Bay Area based musician Thao Nguyen (AIR ’18, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down) and New York based music critic Amanda Petrusich (AIR ‘19, staff writer for The New Yorker) discuss the essentiality of artistic and critical practices in a time of social and cultural upheaval.

Artists and writers have long made peace with their practices and work being positioned as indulgences, and now amidst a pandemic and social reckoning, how do creative workers respond?

What can be learned from artists’ and writers’ longstanding practices, their unique relationships to patience and discomfort, to their perceptions and grit? And, what about creative and critical work needs to change?