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Say Goodbye To Ad-Free Television

"Investors are no longer sure streaming is a great business; the streamers are searching desperately for new ways to make money. The golden age of high-flying, big-spending streaming seems to be over." - The Verge

A Novelist Pushing On Our Ideas About Prison And Abolition

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, whose new novel incorporates a lot of trademarks in prisons: "Once you go into that for-profit model and also think about the slave labor that the incarcerated people in our country are doing ... there's so much profit existing in the carceral space." - NPR

Starring In A WWII Series That’s Not About Men

Bel Powley, who's playing Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank's family: "I’d shied away from second world war stories – because it’s always all about men. ... So another thing that excited me about A Small Light was it’s completely told from a woman’s perspective." - The Observer (UK)

The Pre-Opera Routine Of Ryan Speedo Green, Star Of Terence Blanchard’s New Opera

"When you’re portraying character, first of all, that’s an athlete. Also portraying a character that has to be half naked on stage for certain moments in the performance, you go about it differently on your day." - Slate

The Glorious, Challenging Quest To Star In A Sondheim Revival

"I learned from my theater community that Sondheim was the goal, and that if you get the opportunity to do Sondheim, you take it, no matter what time and space and place it is." - Los Angeles Times

Arlington Cemetery’s Confederate Monument Is Coming Down

The issue with the moment was the artist's "representation of a White soldier going off to fight on the Confederate side of the Civil War kissing his infant child held up by a Black woman, fashioned as a loyal and matronly 'mammy' figure, crying at his departure." - Hyperallergic

The Gesture For OK Now Lives In ‘The Purgatory Of Meaning’ Thanks To Politics

The University of Nebraska mascot no longer makes an OK symbol "because the universal symbol of approbation—curling the index finger to touch the thumb, forming an 'O'—had become associated with white supremacy and hate speech." - Fast Company

The Tate Modern Looks North For Its New Director

Karin Hindsbo, a Danish art historian who oversaw the revision and remodel of Norway's National Museum, was named director of the Tate Modern "at a potentially challenging moment: "Britain’s government ... has been cutting funding for some of London’s major arts bodies." - The New York Times

Just How Similar Are The Ed Sheeran And Marvin Gaye Songs?

It's clear that "Thinking Out Loud" and "Let's Get It On" have some similarities - but how similar are they? The BBC breaks it down: "What they do share in common are some chords." - BBC

James Harithas, Museum Director And Founder Who Brought Activism To His Work, 90

"He looked outside the art world and its hierarchies to a much larger pool of artists. ... It was his commitment to social justice, political change, the representation of minority artists that really made him stand out." - The New York Times

Jane Austen, But Make It Muslim, South Asian, And Martial Arts

"Potential financiers would ask if she could make the central family a white one. Others would have preferred something a little bit less action and more art house. Later, the emphasis on comedy became a problem." - The New York Times

The Ways We Must Change The ‘Nonprofit Industrial Complex’ For Artists

"Dignified wages and sufficient financial resources are the two most pressing areas of concern for artists," but arts organizations "overestimate the extent to which they provide critical income and support to artists." - Hyperallergic

Is It Time To Rename The Audubon Society For This Bird Artist?

Rex Brasher, who left "almost 900 large-scale watercolors documenting American bird life and habitat," was not a self-promoter. He preferred to learn from birds in the wild "by boat, bicycle, canoe and on foot," rather than kill them, as Audubon did. - Washington Post

Ukrainian Sisters Staying In the UK Celebrated As Musical Prodigies

The 17-year-old and 12-year-old "have now received scholarships to two of the UK’s foremost music schools, less than a year after fleeing their home near Kyiv to start new lives." - The Observer (UK)

The Potential Writers Strike Isn’t Just About Wages

It's also about artificial intelligence in the writers' room, and whether writers will be replaced by programs - the so-called Nora Ephron problem: "Hollywood writers have grown increasingly anxious as ChatGPT has become adept at mimicking the style of prolific authors." - The New York Times

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