyard for the timeless summer ritual of camp drop-off. Some came clutching their parents’ hands; others raced ahead to greet old friends. One young teenager with strawberry-blond curls, who had come because her working parents told her she couldn’t sit home alone all day, stood nervously waiting for things to get underway. But it wasn’t long before the 13-year-old happily joined an ice-breaking game. “Hi, my name is Anna,” she chanted, as she clapped out a rhythm that the others repeated back to her: “Ba-BAH-ba-ba-BAH.”The campers, who ranged in age from 9 to 15, had just gotten their first lesson in jazz. Over the next four days, they would learn about the genre’s distinctive rhythms and melodies, and try their hands at improvising on a number of different instruments. But perhaps the most important lesson for the students at Jazz Camp for Girls is that there is a place for them in jazz at all.Plenty of art forms have a gender imbalance, but in jazz, where men heavily dominate the industry’s production, consumption and education, the inequality is especially pronounced. From 2007 to 2018, women musicians led or shared the lead on less than 20 percent or so of the 50 best albums in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll. One recent study found that just 4 percent of notable jazz musicians in the United Kingdom are women. And even in supposedly egalitarian Denmark, the proportions have been thoroughly uneven; a 2012 report found that women made up only 20 percent of the rhythmic music industry there.From left: Sarah Lilja Buch Callisen, Flora Aaris-Hoeg and Anna Kirkhoff Eriksen at jazz camp in Copenhagen. This year’s camp was held in 11 cities across Denmark.Betina Garcia for The New York Times“It was a shock,” said Agnete Seerup, deputy director of JazzDanmark, an organization that co-founded the girls’ camp in 2014 in response to that damning study, and today oversees the program alone. “So we created the project to encourage more girls to play rhythmic instruments. And hopefully change the gender balance down the road.”The jazz musician Johanna Sulkunen was thinking of the effects of that imbalance when she enrolled her daughter in the Copenhagen camp. “You’re not taken seriously,” she explained. “You don’t get solos. You’re not seen as a musician.” Saying goodbye to Alma, who is so small that she has to rest the bottom of her saxophone on a stool when she plays, Sulkunen said she hoped things would be easier for the 9-year-old. “I really hope that for her, it can just be about the joy of making music.”This year’s camp was held in 11 cities across Denmark from June 27 to 30. Grouped into eight-person bands, the girls were taught by instructors who are also working musicians. The four days culminated with a concert for family and friends.On the first day of the Copenhagen camp, held at the Rytmisk Center music school, the girls gravitated to instruments they knew — Lola Engell, a 10-year-old in a Rolling Stones T-shirt, tapped out a beat on drums while Flora Aaris-Hoeg, 11, strapped on an electric bass. Jazz Camp focuses on rhythmic instruments to counteract the historical relegation of women in jazz to singing, which was often cast as “entertainment” rather than the serious art practiced by men. And it makes a point of moving the girls through a number of them.Over the camp’s four days, the students are encouraged to rotate from instrument to instrument.Betina Garcia for The New York Times“Rotation is a big part of what we do,” said Cecilie Strange, an instructor and saxophonist. “We’ve had girls who have never sat behind a drum set, and when you ask them to play it, some of them will be like, ‘I don’t think so.’ But it’s really important to get everyone to try everything. And sometimes you see really fast that a girl has a knack for an instrument she had never tried before.”The emphasis on rotation is also intended to help the girls overcome the self-consciousness that sometimes limits them. “Girls naturally have almost the same interest in the instruments as boys,” Strange said. “But they need more control: they worry about how they look and don’t want to make mistakes. That can be a barrier.”Flora, the 11-year-old whose first instrument is bass, said she liked not having boys around: “It just makes you more comfortable.”Encouraging the girls to improvise — there is no sheet music at the camp — builds confidence while also introducing an important aspect of jazz performance. Strange taught the girls to play a few classics from the jazz repertoire, like Sonny Rollins’s “Sonnymoon for Two,” but the camp’s other instructor, the saxophonist and composer Carolyn Goodwin, took the girls in a more experimental direction. “I want these girls to feel like even if they don’t identify with the traditional approach, that they can still find themselves in the music in another way,” she said.On the camp’s second day, Goodwin got the girls started on their own improvisation by playing a selection from “Zodiac Suite,” and asking if anyone knew the composer. When none of the campers raised her hand, Goodwin told them that women composers were part of jazz’s story even if they weren’t well known. “This one is by Mary Lou Williams,” she said. “Can you say her name?”Viola Sisseck Rabenhoj, 10, had a knack for composition; even before camp, she and her fellow camper Alma had written a piece about Alma’s pet hamster, Vinny. Now, Goodwin took a melody that Viola had created, and asked the girls to follow Williams’s example and riff around a Zodiac sign both by playing and by writing a short text. They later put the elements together into a song with spoken-word lyrics. Practicing