The number of banned theater directors, filmmakers, playwrights and musicians had been growing by the day. “I look around and I cannot find anything left of my favorite free theater,” Kogut told The Daily Beast. “There is not a single acute play left in the repertoires of Moscow theaters." - The Daily Beast
The modern idea of the self emerged "in a quiet university town called Jena, some 150 miles southwest of Berlin. It was there that, in the 1790s, a small group of rebellious playwrights, poets, and writers revolutionized the way we think of ourselves and the world." - The Atlantic
Early in the pandemic, "the Internet Archive made a decision that pissed off a lot of writers—and embroiled it in a lawsuit that many netizens fear could weaken the archive, its finances, and its services long into the future." - Slate
The history of the rating is, one might say, fraught. But Netflix isn't a movie theatre; why does it have an NC-17 rating on its film? The answer: The streaming service is reaching for an Oscar. - Salon
Poitier was "a man who both aspired and inspired just as much as he frustrated and disappointed. We rarely ever really talk about that last part. Sidney implores us anyway." - HuffPost
Thanks, public domain! No, but truly, thank you for expiring, copyright. We now have everything from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to "all-time classic" 10 Things I Hate About You. - NPR
Ememem "has made a speciality of filling divots and potholes with multicoloured mosaics made from tiles of different sizes and different hues, arranged in striking geometric patterns. Some bear his signature, often in the form of an image of a trowel underscored by his name." - The Observer (UK)
Why doesn't its history with a content provider who had zillions of subscribers - but was a favorite of the neo-Nazis - get the same blowback as other social media? (Transcript of this podcast here.) - Slate
There are so, so many series out there - 500 or more, and "the crush of programming means that even worthy shows struggle for recognition." - Seattle Times (AP)
MoMA makes a case for including games in the permanent collection - and a case that says humans respond the same way to video game art as they do to sculptures, paintings, and prints. - Wired
No one (associated with the play) knows. "In early 2021, a few months into the production’s run, Instagram started cutting off these live streams, citing 'nudity or sexual acts.' Then the account tied to the play disappeared from the platform’s search results." (There was no nudity.) - The New York Times
"It’s absolutely beyond creepy—and therefore totally in keeping with Facebook’s general vibe—that adults are spending time avidly thumbing through children’s books to look for anything they might consider vaguely 'pornographic' (or, you know, vaguely affirming of non-white or queer identities)." - LitHub
Rosália won Latin Grammys for her album El Mal Querer - a flamenco-pop fusion that also became her thesis project at the Catalonia School of Music in Barcelona. Now she says her new flamenco fusion album is based on "the fragmented chaos of the internet." - Los Angeles Times
One 17-year-old in the secret book club: "Anne Frank is, like, as a friend for me. ... I mean, Anne Frank is suffering from war, and I am, too. And Anne Frank cannot go to school, cannot, like, go out very freely. And I have the same situation." - NPR
Shelly Lowe, the first Native American chair of the NEH, wants to make some changes: "More small organizations that haven’t had NEH funding will be applying and will be announced as receiving grants. This will bring more attention to ... untold stories of our country." - Inside Higher Ed
