The North Star with Shaun King

The North Star with Shaun King

On Art & Addiction: Thoughts Surrounding the Tragic Death of Michael K. Williams

The death of yet another prolific artist lost to drugs raises questions of what it means to be an artist in a world where everyone is always watching.

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Kendi King
Sep 07, 2021
∙ Paid
(Getty Images)

There’s a certain immortalization that comes with suicide other forms of death cannot imitate. 

Perhaps it is a Western phenomenon, and even more specifically an American one. Our heroes always seem to end their own lives. We say our heroes are “gone too soon” because we never seem to have appreciated the life of our heroes when they still …

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