Stories

Dance Theater Of Harlem Revives Its “Firebird” For The First Time In Over 20 Years

The company hadn’t produced its beloved staging of the Stravinsky ballet, with sets and costumes by Geoffrey Holder, since it went on hiatus in 2004 due to financial problems. DTH was resurrected in 2013, but until now it didn’t have enough dancers available to perform the piece. - The New York Times

The Scholar Who Traced The Roots Of American Music Back To Africa

A chance encounter fifty years ago "helped fuel a lifelong quest: mapping a musical route that mirrored the trans-Atlantic slave trade and birthed nearly all of the popular music that we now take for granted, including rock ’n’ roll and hip-hop." - The New York Times

Inside The World Of Family Vlogs

The most successful and lucrative family vlogs are indiscreet almost by definition—and yet the wrong kind of indiscretion can derail the whole gravy train. - The New Yorker

When LiveNation Came To Irvine California

For a jury that has spent weeks listening to experts debate market definitions, vertical integration and other fine points of antitrust law, the testimony about Irvine’s failed amphitheater, and other disputes, has provided a perspective on how all the abstractions play out in real life for taxpayers, industry insiders and concertgoers. - The New York Times

The Redemption Of Speedy Gonzales

By the end of the 1990s, the “fastest mouse in all Mexico” had been pulled from US television amid concerns about stereotyping and racist caricature. Yet the cartoon character remained popular in Latin America, and numerous Hispanics in the States complained about his banishment. And now there’s a Speedy feature film coming. - The Conversation

Does There Even Need To Be A Separate New York Times Magazine Anymore?

In ink-on-dead-trees print, sure. But a large majority of the newspaper’s readers consume the Times online or on an app, where the difference between the magazine’s articles and those of the regular newspaper is barely visible. - New York Magazine (MSN)

Regional Governments In Madrid And Basque Country Are Fighting Over Picasso’s “Guernica”

The town whose bombing the painting depicts is in the Basque region, and politicians there want to borrow Picasso’s canvas and display it in the Guggenheim Bilbao to commemorate the atrocity's 90th anniversary. Meanwhile, Madrid's president insists that Guernica remain where it is now, the Reina Sofía Museum. - The Guardian

Dean Of Juilliard’s Drama Division Will Move To Lead Yale School Of Drama

“Evan Yionoulis, who has been dean and director of The Juilliard School’s drama division since 2018, will take over the post at Yale starting July 1. She succeeds James Bundy, who has been in the role for close to 25 years and announced his retirement last year.” - The Hollywood Reporter

L.A. Phil Creates New Position, Conductor-In-Residence, For Anna Handler

The Colombian-German conductor, who turns 30 next week, is a former Dudamel Fellow at the Phil and currently assistant conductor at the Boston Symphony; she begins this fall as chief conductor of the Ulster Orchestra and artist-in-residence at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Salzburg Festival Appoints Interim Artistic Director

Less than two weeks after summarily firing director Markus Hinterhäuser, the festival’s board has named Karin Bergmann, most recently director of the Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden and previously chief of Vienna’s Burgtheater, to lead the festival for the 2026 and 2027 seasons. - Moto Perpetuo

Britain’s National Gallery Selects Architect For New $464 Million Modern Art Wing

The annex, being built for Project Domani, the museum’s expansion of its collection into 20th- and 21st-century art (which has traditionally been left to the Tate Galleries), will be designed by Kengo Kuma, architect of the V&A Museum’s branch in Dundee and of Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. - The Guardian

Fact-Checker Jasper Lo On His Illegal Firing From The New Yorker

“Why me? I wondered. I had finished my three-year term as the first vice chair of the New Yorker Union the week prior. Condé Nast had violated our collective bargaining agreement and broken labor law dozens of times, but it had never attempted something as reckless as illegally firing union leaders.” - The Nation

How Two Recent AI Publishing “Scandals” Will Changing The Books Industry

Stories like Shy Girl and The New York Times’ profile of AI romance author Coral Hart, who boasted of using AI to write and self-publish 200 hundred books across 21 pen names, demonstrate that theoretical disputes did not prepare us to be confronted with the reality of AI. - The Conversation

Original Dancers In Pina Bausch’s “Kontakthof” Revive The Piece After Half A Century

“Nearly 50 years since that first performance in 1978, Meryl Tankard is getting the Kontakthof band back together. Now a choreographer, she has assembled nine of the dancers (including herself) and adapted the piece to synchronise with black-and-white footage of their younger selves projected onto a giant screen behind them.” - The Times (UK)

How The Humanities Declined Into Crisis

A combination of technological, economic, political, and cultural forces, at work both within and without the university, had by the early 2020s effectively pummeled the tradition of universitarian humanism into unconsciousness. - Chronicle of Higher Education

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