The Village Voice Is Back

A low-key return for a New York institution has begun

Last week, for the first time since 2018, I had a story of mine appear in the Village Voice. I wrote about the 2021 NYC mayoral race, which will hold its Democratic primary on June 22nd, and I’ll be contributing to the Voice regularly, writing specifically on this very important municipal contest.

Many people probably missed the news in December that the Voice, which its owner shut down in 2018, was sold to another owner who intends to bring it all the way back. I’ve been told a quartlerly print issue is coming, with the first one due sometime at the end of March. Print is good! I am always wary about news like this because this industry is so precarious and too dependent on the whims of rich individuals. We will see what happens. But I am very happy. Growing up in NYC, the Voice for me was my platonic ideal of a newspaper. It did the investigative journalism that mattered. Its coverage of arts and culture—books, galleries, plays, cinema—was unrivaled. It was a proudly left newspaper that, at the same time, was unafraid of heterodox voices, that could feature Nat Hentoff and Stanley Crouch and Colson Whitehead and Vivian Gornick and so many other fascinating writers.

After I quit the New York Observer in 2016, I went to write for the Voice, among other publications. It was, without question, the most fun I’ve had as a journalist and writer. I contributed investigative political pieces, commentary, and book reviews, thrilled to see my byline in a publication of such renown. I hope Village Voice 2.0 can bring back what it is New York has missed so much. The website is again posting original stories. It’s a bit of good news at a time that is still, for many, so dark.

None of this, by the way, will change my approach to this Substack, Political Currents. I will continue to post a weekly piece on New York or national politics or whatever it is that’s on my mind. My goal is to always make it worth your while.

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Thanks!