Unwrapping 2023: Our Favorite Books, Music & Art of the Year!
Looking for inspiration? Need some holiday gift ideas? Check out our cultural highlights from the past year!
Once again, it’s beginning to look a lot like Solstice! And the two things it seems everyone needs right now are:
Inspiration! Is it just us, or is the holiday season also the time of year when people are most in need of inspiration, beauty, wisdom and joy?
Holiday Gift Ideas! Especially unique cultural gifts that might provide some inspiration to your family, friends and loved ones.
Fortunately, the Epicurean Vagabonds are happy to provide plenty of both!
So to help you kick off the holiday season, we’ve decided to put together a list of our favorite cultural highlights from the past year of our Aesthetic Arrest Podcast. We both adore history, so many of our weekly recommendations are from the past, but everything listed here was something we loved that was published/released in 2023.
(Eagle-eyed readers might notice a few items we haven’t talked about yet, but which we’re planning to discuss in our upcoming episodes this year. Consider this a sneak peek!)
Our Favorite New Books of 2023:
Books are perfect gifts. And you can support The Epicurean Vagabonds this holiday season by purchasing a book from our Epicurean Vagabonds Storefront at Bookshop.org.
Below are all of the new books (first published in 2023) we’ve recommended on our Aesthetic Arrest Podcast this year (including a few we’ll be talking about soon!):
Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 by Carl Phillips
Watch Your Language: Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry by Terrance Hayes
The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives by Naoíse Mac Sweeney
And of course, don’t forget the beautiful book Ryan Wildstar published this year:
For a big list of ALL of our book recommendations from this year’s podcast (most of which were published before 2023), check out the full list at The Epicurean Vagabonds Bookshop at Bookshop.org.
Our Favorite New Albums of 2023:
Don’t believe the naysayers. 2023 was an incredible year for great music! So why not give the gift of music by purchasing some albums? Streaming is a convenient way to find new music, but musicians also need to get paid. So please consider supporting your favorite artists by purchasing the albums you love. And don’t forget to support your independent local record stores as well!
Below are all of the 2023 albums we’ve discussed this year on our Aesthetic Arrest Podcast. (With links to where you can purchase and stream.)
Breath Versus Beats by Simon Berz, Toshinori Kondo & Bill Laswell
Florence Price: Symphony No. 4 / William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony by The Philadelphia Orchestra & Yannick Nézet-Séguin
My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross by ANOHNI and the Johnsons
The Nutcracker Suite: Tchaikovsky, Ellington, Strayhorn by Chineke! Orchestra
Uncovered, Vol. 3: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, George Walker, William Grant Still by Catalyst Quartet
Wynton Marsalis Plays Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Hot Sevens by Wynton Marsalis
For even more music that we loved this year, check out these two articles:
Contemporary Artists We Loved in 2023:
We love contemporary art. Original art, lithographs, prints and “art merch” make fantastic holiday gifts. In the lists and articles below are links to the official websites, shops and/or Instagrams of nearly 200 amazing contemporary artists. Many of these artists have original work or prints available for purchase. Check out the links below and consider giving the gift of art this year!
There are far too many great contemporary artists to list everyone we love here, but these are the living artists we talked about on the podcast this year:
Faig Ahmed, Ron Athey, Judy Baca, Jahar Dasgupta, Lalla Essaydi, Jeffrey Gibson, Guo Pei, Hassan Hajjaj, Wim Heldens, Isaac Julien, Gabriela Larios, Yary Livan, Beatriz Milhazes, Kent Monkman, Jessica Sabogal, Yinka Shonibare, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Lisa Sotilis, Kali Spitzer, Shanna Strauss, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Naudline Pierre, Mickalene Thomas, Uýra, Victoria Villasana, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Kay WalkingStick and Zadie Xa!
Here are the living artists we featured this year on our Mid-Week Libations:
Adel Abdessemed, Maha Ahmed, Hend al-Mansour, Lisa Alvarado, Alun Be, Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Julie Buffalohead, Pauline Caulfield, Ryan Cosbert, Sarah Cunningham, Zainab Fasiki, Sylvia Fein, Victoria Francés, Francisco González, Naima Green, Luke Edward Hall, Jewel Ham, Harminder Judge, Tetsutaro Kamatani, Lily Kemp, Basil Kincaid, Yuki Kihara, Andrew Kung, Yoora Lee, Li Hei Di, Hannah Lim, Yael Martínez, Kyle Meyer, Jackie Milad, Carrie Moyer, Cinthia Sifa Mulanga, Shota Nakamura, Soumya Netrabile, Flo Ngala, Mika Ninagawa, Tammy Nguyen, Anna Ortiz, Sizwe Sama, Paula Siebra, David Spriggs, Tim Tate, Sinta Tantra, Tesfaye Urgessa, Abby Moon Zeciroski and Helen Zughaib!
And for even more contemporary artists (including links to where you can purchase their work), check out the following articles we published this year:
The Best Gift of All! Give the Gift of The Epicurean Vagabonds!
Searching for some unique, one-of-a-kind gifts to give your friends and loved ones for the holidays? If you really love them, start by giving them the gift that keeps on giving . . . A Paid Subscription to The Epicurean Vagabonds!
This will grant them a year’s worth of reading, listening, looking, viewing and tasting recommendations from our Aesthetic Arrest podcasts, Mid-Week Libations and weekly articles and conversations. In addition, Paid Subscribers ($5 monthly or $50 annually) will receive:
Delicious recipes from Ryan Wildstar! (Only for paid subscribers!)
Ability to comment on all of our content and engage directly with us and our community.
Audio versions of selected articles read by one or both of us.
Exclusive content, including excerpts from our works in progress (such as Ryan Wildstar’s upcoming memoir and Ryan Elston’s upcoming novel), as well as poetry, creative writing and select articles.
The satisfaction of helping two Epicurean Vagabonds subsist in this increasingly difficult world so we can keep sharing our content with you!
It turns out 2023 was an amazing year for great books, music and art! Cheers to that! *clink*
Tell us in the comments: What were YOUR cultural highlights this year? Which books, music and art did you enjoy in 2023?
Also, don’t forget to check back next Monday, as we’ll be highlighting our favorite films, TV series and documentaries of 2023!