it on the final day of camp, Aya Knudsen Rein worked a flourish into her drum solo, then smiled proudly.Carolyn Goodwin, an instructor at the camp, helping Ella Hargreave with a guitar. Betina Garcia for The New York TimesYears after participating in the 2014 and 2015 Jazz Camps, Kathrine Stagsted Lund, now 23, remains grateful for the experience. “It most certainly had an impact on me,” she said. “I got introduced to the double bass, which I continue to play. I volunteer at a jazz club and always seek out the jazz concerts in Copenhagen.” More than anything, though, the experience helped her navigate playing in rhythmic ensembles: “As a young female instrumentalist always outnumbered, it gave me a sense of confidence and courage.”For the first time this year, Jazz Camp for Girls will also be held in Finland, Poland and Sweden. But for all their anecdotal success, the programs still have some ways to go before their impact is measurable. Last year, JazzDanmark studied why the needle hadn’t moved much on the 80/20 gender distribution. “We found out that private networks really matter in jazz,” Seerup said. “Many jobs in the music industry are given out one night at a bar, and if you’re not part of that private network, you’re less likely to get one. What we’re focusing on now is creating strong relations between girls now, so they might become networks later.”On the final day of Jazz Camp, those networks seemed to be off to a good start. Anna Kirkhoff Eriksen, the strawberry-blond drummer who hadn’t known anyone when she arrived at camp, had become fast friends with Sarah, who played keyboards, and Liva, who thrilled the audience at the final concert with her trumpet solo. And Flora, who was comfortable on the bass but had been nervous to be performing her first drum solo, was delighted with how it had all gone.“That was great!” she gushed, as she exchanged phone numbers with her new friends, Aya and Lola. “We should form a band!” More

A jury found Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty of first-degree murder for the 2019 killing of Hussle, an artist who devoted his adult life to championing his South Los Angeles neighborhood.Eric R. Holder Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder more than three years after fatally shooting the Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle.Pool photo by Frederick M. BrownLOS ANGELES — More than three years after the fatal shooting of the rapper Nipsey Hussle, whose 2019 killing in front of the local clothing store he owned scarred the South Los Angeles neighborhood he had devoted his adult life to championing, a jury on Wednesday found Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty of first-degree murder in the case. The verdict closes a painful chapter in recent hip-hop history.At trial, prosecutors described the gunman as an embittered acquaintance who had belonged to the same street gang as Hussle but felt disrespected by him during a brief parking-lot run-in.That Mr. Holder pulled the trigger was not in dispute in court. His own public defender and multiple witnesses identified him as the assailant who fired toward Hussle with two handguns, hitting the rapper at least 10 times before kicking him in the head.But Mr. Holder’s legal team had argued that the case was overcharged. Aaron Jansen, the public defender representing Mr. Holder, said that the killing was not premeditated and instead occurred in the “heat of passion,” about nine minutes after a conversation in which Hussle invoked neighborhood rumors that Mr. Holder had cooperated with law enforcement, or snitched, a serious offense in the gang world, and urged him to clear things up.Mr. Holder should have been charged with voluntary manslaughter, his lawyer said.After meeting for less than an hour on a second day of deliberations, the jury members indicated they agreed with Los Angeles county prosecutors that Mr. Holder had made the decision to kill Hussle as he returned to a car after the two spoke, loaded a gun, took a few bites of French fries and then marched back through the parking lot to confront the rapper.Mr. Holder, 32, was also found guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, stemming from the two bystanders who were wounded in the shooting, lesser charges than the attempted murder counts that prosecutors had brought.Mr. Holder’s lawyer argued that his client had no specific intention of harming either of the wounded men, both of whom were strangers to him, when he attacked Hussle outside of the Marathon Clothing shop in the Crenshaw neighborhood where the rapper and his assailant grew up.In addition, Mr. Holder was found guilty of possessing a firearm as a felon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He could face life in prison, and was scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 15. Mr. Jansen said that in sentencing, he will ask the judge to consider Mr. Holder’s mental health history, including a years-old schizophrenia diagnosis.In court, Mr. Holder stared forward, unflinching. He wore a dark navy suit and white sneakers. There was no sound in the courtroom as the verdict was announced — no reaction from the half-full gallery.Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Joseph Asghedom, was mourned widely after his death at 33 as a principled artist and entrepreneur who transcended his early years as a member of the local Rollin’ 60s Crips, emerging as a hard-boiled, motivational lyricist and community ambassador. His public memorial in April 2019, at what was then known as the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, drew some 20,000 admirers, including Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg.Though not a commercial hitmaker for most of his career, Hussle was known for his extensive industry connections and independent business sense, having sold music on his own terms for 15 years before releasing his major label debut, “Victory Lap,” in 2018. A Grammy nomination for best rap album and a management partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation near the end of his life had the rapper poised for a move deeper into the mainstream.Along the way, Hussle had also preached Black empowerment through business and education, investing his winnings as a musician in the neighborhood where he was raised. With a group of backers, Hussle bought the strip mall at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue that housed his Marathon store, while also helping to open a nearby co-working space dedicated to increasing diversity in science and technology.Following the verdict, John McKinney, the Los Angeles County deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, said he hoped that it would bring “some resounding peace” to friends and fans of the rapper.“This verdict and the story of his life will be talked about for sure at Crenshaw and Slauson,” Mr. McKinney said, “but the meaning of it will carry far beyond those streets.”On the Sunday that Hussle was killed, he had stopped by the shopping plaza for an unannounced visit, as he often did, according to court testimony. While catching up with friends and employees in the parking lot, Hussle spent about half an hour signing autographs and posing for photos with fans.At that time, Bryannita Nicholson, a woman Mr. Holder had been casually dating, was driving him around the area, Ms. Nicholson testified. A key witness for the prosecution who said that she had transported Mr. Holder to and from the scene of the shooting, Ms. Nicholson was granted immunity from prosecution for her appearance in court.When Ms. Nicholson pulled into the plaza so that Mr. Holder could get something to eat, she spotted Hussle in the parking lot and remarked in passing that he looked handsome, she said on the stand. Mr. Holder, a fellow member of the Rollin’ 60s Crips, approached Hussle for a brief conversation while Ms. Nicholson waited in the car, she said.The encounter between the two men was casual and low-key, according to testimony. But prosecutors said Hussle told Mr. Holder that there were rumors going around the neighborhood that he had snitched. Hussle encouraged Mr. Holder to “get the paperwork” showing he had not, said Mr. McKinney.“It just seemed like a regular conversation,” Mr. McKinney told the jury. “But obviously it wasn’t.” He called the pair “two men whose arcs in life were bending in different directions.”As the men finished speaking, Ms. Nicholson said she overheard talk of snitching as she approached Hussle for a selfie, which she posted to Facebook. It would be the last photograph of the rapper. Asked in court if she sensed that a fight was about to occur, Ms. Nicholson said, “No, I wasn’t afraid at all.”As Ms. Nicholson pulled into another nearby parking lot so Mr. Holder could eat, she testified, he pulled out a handgun and began loading it. He walked back toward Hussle’s store; a short time later, Ms. Nicholson heard gunshots.According to witnesses, Mr. Holder had confronted the rapper outside and said, “You’re through” as he opened fire.“You got me,” Hussle said, according to the prosecutor. Two men who were standing with Hussle, Kerry Lathan and Shermi Villanueva, were wounded by the shots.In his opening statement, Mr. McKinney, the prosecutor, portrayed Ms. Nicholson as a kind of unwitting accomplice. “I think you’ll find in her a naïveté, a simplicity,” he said. Mr. Holder mostly avoided her eyes or looked at her dispassionately as she testified.In that testimony, Ms. Nicholson said that when Mr. Holder got back into her car, he told her to drive or he would slap her. That evening, she learned of Hussle’s death. But Ms. Nicholson said it wasn’t until more than a day after the shooting, when her mother recognized her white Chevy Cruze on the news, that she realized that Mr. Holder may have been involved.Mr. McKinney emphasized that Ms. Nicholson quickly agreed to cooperate with the police, allowing the authorities access to data from her phone and submitting to hours of interviews. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is my reputation, too,’” she testified.In addition to being the agreed-upon motive in the shooting, the concept of snitching — and its outsize importance in gang culture — loomed over the trial. While Mr. Holder was repeatedly identified as the gunman, lawyers on both sides cited some witnesses’ reluctance to testify in detail, or even show up to court, for fear of retribution.“I don’t know nothing, don’t see nothing,” Mr. Lathan, who was wounded in the incident, said during his turn on the witness stand.“You don’t want to testify about what happened?” the prosecutor asked.“That’s right,” Mr. Lathan said.Mr. Jansen, the defense lawyer, had argued that it was precisely that anti-snitching culture that transformed a conversation between Hussle and Mr. Holder into a provocation.