The four seasons each have their charms, and in this fourth month of the year, April showers (and early flowers) remind us of the cycles of nature, of human systems and the endless unfolding of life. Time is moving forward and as we enter the second quarter of the year, we offer you works of art by women, for women, arrayed in fours.
Music
Listen to Simone’s “Four Women” (Live in Antibes, 1969).
Four Women by Nina Simone
In 1966, the singer-composer Nina Simone was so affected by the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that she wrote the song, “Four Women.”
Film
Set It Off
Set It Off (1996) is “a lot more” than a thriller about four women who rob banks, according to film critic Roger Ebert. Jada Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise star as four female friends living in an LA housing project who, pushed to the edge, resort to violence to escape poverty in this searing, intimate, and action-packed look at real life and systemic injustice on America’s mean streets. Directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Kate Lanier and Takashi Bufford, the film became a box office success, grossing over $41 million against a budget of $9 million.
JADA PINKETT-SMITH
QUEEN LATIFAH
VIVICA A.FOX
KIMBERLY ELISE
Art
The Met Roof Garden: Ensemble, by Jennie C. Jones
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newest Roof Garden Commission features Ensemble, a dynamic installation by artist Jennie C. Jones (b. 1968, Cincinnati, Ohio). Set high above the city, the work includes three angular sculptures inspired by musical instruments and Minimalist art, along with a fourth flat piece that suggests a kind of stage.
With panoramic views of the city’s skyline, the installation leans on the “four winds” to blow and breathe audible life into the structures.
Jones is known for her commitment to abstraction and for weaving sound—or the suggestion of it—into her work. In Ensemble, the sculptures become potential instruments, activated by time, light, and weather. On a windy day, visitors may hear strings vibrating softly in response to the breeze.
“A big part of the project is about anticipation and silence, activation and happenstance,” Jones says. “All these variables are out of our hands.” More
Featured Writing
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires
In Dream Count, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie traces the intertwined lives of four women navigating love, loss, and the weight of expectation across continents. With settings that shift between Nigeria and the U.S., the novel explores themes of memory, migration, and the enduring complexities of womanhood.
At its heart, Dream Count asks: Is true happiness ever attainable, or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, and on our interconnected world, the novel stands as a testament to the strength of women who endure, imagine, and redefine themselves. Listen to the NPR interview.
