And she was singing a patriotic song, no less. In a December 2024 video which went viral, Parastoo Ahmadi performed “From the Blood of the Homeland’s Youth” with an uncovered head. For this “vulgar and immoral content,” Ahmadi and her production team have been sentenced to flogging. - The Guardian
A week after artistic director Tariq O’Meally was abruptly dismissed, an unsigned statement was released: “Dance Place has restructured its staffing model and is reimagining its approach to presentation programming in response to a dramatically contracting public funding environment and its commitment to operating with both efficiency and deeper community ownership.” - Dance Magazine
When the Trump administration removed from the site panels telling the history of the enslaved people who lived with the Washingtons there, the city of Philadelphia sued. A lower-court federal judge ordered the panels restored; a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed that order. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Last month James Murdoch bought Vox Media’s flagships: New York magazine and its verticals (Vulture, The Cut, Curbed, Grub Street), the Vox Media Podcast Network, and Vox.com. Now Penske, which already owns (among others) Billboard, Variety, Rolling Stone, and Artforum, has purchased what’s left: Eater, The Verge, PopSugar, The Dodo, and others. - TheWrap
As with the BBC, Czech national TV and radio are funded by a license fee charged to every household with a television or radio. The current government wants to end that fee and fund public broadcasting directly from the state budget — something many fear would erode the networks’ independence. - Deutsche Welle
“(The item was identified by) Hungarian antiquarian bookseller Ádám Bősze, who acquired the document at a Spanish auction where it had been mistakenly catalogued as a simple page from a musical album.” - Moto Perpetuo
“From 5 p.m. on July 3 (in Manchester), Ai will enter a replica of his 25.92 square-meter cell, recreated by international architecture firm HawkinsBrown. Inside, (over 24 hours,) he’ll sleep, eat, exercise, write, wash, and face interrogation on personal, political, and philosophical matters by four famed journalists.” - Artnet
Analysts expect the fifth installment of Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story” franchise will pull in at least $150 million in the U.S. and Canada, with some predicting as much as $175 million — either of which would set a franchise record, topping the nearly $121-million opening of 2019’s “Toy Story 4.” - Los Angeles Times
“Most plays about prejudice comfort the audience with clarity. They reassure us that we would have recognized it immediately. Giant offers no such reassurance.” - Observer
The Reflecting Pool now evokes the joy of a Green Bay Packers victory. Or a high-school prank. Or St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago.It most certainly is not the gleaming American-flag blue that Trump’s repainting of the pool was supposed to produce. - The Atlantic
Through policies and schemes, previously unheard-of opportunities for people of his background began to open up, without which he would not have become the success he is considered today. The situation today for aspiring artists from a similar background is much starker. - The Conversation
Far from being a modern phenomenon, neurodivergence has a long history. In other words, people whose ways of thinking, sensing or behaving differed from social expectations have always existed. Members of my research project have described discovering these historical figures as like finding neurodivergent ancestors. - The Conversation
It isn’t a presidential library if it isn’t run by the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Obama Foundation had two big reasons for deciding not having NARA involved. So President Obama’s papers and archives will be made available to the public digitally while the Obama Center serves other functions. - Chicago Sun-Times
Oakland currently allots its entire arts community only $300,000 in grants — in contrast to the combined $29 million that Grants for the Arts and the San Francisco Arts Commission apportioned across the bay last fiscal year. - San Francisco Chronicle
