#9: Meet Michelle Cohn of The Arts + Culture Section
A lovely little profile of Substack's pop culture queen
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Howdy folks!
Welcome to In Too Deep’s first-ever little interview/profile. I’m hoping to make this a regular ~thing~, so let me know your thoughts and if there are any people or areas of expertise you would like to know more about!
This week, we’re starting our foray into something new with someone who I am used to fucking up in front of! I am excited to introduce you to my good friend and fellow newsletter writer, Michelle Cohn.
Hello, Michelle! Who are you? Introduce yourself to the fans.
Hi, fans!! I'm Michelle Cohn and I'm a New York-based writer and film publicity person.
Tell us a little about your newsletter The Arts + Culture Section. How did it begin? What is it about?
Honestly, I wasn't getting a lot of responses when I would pitch out ideas to publications, and a lot of the responses I would get would be passes (this is not to shade any editors, I'm bad at pitching). I wanted a space where I would have the flexibility to write about what I wanted, and I also thought it would be good to start giving myself regular deadlines.
In terms of what it’s about, I write a lot about culture and society. Whether that means in-depth conversations about the anti-hero archetype or more straightforward reviews. It mostly depends on the week/what mood I’m in/what culture I’m consuming. I care a lot about culture and how we interact with it, so it’s mostly about that.
What else are you into? Is there anything else you write about?
In addition to writing about culture I also write satire for sites like McSweeney's and Reductress, and in the Before COVID Times I did improv as well. I'm also trying to learn more about fine art and art history because I feel like that’s an area where I’m definitely lacking knowledge.
Tell us a little bit about your writing process.
A great question that I will try my best to answer!
For satire, usually, I'll start with an idea that causes a sharp emotional reaction - does this make me angry? Happy? Frustrated? When I wrote The Immortan Joe Administration Releases the 2776 Report, it started because I saw an article about the 1776 report and it made me angry. As a personal preference, I like putting satirical ideas into pre-existing worlds or creative works, just because I think it's fun and I like having that structure. From there it was a matching game of where I should put a version of this report—I cycled through Disney Movies, TV Shows, etc.—and then finally landed on Mad Max. After that, it was just a matter of translating real-world ideas into Mad Max-world speak and making sure that the ideas heightened in a cohesive way.
For cultural stuff, it depends on the piece I'm writing, but it's mostly noticing where I see cultural patterns emerging. That was certainly the jumping-off point for porcelain ladies, “I” shows, and hot priests. From there, I'll do research to see what people have said about that particular topic so that a) I learn more about the subject matter and b) I know what other people have said so I don't just repeat them. I like writing in a physical notebook for brainstorming and then typing things up once I know what I want to say. I usually write introductory paragraphs last because they scare me.
What’s something you love about pop culture?
Many things! I think one of the main things I love is its ability to take things out of isolation. I was writing about Atlanta earlier and there's a scene where a character asks Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles (Brian Tyree Henry) why he raps, and he says, "I scare people at ATMs, boy. I have to rap. I mean, that's what rap is, making the best out of a bad situation, bruh." I love that line because I think it's a succinct distillation of a lot of big ideas. How do the ways people treat us affect our actions? Our pathways? What does art mean to us? It’s very easy to get lost in our own perspective when we’re thinking about other people. I’m sure loads of viewers may have thought, "Oh he raps because he wants lots of money" or "He raps because he wants girls.” Good TV shows and movies can contextualize smaller actions within a larger scene, it asks us to expand our thinking.
What’s something you would like to see changed in the world of pop culture?
That's a big question and I am absolutely terrified of answering it wrong! I think there's a lot of things, but I guess one example I'll give is that people often isolate culture from other aspects of society. It's like how people talk about Hard News versus Entertainment News. Sam Sanders was on an episode of Las Culturistas a while ago and he talked about how when he was in school, he learned the hard facts of the Civil Rights movement (as many of us do). Dates, names, places, these are all important, but he questions how much more comprehensive our understanding would be if we also learned about how Motown's popularity contributed to the movement. If we're talking about politics, what media are politicians consuming, and how does that affect their ideas about what a good leader looks like? What kind of culture did they grow up with? Who are they seeing represented on screen, and how? These kinds of questions integrate culture and society in a way that broadens our understanding of both.
