| Last week, the Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana burned to the ground. Nothing was left of the antebellum mansion but ashes of a shameful past. “For Black people, it wasn’t just the fall of a building,” writes artist Damien Davis in a must-read opinion piece below. “It was a release [...] Watching it burn felt like witnessing a lie collapse under the weight of truth.” These days, it seems like the whole world is on fire. But there’s still plenty of courage and resistance going around. Case in point: A court orders the Trump administration to reinstate museum grants it had slashed after attorneys general from 21 states banded together to file a lawsuit. Many times, compliance is a choice. In the latest episode of the Hyperallergic Podcast, our Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian speaks with author Michelle Young about her new book The Art Spy. It tells the true story of Rose Valland, a French curator and spy who saved art from the Nazis during World War II. There’s a lot more to read on this long Memorial Day weekend here in the US, including impressions from the 2025 Hawai’i Triennial, Kashmir’s “Museum of Memories,” John Yau on Stanley Rosen’s clay alligators, and a new book that tries to rehabilitate (or at least complicate) Paul Gauguin’s tainted reputation. We need your help to keep up the work in these extremely uncertain times. Please consider joining our community as a Hyperallergic Member for as little as $6.67 a month ($80/year). It’s less than a glass of orange juice in New York City (don’t get me started on that). Enjoy your weekend! — Hakim Bishara, Managing Editor | 
