Its infirmity has a number of culprits: superhero box office dominance, short-form videos eroding attention spans, streaming services hollowing out theatrical exhibition. - The Walrus
A group of singers, mostly in their 70s and 80s, on St. Helena Island in the South Carolina Lowcountry has been preserving the praise songs and ring shouts developed by their ancestors over the centuries — and scholars have been taking note. - AP
For dozens of stations that depend heavily on federal dollars, a slow-motion crisis is now unfolding; many are already downsizing and cutting programming, and some report that if new sources of funding do not materialize they could go dark for good. - The New Yorker
The red-state audience that Hollywood is chasing isn’t a monolith, and there’s an experimental energy in the crop of shows catering to this newly prized demographic. - The New Yorker
“Spanning 13-by-5 feet, the polychrome mural, … with a three-dimensional design, indicating a sophistication and artistry that is without precedent for pre-Inca cultures in the region, … was discovered at Huaca Yolanda, a site 500 miles north of the capital, Lima.” - Artnet
If you have a world in which everyone is encouraged to be a total individualist, they tend to get trapped in that mindset. It’s wonderful when things are going well, because you, your own desires and thoughts are the centre of the world. But the moment things go wrong, you retreat into yourself. - The Guardian
Machines no longer assist our lives from the outside; they increasingly define the conditions under which we think, work, and relate. And here Skidelsky joins a growing chorus of artists, poets, and writers in asking the big questions we once debated and wrote about—questions of meaning, purpose, and the conditions of human freedom. - LA Review of Books
Luma’s generative AI platform, Dream Machine, debuted last year and points toward a new kind of moviemaking, one where anyone can make release-grade footage with a few words. - Los Angeles Times
“In June, the HRC announced it would issue awards to organizations such as the ... San Francisco LGBT Center, Chinese Culture Center, Youth Art Exchange and Bayview Opera House. But the HRC rescinded the announcement in late July after a coalition called MegaBlackSF sent a letter raising concerns about the grant process.” - KQED (San Francisco)
What if long-term success is more about building environments where people feel inspired, curious, and connected? That’s what libraries do. And that’s what the best organizations of any kind are learning to do, too. - Fast Company
The turn we are witnessing is wide-ranging, encompassing everything from an interest in esoteric rituals and the occult to the amplification of Indigenous, non-Western, and precolonial spiritual practices. - ARTnews
The imperialistic premise in this idea of literature as an egalitarian conversation between national traditions is blatant: as Milan Kundera remarked, what it took for a country to be awarded its own national literature – instead of being grouped into an ill-assorted umbrella term such as “Mitteleuropa” – was a colonial past. - The Guardian
“If earlier a voice actor was doing 15-20 projects a month, now it's down to maybe six or seven,” says the leader of the Association of Voice Artists of India. Worse, if you work in dubbing, you may discover your voice being used in a film you knew nothing about. - The Hollywood Reporter
“Platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram … (have) given access to many different forms of dance styles, and it’s had an impact on the years-long process of training. While students find inspiration, instructors worry they might hurt themselves by moving too fast.” - The Minnesota Star Tribune (MSN)
She went from taking classes from Graham at age 9 to dancing leading parts in Graham's works — then teaching those works to Batsheva (the only other company permitted to perform them), where she stayed for 13 years. Hodes held key teaching positions at both Graham's and Paul Taylor's companies. - The New York Times