“Even people who are shot don’t want to come in and testify against Rollin’ 60s gang members,” Mr. Jansen said in an interview after the verdict. “I thought those facts supported what we were saying: Eric Holder didn’t want to be labeled as a snitch either, out of fear of retribution.”Mr. Jansen added: “I just wanted people to remember that Eric Holder Jr. is a human being. He did a terrible thing and he will have to face justice for that.”Last Tuesday, Mr. Holder was attacked while in custody, briefly delaying the final days of the trial. His lawyer said that his client had been punched in the face and “sliced with some kind of razor.”Because of the high-profile nature of the case, and because it hinged on questions about consequences for snitching, Mr. Jansen said his client should have been in protective custody.In court, prosecutors did rely in part on the testimony of Herman Douglas, known as Cowboy, a onetime Rollin’ 60s member who worked at Hussle’s Marathon store. Mr. Douglas testified that while he was no longer involved in gang life, he still vigilantly watched every car and person that crossed his path for signs they might be dangerous. At no point in Hussle’s conversation with Mr. Holder, he said, did he sense that the rapper was at risk. “I would’ve snatched him up out of there,” Mr. Douglas said.When the defense questioned Mr. Douglas about whether there could be consequences as dire as “getting beat up or even killed” for snitching, Mr. Douglas said that was unlikely. He noted that his participation in the trial could be considered snitching by some. But things had changed since he was coming up in the neighborhood.“I ain’t worried,” he said. “Maybe in the ’80s, yeah, but this is 2022.”Following the guilty verdict, Mr. Douglas sat outside the courtroom and cried into his hand, his shoulders shaking. Later, he told reporters he did not know if he would ever feel closure after his friend’s death. But he said that he hoped his participation in the trial would show others that sometimes it was worth speaking up.“Just do what’s right,” he said. “No matter what people say.” More

The collection, which includes family photos, scrapbook pages and annotated music, traces the singer’s arc from releasing bubble gum hits to creating a powerful feminist statement.As a teenage singer in the 1960s who fit the all-American girl mold, Lesley Gore may have seemed like an unlikely figure to carve out a lasting legacy of feminist resilience and independence. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has now made the musician’s archive available for anyone interested in her artistic evolution, giving fans a chance to browse through notated music sheets and an unfinished memoir.Lois Sasson, Gore’s partner for more than 30 years, began working with the library in February 2016, sifting through storage boxes and cataloging each object with help from the singer’s family and friends. Sasson emphasized that the collection should remain free to the public and housed in New York, where Gore lived, said Jessica Wood, the assistant curator of music and recorded sound at the Library for the Performing Arts. Gore died of lung cancer in 2015. Sasson, a fierce defender of women’s and gay rights, died of Covid-19 in 2020.The archive, which contains scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, fan club files, music theory books, a birthday invitation, family photographs and album covers, was first made available on May 31, and all printed and written works can be examined on request. The library is still working to digitize the audio and movie image recordings that document Gore’s rehearsals, performances and television appearances, as well as visual works like a 1968 Robert F. Kennedy ad campaign.“By studying her archive, it elevates all of the women performers who sang other people’s materials but really brought a lot of genius to the way they animated those songs,” Wood said.Gore, known for bubble gum classics like “It’s My Party,” the No. 1 hit from 1963 recorded by Quincy Jones, and “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” focused largely on love and heartbreak until the 1963 release of “You Don’t Own Me.” The song, written by John Madara and David White, became an early feminist anthem, rebuking the idea that the singer should bend to the whims of a man. “I’m free and I love to be free,” Gore sang, “to live my life the way I want/To say and do whatever I please.” All three songs were recorded before she turned 18.Brad Schreiber, an author who chronicles social change through music, said that while Gore lacked power as a young female recording artist, “You Don’t Own Me” echoed a strong statement about reclaiming respect and dignity.“She didn’t have to dedicate her entire career to do socially conscious music,” Schreiber said. “She did one very important song that has had a far-reaching effect.”The archive includes music scores of “You Don’t Own Me” that were used for performances to promote Gore’s 2005 “Ever Since” LP (her 11th and final studio album), along with musical arrangements of the release by Claus Ogerman, Joe Glandro and Mariano Longo.Susan Kahaner, Sasson’s sister, said Gore admired the activism of the pioneering feminist Betty Friedan and was particularly drawn to the civil rights advocate and politician Bella Abzug, who chanted, “This woman’s place is in the House, the House of Representatives!” as she ran and won a seat in the House in 1970.“Bella and that whole group of feminists opened up Lesley’s eyes to what is possible,” Kahaner said.Gore was devoted to her education, majoring in English and American literature at Sarah Lawrence College during the peak of her pop career. Kahaner said that as an avid reader of fiction and nonfiction as well as a lover of jazz and pop music, Gore would be proud to share her work with researchers and students at the library:“We couldn’t be happier that this is the home that will keep Lesley’s legacy alive.” More

