Stories

Dance Jumps Into Lincoln Center In A Big Way

In the years since American Dance Theater, the descendants of modern dance have performed at Lincoln Center with varying frequency. But the new festival counts as the center’s biggest commitment since the early years and part of the reason this year’s Summer for the City series is being called Summer of Dance. - The New York Times

New Owners Roxane Gay And Debbie Millman Relaunch Online Lit Magazine The Rumpus

“We'll still be covering, with the same rigor and integrity, fiction, essays, poetry, book reviews, author interviews, and so forth,” said Millman. “But we're also going to include more design criticism, art criticism, and overall cultural coverage. The soul of the writing ... will be very similar; topically, it will be different.” - Publishers Weekly

Have New Books Gotten More Expensive? Yes, But …

Hardcovers which for years cost around $20 are now routinely marked at $30 or more. However, both publishing executives and booksellers maintain that the price of new books has not kept up with post-2020 inflation in the economy as a whole (including their own supply chains). - USA Today

Why Fox Bought Roku

Ever since the old Fox sold off most of its entertainment assets to Disney, Lachlan Murdoch — son of Rupert and CEO of Fox Corp. — has been using the money from that deal to rebuild his father’s TV empire for the streaming era. - Vulture (MSN)

The Hague’s Mauritshuis Museum May Keep Its Rembrandts, Rules Judge

Abraham Bredius, museum director from 1889 to 1909, bequeathed the Mauritshuis 25 of his own Old Master paintings — by Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and others — on condition that the works be displayed and not lent out. Because the museum doesn’t display all of them all the time, Bredius’s heirs sued — and lost. - ArtDependence

University Of Texas Fires General Manager Of Austin’s NPR Station

“The University of Texas at Austin has dismissed Debbie Hiott as General Manager of KUT Public Media, ending the tenure of a … public media executive whose public dispute with university officials over the KUT Festival drew statewide attention and raised questions about the relationship between the university and its NPR-affiliated station.” - Inside Radio

Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Has Become Far More Politically Charged Than Most Corporate Megadeals

“Opponents allege the Ellison family's acquisition of so many media properties — CBS News, CNN and Larry Ellison's stake in TikTok — threatens free speech and democratic society itself. Meanwhile, Paramount insists it's trying to save Hollywood, and that there are untoward political and racial motivations to kill its deal from far-left forces.” - TheWrap (MSN)

Preservationists Sue To Block Trump’s “National Garden Of American Heroes”

“Congress has made clear that the National Mall is … not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes,” argues the lawsuit. “To that end, Congress has decreed that no new ‘commemorative work’ shall be located within ‘the great cross-axis of the Mall’.” - USA Today

Federal Court Orders Kennedy Center To Make A Plan For Staying Open And Offering Programming

“Judge Christopher R. Cooper of Federal District Court in Washington asked for a status report from the Kennedy Center that would include plans for ‘public access and ongoing programming, activities and operations’ should the center stay open past July 4, which the president proposed as a closing date.” - The New York Times

Trying To Improve The Pointe Shoe, Whose Customers Are Resistant To Change

“Ballet is an art form bound by tradition, with limited financial resources to support forward-thinking change. But that hasn’t stopped artists and artisans from trying. And recently, some manufacturers have made waves with nontraditional designs that incorporate very 21st-century technologies.” - Dance Magazine

The Art Commissioned By The Obama Presidential Library

For the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama commissioned original works by 30 artists from diverse backgrounds, a bold move never seen at such scale at a presidential library. - The Guardian

“Graphic Journalist” Joe Sacco Says Penguin Random House India Censored His Book On Sectarian Riots

The Indian subsidiary of the publishing giant has withdrawn Sacco’s The Once and Future Riot, an account of the 2013 street battles between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar. Sacco says the publisher sent him a list of edits that amounted to “finding excuses” not to release the book. - The Wire (India)

A Professor Despairs Of What AI Reveals About Students

There will always be idealistic, ink-stained people who want to devote their lives to scholarly pursuits—their role to inspire young people to love ideas as they do. But this transfer, more than anything else in the academy, has been increasingly blocked by A.I. in the classroom. - The New Yorker

“Teaser” Events Have Become A Powerful Way For Pop Stars To Introduce Their Projects

From a marketing perspective, this approach blends internet culture and storytelling to create a memorable experience for fans. These teaser releases are particularly effective at generating fan theories, sparking speculation, creating memes and helping create stories with fans. - The Conversation

Are Most Children’s Books “Crud”?

“There are so many bad kids’ books,” Mac Barnett writes, “and kids’ books are bad in so many different ways.” He states that “a big reason for our low opinion of children’s books is simply that lots of children’s books are bad.”  - The New Yorker

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