The hybrid of dance, costuming, satirical mimicry and other ingredients that has provided community to several generations of Black and Hispanic queer people is featured in a new HBO Max competition show, Legendary, that hopes to do for voguing what RuPaul's Drag Race did for drag. - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Graham Bowen (dance captain and swing), Lewis Cleale ("all the old white guys"), and John Eric Parker (Mutumbo) "joined a reporter at the theater one afternoon last week to discuss the musical's staying power, and how it's changed with the times." - The New York Times
In a Q&A, Adrian Matejka, a multiple award-winner who holds an endowed chair at Indiana University and was the state's poet laureate from 2018-19, talks about his plans for the magazine and diversity and equity at its parent, the Poetry Foundation. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
"This is a building that says 'No': after years of delays, here is a complex of enormous hard-edged boxes clad in dark gray slate with few windows and zero funky details. ... On a satellite view, it would look like Google obscured the building for security reasons." - Artnet
Oliver Mears: "Notwithstanding their subject matter, these operas are masterpieces. Instead of cancelling them we should find creative ways to live with them. ... Vigorously diversifying across the board, rather than ghettoising particular singers in particular totemic operas, feels like by far the best way forward for the art form." - The Guardian
"Benoit Fader Keita never intended to make electro music. But after a sell-out first show in Dakar last month, the singer believes the genre could be key to saving his beloved language from extinction." - The Guardian (UK)
Two big reasons: Interference - that is, the other books we've read get in the way; and passive engagement. That is, if you write a review of a book you're reading, you'll remember it better. But is it worth it? We have limited working memory, after all. - The Guardian (UK)
"Stone Mountain is a shining example of selective amnesia and Lost Cause propaganda. And the inventions of the Lost Cause bear a remarkable parallel to the campaigns of disinformation that have buttressed the belief of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and those who support them." - Los Angeles Times
"In the New York theatre, ... the fact that these two major figures happened to be Jewish may seem inconsequential. But in the universe of post-war Britain which Pinter and Stoppard entered as young men and young writers, it was significant." - American Theatre
Siphe November, who's 23 and has risen through the ranks to become the youngest principal dancer in the National Ballet of Canada's history, "has incredible technique, ... passion he brings to each movement and a magnetic pull that draws you in while he’s onstage." - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
On The Adventures of Baron Munchausen set, "Blasts of debris exploded on the ground around me, accompanied by deafening booms that made me feel as if I myself had exploded. A log I was to run under was partially on fire. The gigantic blasts continued." - The Guardian (UK)
Photographer and writer Gioncarlo Valentine: "I was curious about how the community felt. Who liked it, and why? What has it been like for you 20 years after the show was filmed in your neighborhood? What did The Wire do — or not do — for Baltimore?" - The New York Times
The Biennale is ticking along, and controversy remains: Some Venetians "feel that the Biennale, aided by the current city government, is monopolizing space that could be used by locals to create a sustainable, year-round cultural and economic life beyond tourism." - The New York Times
By 1922, the powerful cante jondo ("deep song") of tradition had been cutesified into the cante chico heard in cafés — and a group of Andalucians led by Manuel de Falla wanted to save it. They organized a competition, the Concurso de Cante Jondo, that's remembered today as Spain's Woodstock. - BBC
Yes, it's videogame music. "When we hear this music outside gameplay, it can prove unusually moving. The first time I caught the London Video Game Orchestra in concert," one writer says, it felt like a hymn: "nostalgic and weirdly rapturous." - BBC