The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Eric R. Holder Jr., who was accused of murder in the 2019 shooting death of the Los Angeles-based rapper Nipsey Hussle, according to court officials.The jury, which is sitting in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is expected to return to the courtroom to announce the verdict at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.The decision came after the jury had met for less than an hour on Wednesday, its second day of deliberations. The panel had started on Friday, but had just returned from a four-day weekend to resume its discussions on the ninth floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, across from Los Angeles City Hall.During the murder trial, which lasted a little more than two weeks, witnesses described a killing that reverberated far beyond the world of West Coast hip-hop, prompting a huge outpouring of grief across the nation.Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, was shot and killed at the age of 33 on March 31, 2019, outside a clothing store he owned in South Los Angeles. Two bystanders were wounded in the attack. Two days after the shooting Mr. Holder, who was then 29, turned himself in at a mental health clinic, his lawyer said at the trial. Mr. Holder was then charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a felon. He pleaded not guilty, and has been held in lieu of $6.5 million bail.At the trial, Los Angeles County prosecutors argued that Mr. Holder and Hussle, two old acquaintances who belonged to the same street gang, had a chance encounter in the strip mall parking lot, during which the rapper mentioned neighborhood rumors that Mr. Holder had cooperated with law enforcement — which is considered a serious offense in the gang world. Minutes later, prosecutors and witnesses have said, Mr. Holder returned with two handguns, and began firing repeatedly.Aaron Jansen, a public defender representing Mr. Holder, acknowledged during the trial that his client had pulled the trigger. But the lawyer has argued that the crime occurred in the “heat of passion” and was not premeditated, as the prosecutors have charged. More

Bryannita Nicholson, who had been casually seeing the defendant, Eric R. Holder Jr., testified that she had driven him to and from the scene of the shooting, providing one of the prosecution’s key accounts of the episode.The day of the shooting had started unremarkably, she testified. She and Mr. Holder had met a little more than a month earlier, when she was driving part-time for Lyft and picked him up as a fare. In the weeks that followed, she said, they grew closer, and she would often drive Mr. Holder during outings in Long Beach or Los Angeles, to the beach, to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their relationship was casual, she said.On the day of the shooting, Ms. Nicholson testified, the pair were headed to a nearby swap meet. Ms. Nicholson was given immunity from prosecution for her testimony.When Ms. Nicholson pulled into a shopping plaza that day so that Mr. Holder could buy chili cheese fries, she said, she spotted Nipsey Hussle standing outside his store, Marathon clothing. She remarked to Mr. Holder that she thought Hussle was handsome, and that she wanted to get a picture with him. Mr. Holder did not indicate that he knew the rapper from the neighborhood, she testified.She approached Hussle, who was surrounded by a group of men, to get a selfie, she testified. It would be the last photograph of the rapper.Some witnesses have testified that Hussle had warned Mr. Holder there were rumors circulating that he had cooperated with law enforcement, or snitched. Ms. Nicholson testified that she had heard Mr. Holder ask Hussle if he had snitched, but that Hussle seemed to be brushing him off. She said she returned to the car and pulled into a nearby alley so Mr. Holder could eat, she said.Mr. Holder then pulled out a handgun, which Ms. Nicholson testified alarmed her, but she had previously said she believed he had guns for protection.Mr. Holder then got out of the car and left his fries on the hood of a nearby truck, she said. A short time later, Ms. Nicholson said, she heard gunshots.When Mr. Holder got back into her car, she testified, he told her to drive or he would slap her. She testified that she did not realize at that point that he might have been the shooter. That night, she testified, she agreed to let Mr. Holder stay at her mother’s home with her, and she later helped him check into a motel using her identification.It wasn’t until more than a day after the killing, when her mother recognized Ms. Nicholson’s white Chevy Cruze on the news, that she realized that Mr. Holder might have been involved, she testified.“I hoped he didn’t have something to do with it,” Ms. Nicholson told John McKinney, the prosecutor in the case, during her testimony. “I was a nervous wreck at the time.”In his opening statement, Mr. McKinney had portrayed Ms. Nicholson as a kind of unwitting accomplice.“When Ms. Nicholson testifies, pay attention to her,” he said. “I think you’ll find in her a naïveté, a simplicity.”Mr. McKinney emphasized that Ms. Nicholson had quickly agreed to cooperate with the police. She allowed the authorities to access data from her phone and she submitted to hours of interviews.“I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is my reputation, too,’” she testified in court.Aaron Jansen, Mr. Holder’s public defender, asked Ms. Nicholson about some minor discrepancies between her earlier accounts and ones she gave on the stand: the color of a truck where Mr. Holder left his fries, whether Hussle had told Mr. Holder “to, like, chill.” (Ms. Nicholson responded that Hussle’s demeanor had been “chill,” and said that he had not instructed Mr. Holder to calm down.)On the witness stand, Ms. Nicholson mostly answered questions with a calm “yes,” or “I don’t know.” Mr. Holder, who wore a gray suit with a faint windowpane pattern, mostly avoided her eyes or looked at her dispassionately. More

