Hannah Giorgis

criticism and essays

All my writing at The Atlantic can be found here. Selected works include:

• George Clooney’s Tequila Is Taking Over Rap — August 2022
  All of a sudden, it seems like Casamigos is name-checked in every song.

• Under the Fluorescent Lights — April 2022
  Chauncey Hare captured the drudgery of office life in order to protest it.

• How Issa Rae Built the World of Insecure — December 2021
  The show’s behind-the-scenes collaborations were as important to its success as the bonds portrayed on-screen.

• Why We Watch Relationships Fall Apart — May 2021
  The latest season of Master of None charts the slow demise of a marriage. But if we don’t know what drew a couple together, we can’t empathize with what caused them to split.

• Who Wants to Watch Black Pain? — April 2021
  More Black storytellers are turning to the horror genre to unpack the traumas of racism. But some viewers are growing tired of these stories.

• The Final Word on Tina Turner — March 2021
  The HBO documentary Tina gives the singer the last say on a life that was, for long periods, out of her own hands.

• The Atlantic Daily: A Playlist for Spring Cleaning — March 2021
  ’Tis the season for … cleaning! Let this hour-long playlist help you bring some sparkle—or at least a sing-along—to your home.

• D.C. Statehood Is More Urgent Than Ever — January 2021
  “The real fraud is that we call ourselves a democracy yet deny the people of our capital political representation.”

• The Year of Ambitious TV Watching — December 2020
  In 2020, tackling 121 episodes of a single show was no longer as daunting as it once seemed.

• The Audacity of Panic! at the Disco's Debut Album — September 2020
  Oh, well imagine: Panic! at the Disco’s debut album is 15 years old, and young listeners still love it.

• A Deeply Provincial View of Free Speech — July 2020
  Many prominent writers and thinkers seem invested in the notion that simply facing strong public criticism is a threat to free speech.

• The Best Part of Queen & Slim Is the Soundtrack — November 2019
  The record, which features new songs from Blood Orange, Megan Thee Stallion, and Lauryn Hill, captures the journey of the film’s protagonists while avoiding some of the story’s clichés.

• The Haunting Senegalese Love Story That Stunned Cannes — November 2019
  The Grand Prix–winning Atlantics, set to stream on Netflix later this month, deftly melds fantasy and romance in a complex portrait of migration.

• Can a Film Be a Love Letter to a Country? — July 2019
  New movies from the writer-directors Lulu Wang and Diana Peralta explore complex questions about national belonging and communal responsibility.

• Pop Smoke Made the Soundtrack of a Lost Summer — July 2020
  The posthumous debut album of the Brooklyn rapper reverberates with the tragedy of his untimely death.

• Insecure Is Finally Growing Up — June 2020
  Four seasons in, Issa Rae’s HBO show is becoming the friendship study it was always trying to be.

• The Messy Politics of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It — May 2019
  The second season of the Do the Right Thing director’s Netflix adaptation dials back the romantic drama, but leans into tonally confused social commentary.

• The Houston Rapper Taking the Industry by Storm — May 2019
  Megan Thee Stallion’s much-anticipated debut album, Fever, is a remarkable mix of braggadocio, lyrical acuity, and self-awareness.

• What Solange’s When I Get Home Shares With Stevie Wonder’s Most Esoteric Album — March 2019
  The musician’s first studio project since A Seat at the Table emphasizes the revelatory power of repetition.

• BoJack Horseman Charts Complicated Paths to Forgiveness — September 2018
  An exploration of the animated Netflix series’ depictions of redemption and forgiveness—especially as related to sexual misconduct—in its fifth season.

• Popcaan Keeps Dancehall Moving Forward—With Its Roots Intact – June 2018
  An interview with the Jamaican singer ahead of his sophomore album, Forever, which cements his status as one of the genre’s most important figures.

• Long Live Samantha Jones — June 2018
  An appreciation of the Sex and the City character who valued her relationship to herself more than those she—or any of the show’s four main characters—had with men, on the occasion of the show’s 20th anniversary.

• Donald Glover's Evolving Vision of Black Kinship — May 2018
  A study of the multi-hyphenate’s preoccupation with the burden and blessing of the communal bond—as expressed in Atlanta, as well as his music, especially the single “This Is America.”

Selected freelance writing and works for prior employers include:

• A love letter to Ethiopian buna (Explore Parts Unknown) — July 2018
  An appreciation of the coffee ritual most often performed and passed on by Ethiopian women.

• How Freda DeKnight’s Cookbook, ‘A Date with a Dish’ Inspired Generations of Black Cooks (Bon Appétit) — June 2018
  A history of black cookery, as celebrated and documented by the first food editor of Ebony magazine in her 1948 book.

• Ethiopia and Eritrea’s Long History With Lasagna (Taste Cooking) — May 2018
  An exploration of the East African nations’ attachment to—and improvement of—the staple dish that arrived with Italy’s colonial influence.

• “Vindicated”: The Return of Dashboard Confessional (The Ringer) — February 2018
  An interview with Chris Carrabba about the band’s first album in eight years.

• Michael Twitty Is Untangling the Roots of Southern Food (The Ringer) — August 2017
  An interview with the chef about his book, The Cooking Gene, as well as mixing race and history in the kitchen

• Young M.A’s “OOOUUU” - 25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going (The New York Times Magazine) — March 2017
  Analysis of the Brooklyn rapper’s transgressive and transformative appreciation of other women.

• One Of The World's Best Long Distance Runners Is Now Running For His Life (BuzzFeed News) — November 2016
  A profile of Feyisa Lilesa, the Ethiopian marathoner who protested the country’s oppression of his ethnic group at the 2016 summer Olympics.

• Gentrifying Afropunk (The New Yorker website) — August 2015
  A report from the Brooklyn music festival, which drew ire for shifting its focus away from the movement’s origins.

• The Weeknd's East African Roots (Pitchfork) — June 2015
  A study of the R&B singer’s sonic influences, which stretch back to the country of his mother’s birth.

• A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name (The Hairpin) — March 2015
  A meditation on how names convey—or complicate—belonging.