What are your thoughts on the era of reboots (i.e. something like Gossip Girl)/remakes (i.e. something like the live-action The Lion King)/reunions (i.e. something like FRIENDS)?
I think that coming out of the pandemic, there is a desire to go back not just to a few years ago, but way back to the cultural womb of our childhoods. In terms of reboots, I think that the urge to make these cultural touchstones (Gossip Girl, Saved By The Bell) more diverse is a good one. Acknowledging how white-centric and heteronormative we were and trying to fix it feels like an attempt to revise our history and atone for that past. What I will say, though, is that I don't think we always need to tie it to these older shows to try and ride the wave of nostalgia. We can create diverse shows without necessarily needing to make it a reboot. Starstruck on HBO takes the core idea of a classic rom-com but modernizes it in a way that doesn't feel clunky or forced. Ideas can be strong enough to stand on their own without a recognizable name.
In terms of reunions, I generally think that they aren't really necessary unless they serve a purpose. In the Fresh Prince reunion, Will Smith brought in Janet Hubert (the original Aunt Viv) and gave her a space to express her frustrations with him, with the show, how she was treated. She addresses the colorism she faced, and that remains an issue today. The fact that that reunion was tied to a larger cultural conversation felt key to its significance. Without that connection, I think reunions have a tendency to shine a modern spotlight on shows that look bad under that level of observation. Revisiting Sex and the City or Friends feels weird to me. Those shows were popular because they came out in a very specific time period, and were catered to a world that we don't live in anymore. Casting them in a warm, fuzzy glow feels like we’re ignoring their issues. We can appreciate old shows, but I think it’s much easier to talk about them with a critical lens when we aren’t constantly trying to bring them back in style.
Any current pop culture recommendations?
I mentioned it before but I really enjoyed Starstruck on HBO, it had very old-school romantic comedy vibes while still feeling modern. I also have been listening to Switched on Pop which dives into music history and musicology through contemporary songs, and I'm reading They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib, which is also very good. Also, everyone should read my favorite newsletter, In Too Deep with Kira Sommer.
Any hopes or dreams for The Arts + Culture Section?
Ideally, I would love to do more reported pieces with interviews and research. My last newsletter was my first foray into interview-adjacent work and I had a lot of fun with it so I'd love to do more of that stuff. Also, profiles like this would be cool. These are good questions and I may steal some of them.
You live in New York City (ew!). What’s your favorite part of the city and your least favorite?
Least favorite is the scarcity of public bathrooms and public areas. I am out and about a lot! Please have more places to sit and pee and refill my water bottle! For my favorite, I think it's that you can make a day out of anything. A few weekends ago, I was walking around Williamsburg and went to maybe five different thrift stores, visited a little mall, strolled through a park, browsed a bookstore, and then bought a very refreshing lemonade and sat on the sidewalk to drink it. My favorite days are those when I walk around so much that I collapse on my bed at the end of the day with very sore legs. New York City is a perfect city for those kinds of days.
Any current NYC recommendations?
My local movie theater, Cobble Hill Cinema which has an ice cream shop right next to it (the perfect location for an ice cream place in my opinion).
The Brooklyn Bridge Promenade (good spot to take and impress your friends)
Vanderbilt Avenue (loads of good restaurants)
Books Are Magic (good books and good vibes)
All the public libraries (support them!)
Restart Stages at Lincoln Center (which you took me to!)
What’s something you’ve gotten ~in too deep~ about lately?
I've been watching Desus and Mero YouTube clips almost exclusively for two whole weeks. I listened to their Good One episode, then Bodega Boys episodes, then their Fresh Air episode, then Mero's Code Switch episode—I'm obsessed. The brand is strong.
Thanks again to Michelle for joining us this week! Be sure to follow her on Twitter and, of course, subscribe to her newsletter The Arts + Culture Section!