The new host of NPR’s “Code Switch” podcast counts Donny Hathaway’s voice, 50-minute naps and Otterbein’s Cookies as her essentials.B.A. Parker was a film professor in her 20s when she had to rush her students out of the hall so that she could speak with Ira Glass. She was interviewing for a fellowship with his show, “This American Life.”“They hired me to make stories for them, and I wanted to be a Black lady David Sedaris,” she said. “It still hasn’t fully happened, but there’s hope.”That led her to produce and co-host New York Magazine’s “The Cut” podcast for a few years, exploring trendy subjects like “Himbo culture” and life at historically Black colleges and universities. This month, the Baltimore native, who first moved to New York to attend Columbia University’s film school, will join NPR’s podcast about race in American society, “Code Switch,” as a host.“Having my voice and being on a podcast has always been about sharing my position with everyone and making them suffer through it,” she joked. “It’s about discussing something really serious, that makes people scared and angry, and using my goofy smile to say we’re getting through it together.”On a video call from her apartment in Bed-Stuy, she ran down a varied list of essentials that reflect a Brooklyn podcaster’s creature comforts. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.1. Naps I feel like we totally undervalue naps as adults. I think if we all just took a good 20-minute nap every day, we’d be a lot nicer. This working from home situation has kind of been cushy — I know this is a privilege that I have — but it’s been so draining since 2020, and I’m still working on this whole self-care thing, and I am down for a 2 p.m. nap. You’re supposed to only do either 20 minutes or 50, and I’m a 50-minute napper; 20 minutes doesn’t feel like enough, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to wake up tired anyway.2. K-Dramas I feel like they’re the closest thing to a modern-day Jane Austen. There’s one I watched recently, called “Start-Up,” where a girl holds a guy’s hand for the first time on the bus, and he turns away because he’s wiping tears from his eyes. And the man is, like, 32. It’s very chaste and lovely and cathartic and, by the eighth episode, you’re just sobbing. All of these shows, their hearts are wide open. I find that very soothing. There’s artifice to the drama of it, obviously, but you just want to hug everybody.3. A collection of spices from a friend For my birthday this year, my friend sent me this collection of spices from a place in Greenwich Village that has berbere, za‘atar, and all these Moroccan spices. I’m trying to expand my cooking. Working from home, you get tired of trying to cook for yourself. And you get into these bad habits of working until 8 p.m., and then trying to fix a meal? I don’t think so. Now I’m trying to be mindful of that and figuring out how to make lamb meatballs. I’ve been taking pictures of the things I make to send to her and her husband and be like, “I’m trying.”4. Donny Hathaway I feel like his voice is the truth. There’s this soulful longing that stirs something in me and makes me want to feel. He has a great live version of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” where all the old Black people in the venue are really digging it and shouting along. I usually play his live album while I’m trying to cook, it makes me feel like a grown up a little bit. You can feel when he is in his pocket, in a moment where everyone is just feeling, and you’ll hear a bunch of Black ladies screaming, “Yes! Oh my god, yes!”5. Jeff Bridges in “Fearless” I’ve been in love with Jeff Bridges since I was 9 years old and my dad made me see “White Squall.” “Fearless” is this movie from 1993 about a fairly privileged guy who survives a terrible plane crash, feels like he’s invincible and starts testing those limits. So it’s Bridges and Rosie Perez grieving and trying to understand what it means to be a survivor. I rewatched it in July 2020, when we were all an open wound and dealing with so much loss, and trying to process that. It was a film that I have gone back to to question what it means to survive.6. Reading like you’re 15 again You know when you were 15 and felt you had all the time in the world to just sit on your folks’ couch and read a bunch of stuff? I’ve decided to do that this summer, even though I do have a job. I like having the liberty to read all the time. Especially with this job, if I have to read, it’s for an interview or something, and it kind of takes the fun out of it. So I bought a bunch of plays and essay collections by bell hooks and Audre Lorde for myself. I’m still highlighting lines, because there are really interesting, edifying things in there, but I want to go back to reading without having questions in mind.7. Baltimore foods like Otterbein’s Cookies and cream of crab soup Otterbein’s are a local Baltimore cookie that I order when I get homesick. They’re thin and differently flavored. Everyone always talks about Berger’s Cookies, which are also from Baltimore, but don’t get lost in that.Trying to explain cream of crab soup is telling people that it’s not lobster bisque. It’s much richer. Eat it maybe twice a year or something; don’t attempt to have more because it is rich as hell. It’s the one thing living here that I really get homesick for. You can find a pierogi on any