Wesley Morris

I’m a critic at The New York Times who writes about art and popular culture.

What I Cover

The words “popular culture” tend to bring to mind movies and television and maybe certain corners of the internet, which is right. For me, that culture also includes sports and style and all kinds of performance (on stage, on screens, on court, in court). Sometimes, I’m thinking through what a particular work of or moment in art says about where we are as a civilization and where we’ve been as a culture. But boy does that sound lofty. A lot of the time, I just want to write in praise of why a film, painting, meal, book, show, album, or feat of acting is so good, or to write about why it’s so embarrassing, so memorably full of meaning. That criticism can take the form of a review, an essay or a podcast episode.

My Background

Like a lot of us, I’m always watching, reading, listening to something. And like a lot of us, I have feelings and questions and memories. My job is to synthesize all of that thought and feeling into criticism. I can’t believe it’s been 30 years — since I was a teenager, basically — but here we are! I grew up in Philadelphia, in a household where art was appreciated, admired, argued over and absorbed. I inherited my parents’ love of all kinds of music and movies, of sports and food and style. But I’ve spent a lifetime as a student of taste and history — observing what other people wear and like and make, then thinking about what that says. I graduated from college (Yale) having been taught how to make connections among all kinds of art and culture and ideas. As invaluable is simply being in the world, on the street, and involved in other people’s lives, observing culture’s effect on us.

Journalistic Ethics

The work I do originates with my own thoughts and observations. It arises in conversation among colleagues and friends and strangers. It’s never been or ever will be sponsored or solicited by any studio, executive, artist, cultural organization or social media company. All Times journalists are committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. And, just so I’ve said it: I don’t write with the aid of bots or AI. Not infrequently, my work also requires thinking through the way race functions in the work and actions of individuals and the decision of institutions. Race isn’t the only window through which I view the world. But as an African American, I do consider it an illuminating lens that emboldens me to perceive subtext in art and to examine, challenge and celebrate the people and institutions who make it.

• Email: wesley.morris@nytimes.com