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Thinking On Cultural Appropriation

Why is it a problem for a so-called dominant culture to utilize the forms and features of another? The short answer is that it isn’t. Rather, human history is replete with inspired interaction among various ethnicities and the sharing of creative traditions. - American Institute for Economic Research

What Role Does Shakespeare Have In American Theatre Now?

How much Shakespeare do audiences really want these days? What adjustments are required in the performance of his canon to accommodate those who do not buy the line that Shakespeare is the “greatest” playwright of all time? - Washington Post

First: London’s Royal Opera House Hires Intimacy Coordinator

“In opera, there’s so much attention given to the craftsmanship of the music, the set design, the direction of the singing and choreography, in order to allow human moments to become amplified on stage. But that also means we need to take care of the human beings who are embodying those moments.” - The Guardian

Lion Dancers In Houston Have 90 Performances During The Days Around Lunar New Year

Here's how they practice, and how they deal with being away from their families during one of the biggest holidays of the year. - Houston Chronicle

The Horrors Of This Year’s Sundance Were All Virtual

"Horror cinema has long been in the business of mining terror from the everyday, of linking surface scares to primal subtexts ... there’s no denying that Sundance has played a particular role in fostering this latest strain of cinematic scare-making." - Los Angeles Times

The Man Who Changed The Way We See Spanish Art

Under Franco, the study of Spanish art languished - but Jonathan Brown, art historian, curator, professor, and mentor, brought luminous painters like Velázquez to mainstream attention. - The New York Times

Don’t Panic, But Print Sales Are Going To Fall In 2022

To be fair, 2020 and 2021 were unexpectedly, thanks to the pandemic, very strong years for print. - Publishers Weekly

A Novelist Ruminates On Whether Writing Can, And Will, Change The World

Will we be all right? People ask science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson versions of this question all of the time. Robinson thinks we might be, with a lot of work. - The New Yorker

Will The Hastily Announced Spotify Policy Solve Anything?

Baby steps perhaps aren't enough to entice Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and subscribers back: "Spotify announced on Sunday that content advisories will be added to 'any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19.'" - Vulture

Is Gaming The Next Arena For The Big Streamers?

Go big or go home? "The rise of streaming video game services ... could sweep Hollywood players into the sector in a bigger way by motivating them to double down on their offerings or, alternatively, exit it for a lack of scale." - The Hollywood Reporter

Ben Whishaw On Anxiety, Coming Out, Being Paddington, And More

The actor says, "I think it’s really interesting what happens to you if you grow up thinking there’s something wrong with you because you’re attracted to a certain thing. ... That takes a lot of time and understanding to get over." - The Guardian (UK)

New Technology Is Ramping Up, And Changing, Animation

Director Jonas Rasmussed "had been searching for years for a way to tell the story of an Afghan man’s journey as a refugee that the subject ... would be comfortable with. When Rasmussen attended a workshop with animators, the pieces fell into place." - Variety

In The Zombie World Of Venezuelan Museums

Questions abound: "Have these institutions acquired any works by Venezuelan artists produced after 2000? How many Venezuelan artists have fled the country? How many Venezuelan curators and scholars live abroad and hold positions in museums in the United States or wherever they have been taken in?" - Hyperallergic

Omicron Dealt Another Massive Blow To Live Music

One singer's thoughts: "We share a goal of bringing hundreds or thousands of people together for a few hours in one room. Even if most of our fans remained COVID-free, what if ... our show directly led to the hospitalization of a vulnerable senior?" - The Atlantic

Gaza Bookshop Destroyed By Airstrikes Is Rebuilding With Books From Around The World

Less than a year after the Israeli airstrikes that destroyed his beloved two-story bookshop, owner Samir Mansour "is now preparing to reopen as both a bookshop and library, in a new location" - with some of the 150,000 books donated from around the world - The Guardian (UK)

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