corner, but this soup is an elusive thing.8. The third row in a movie theater I’m nearsighted. But I still have this childhood notion that if I’m close to the screen, I’ll get the movie faster than the people in the back. And no one wants to sit there. I just saw “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” and didn’t know, going into an 11 p.m. showing at Alamo Drafthouse, that the movie was going to be like that. I laughed, cried. People in the theater also didn’t know it was going to be sad and I heard this one woman go, “Oh, no …” from behind me.9. Her grandmother’s prayer book Years and years ago, my grandmother gave me this tiny, stapled little blue book, which she got at a funeral home in the 1980s. There’s a prayer for success, a prayer for fear, a prayer for mourning, things like that. I basically grew up kind of sheltered, and with a village behind me, so when I first moved to New York, I would read through it to inspire me to go and raise my hand first in class or something. It’s become this totem that I treasure that gives me some comfort. I’m fairly religious, but not in an anti-science way. I believe in climate change and gay rights and am pro-choice; you know, regular human things.10. Trying to be more tender I think, as I get older, it becomes more of an effort to be tender with myself and others. With the kind of job that I have, it can be easy to view people as stories, and not as people. So I’m trying to be conscientious of how I help or hurt the world. This came about because I saw the movie “Cane River” at BAM a few years ago, which was made in the early ’80s, but wasn’t released [in the United States] until like four years ago, because the director Horace B. Jenkins had a heart attack right after it was made. The movie is just vibes; it’s Black people holding hands in a field, being tender with each other. If I’d seen my aunts and uncles being that kind of loving and soft with each other back then, it would have changed the direction of what Black cinema looks like. More

At the end of a tour that drew some social media mockery, the billionaire brothers’ rock band received a friendly reception at a venue close to their parents’ beach house.The 40-year-old billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have been on the road with their rock band, Mars Junction, since early last month, crisscrossing the country to offer their versions of songs by Blink-182, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Police, Pearl Jam and Journey. Tyler sings; Cameron plays guitar. On Saturday, they rolled into Amagansett, N.Y., the Long Island beach town not far from where they spent their childhood summers.They arrived in grand style, cruising down Main Street in a 45-foot Prevost tour bus with “Mars Junction” in huge lettering on the side. A Mercedes-Benz Sprinter brought up the rear. The twins’ retinue included the four musicians in the band, a documentary filmmaker, a merchandise salesman and assorted staff members.The two vehicles parked in front of the Stephen Talkhouse, a venue with an old-salt vibe where a number of marquee performers have taken the stage over the decades, including Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Cliff, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Sheila E. and Suzanne Vega. Mars Junction was closing out the tour with two nights at the Talkhouse on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets were $50.The twins, whose cryptocurrency company, Gemini, laid off 10 percent of its staff in the recent crypto crash, hit a bump on the road to Amagansett. An audience member at the band’s show at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J., posted a video of Tyler trying and failing to match the crystalline high notes of the singer Steve Perry in Mars Junction’s rendition of Journey’s 1981 hit “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The clip went viral, and the comments on social media about the twins — former Olympic rowers who made a fortune in Bitcoin after having a role in the creation of Facebook — came in hot.Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who were born in nearby Southampton and grew up in Greenwich, Conn., had a much warmer reception at the Talkhouse. By 7 p.m. on Saturday, the place was packed, mainly with young adults in Bermuda shorts and summer dresses who appeared to belong to the same crowd as the Harvard-educated twins. Their parents, Carol and Howard Winklevoss, were in attendance, as were several family friends.Tyler Winklevoss, left, and his twin brother, Cameron, closed a nationwide tour in Amagansett over the Fourth of July weekend.Johnny Milano for The New York TimesThe crowd at the Stephen Talkhouse during the first of two Mars Junction shows.Johnny Milano for The New York TimesThe twins took the stage and dove into their opener, “Top Gun Anthem,” the instrumental theme to the 1986 film and its recent sequel. With his mustache, slicked-back hair, aviator shades and wallet chain hanging from a back pocket, Tyler had a look somewhere between “Top Gun” and Tommy Bahama. Cameron, in an orange shirt and white slacks, had more of a surfer vibe.Suddenly, his legs wide apart and the microphone held sideways, Tyler led the band into Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.” “Now you do what they told ya!” he sang before leaping into the crowd, where he engaged in a flurry of high-fives and fist bumps with the Mars Junction faithful.