From Sundance to Lilyhammer, from poetry to street art, Cultural Weekly’s Top 10 stories of 2014 showcase the diverse range of interests of our readership.
And who are you, O Readers? You are legion. More than 130,000 of you came to our pages this year. Seventy percent of you are in the United States, and the next five countries where you live are the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and India. Two-thirds of you read Cultural Weekly on your desktop, and one-third read us on your mobile phone or tablet — a percentage that has doubled in the past year. Sixty percent of you are between the ages of 18-34. You are 54% male and 46% female.
What did you read? In descending order for our Top 10 stories of 2014, scroll down to find out:
10. Walt Whitman in color? Artist Dana Keller’s colorized portraits of literary greats piques your interest–and a bit of controversy.
9. “We are an active participant in creating our own culture, proclaimed David Mack. David Mack is the New York Times bestselling author and artist of the Kabuki graphic novels, and the writer and artist of Daredevil from Marvel Comics. It’s always a pleasure when creators like David share their views in our virtual pages.
8. The artist’s struggle continues to vex and intrigue us. In Cultural Weekly’s version of #ThrowbackThursday, the conflict between DTLAB and downtown LA’s The Last Bookstore kept generating pageviews, even though it first appeared in November, 2013.
7. In November of this year we debuted a new series, Art In Context, exploring the impact of art, artists, and the business of art in both the building and exploitation of communities, curated by Chiwan Choi. Its inaugural article exposed the closure of arts and maker-education center 3rd Ward in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and its impact on the communities it served.
6. Culture–So What?!? Blek Le Rat, one of the most influential street artists of our time, gave you his answer. He was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris, and is the founding father of the stencil street art movement.
5. Poetry, poetry, poetry. Taken as a whole, poetry is one of our most popular categories, and we’ve proven that poetry thrives in the Internet ecosystem. Every week we publish a different poet, selected by our poetry editor Alexis Rhone Fancher. This was the inaugural year of the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, and information about the contest, the winners and the finalists kept poetry-lovers buzzing.
4. What sells more, art or sex? Judging from its position on our list, we’re thinking sex. See for yourself in Daniel Bosch’s review of Dan Gluibizzi’s watercolor porn meme art.
3. Great poems endure. Edward Field’s poem “Icarus,” which we originally published in 2013, continues in popularity.
2. We have fans in Norway…or fans of Norway! Tod Hardin’s interview with Lilyhammer star Trond Fausa got a bump in readership when the new season of the series premiered last month. Or maybe it was the photo of the naked men (see #4).
1. Independent film was one of our top categories, and our Sundance 2014 Infographic was our top story of the year. Look for an even better infographic for Sundance 2015, coming in January.
Honorable mentions: Sophia Stein’s insightful interviews and articles about independent films; Sarah Elgart’s generous sharing of dance videos; and Carol Green’s comic Life After Birth–all only available here at Cultural Weekly.
We’re taking off the next two weeks for the holidays, and our next edition will be January 8, 2015. Until then, thank you for your support, spread the word, and we wish you a brilliant and creative new year!
Image by David Mack from Kabuki.