“What up, Talkhouse!” he said after the song was done. “Fourth of July weekend, it’s the big one! Ready to rock, you guys?”The hits kept on coming: Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire”; Mumford & Sons’ “The Wolf”; the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Can’t Stop.” When Tyler sang Sublime’s “Santeria,” he made a change to the line “Well, I had a million dollars” by replacing the word “million” with “billion.” Cameron executed a wah-wah guitar solo and took a swig of Liquid Death water.Then came the challenging part of the show: the Police medley, which required Tyler to hit the high notes so effortlessly sung by a youthful Sting in his 1980s glory.“So Lonely” segued into “Message in a Bottle,” which morphed into the hard-rocking “Synchronicity II” (“The factory belches filth into the sky!” Tyler sang) before settling into the reggae vibe of “Walking on the Moon.” Tyler was stretching his voice to the limit. Why not make it easier on himself by starting it off in a lower key? But that is not the Winklevoss way.The crowd sang along with the next one, “Flagpole Sitta,” a 1997 hit for Harvey Danger. When the music died down, a young man in the audience repeatedly screamed out a profane chant against Mark Zuckerberg, whom the Winklevoss twins sued unsuccessfully, accusing him of denying them their fair share of Facebook money.“I don’t know what you’re saying,” Tyler said to the rowdy fan, the hint of a smile on his face.He got nostalgic in his introduction to Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow.”“Let’s go early ’90s, yeah?” Tyler said to the crowd. “What do you think? Early ’90s? Pre-internet? Can you handle that? No social media? All right, you want to go back there?”He channeled Eddie Vedder’s growl. Cameron busted out two solos.“Whooooooo!” said the crowd.“We’re going to stay early ’90s for this next one,” Tyler said. “Ready for some Nirvana?”The crowd whooped again.“OK, that feels like a yes!”Then came “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” As they played the next song, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Suck My Kiss,” their mother, Carol, was clapping along to the beat as their father, wearing a blue blazer and button-down shirt, maintained a stoic demeanor.Tyler Winklevoss tosses Mars Junction T-shirts into the crowd.Johnny Milano for The New York TimesFor the song “You’re So Last Summer,” by Taking Back Sunday, Cameron put on a Mars Junction cap. More were available at the merch table for $20.02 apiece.After the audience sang along to “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers, Mars Junction offered a pair of Journey songs as encores: “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Any Way You Want It.” The lights came up to the sound of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” on the Talkhouse sound system. The twins left to have a late dinner with their parents at Gurney’s in Montauk.Before the Sunday evening show, the brothers took a moment to chat in an upstairs room at the Talkhouse. As Tyler cracked open a Liquid Death, he said the previous night’s show had the feel of a homecoming and noted that his parents still had the beach house in nearby Quogue. He added that Mars Junction was in a somewhat vulnerable position, since it plays such familiar songs.“When you play covers, you’re judged against the recording,” Tyler said. “And the more iconic the song, the more people know the recording, and live’s a little different. So it’s a tough thing.”One thing the Mars Junction experience has taught them, the twins said, was that the life of a touring musician can be wearying.“You’ve got to rest for these shows,” Tyler said. “It’s a huge exertion and, as a vocalist, your voice can go if you’re not careful.”“Guitars don’t get tired,” Cameron said. “But humans do.” More

The Puerto Rican rapper, singer and pop star’s latest album, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” tops the Billboard chart again in its eighth week of release.In its eight weeks on the Billboard album chart so far, the Puerto Rican rapper, singer and pop star Bad Bunny’s latest release, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” has remained a streaming steamroller, frequently topping 150 million online plays per week. This time, the album’s 160 million streams were enough for a return to No. 1, despite two new releases in the Top 5 and just 657 copies of “Un Verano Sin Ti” sold as a full album.Bad Bunny, who was Spotify’s top streaming artist globally for the last two years, called his latest “a record to play in the summer, on the beach, as a playlist.” That seems to be working: In the week ending June 30, “Un Verano Sin Ti” totaled 115,000 equivalent sales units — combining streams, sales and track downloads — according to the tracking service Luminate.That was enough to easily hold off the debut of “Growin’ Up” by the hit-making country singer Luke Combs, which earned 74,000 total units, including 56 million streams — a healthy total in country, where streaming has been slower to take over. Although “Growin’ Up” comes in at No. 2, its streaming total was the lowest of all of the albums in the Top 5.“Breezy,” the latest by the R&B singer Chris Brown, was the week’s other big debut, finishing at No. 4 in a close race, with 72,000 total units and 87 million streams. Sales activity for last week’s No. 1, the surprise release “Honestly, Nevermind,” by Drake, fell 64 percent, but the album holds on to No. 3 with 73,000 units, including 94 million streams.Rounding out the Top 5 is the deluxe edition of “7220” by the Chicago rapper Lil Durk, which topped the chart when it was released in March. The new version, which sent “7220” back up from No. 18 last week with 95 million fresh streams, added 13 additional songs, bringing the total track list to 31. More