Stories

Without Federal Funding, Tribal Public Radio Stations Fear For Their Survival

“If we lose the radio station, it’s like you lose an arm or a leg,” said the tribal council vice-chair in Warm Springs, Oregon. Said a co-host at KILI on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, “We are barely surviving as a people. We don’t have the option of a GoFundMe.” - The New York Times

Moscow Court Sentences Members Of Pussy Riot To Prison In Absentia

“(Five members) were sentenced to periods ranging from 8 to 13 years for ‘spreading knowingly false information containing data about the deployment of the Russian Armed Forces,’ according to the court. The case centers the collective’s 2022 antiwar video that opens with the phrase, ‘the howls of Mariupol.’” - ARTnews

Meet The Attorneys Fighting For Public And School Libraries And Against Book Bans

“Libraries, and public libraries in particular, are often in financial crunches and depend on tax dollars to keep the lights on. They rarely have the resources to defend against lawsuits on their own.” Here are stories of three attorneys and the cases they fought. - Publishers Weekly

Internet Archive And Record Labels Settle $621 Million Lawsuit Over Old 78 RPM Records

The case, with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment as lead plaintiffs, targeted the Archive's Great 78 Project, an initiative to digitize, and make available for free online, more than 400,000 fragile shellac recordings made before the arrival of vinyl records in 1948. The labels sought damages for copyright infringement. - Rolling Stone (MSN)

Emergency Campaign For Alaska Public Radio Stations Raises $3.5 Million

The state’s far-flung public radio stations are among the most vulnerable to the rescission of federal funding. The legislature has eliminated state funding as well, and many of these stations serve communities too small and isolated for local fundraising. The Voices Across Alaska Fund aims to make up the difference. - Anchorage Daily News

NPR Cuts $5 Million From Next Year’s Budget

“CEO Katherine Maher announced during a board meeting that while listener donations have surged (since the elimination of federal funding for public broadcasting), it’s unclear how long this generosity will last or how severely local NPR member stations will be affected.” - Inside Radio

Thieves Steal $700K Worth Of Raw Gold From France’s National Museum Of Natural History

“A break-in was detected on Tuesday morning, with the intruders reportedly using an angle grinder and a blow torch to force their way into the riverside complex. … The stolen specimens are valued at around 600,000 euros based on the price of raw gold.” - France 24

The Italian Palazzo Where Broken Voices And Vocal Techniques Get Repaired

Marianna Brilla and Lisa Paglin spent years in Italy studying old vocal treatises and historical recordings to find the roots of bel canto technique. Now they run the New Voice Studio, where they combat the opera world’s obsession with power and volume, teaching instead “spontaneity, beauty, and freedom.” - El País (Spain) (in English)

The Grass Roots Activists Fighting For The Right To Read

“This is who the Fifth Circuit is harassing: a mom of four with a Diet Coke in her hand, doing this while her kids are at school. This fight is everyone’s—it belongs to every individual American.” - Publishers Weekly

Beirut, Once The Arab World’s Publishing Capital, Struggles To Keep Its Book Culture Alive

Before Lebanon’s long civil war, authors from all over the Arab world published in liberal Beirut the books they couldn’t release in their own countries. Now, decades of conflict in Lebanon have led to both government censorship and self-censorship, while bookstores and readers cope with prolonged political and financial crises. - New Lines Magazine

In Xi’an, Anywhere You Dig, There’s History

Some estimate that the city’s subterranean history could stretch back 1 million years, with early human settlement from the Lantian Man and walled settlements already visible during the Yangshao period 7,000 years ago. - Artnet

Just How Can You Make Theatre In Ukraine During a War?

They have brothers and fathers in the war; they have family members cut off from them in the occupied Donbas. At one rehearsal, an actress apologized for being late; she had just heard that a friend from drama school had been killed at the front. - The New York Times

The Remarkable Adji Cissoko

Over more than a decade with Lines, Cissoko has become such a part of King's creative process that it's now almost impossible to know the dancer from the dance, as the poet Yeats put it.  - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

A Librarian Recounts A Moment That Makes Her Very Difficult, Now-Very Controversial Job Worth It

“Libraries are enduring book bans, mental health crises, drug overdoses, and more” — including accusations of peddling pedophilie porn — “as we try to provide resources and assistance far beyond our means, both fiscally and emotionally.” Yet, writes Katie Walsh, moments like this one with a young teen reader make up for it all. - Slate (Yahoo!)

National Parks Staff Are Removing Information About Slavery

Trump’s March executive order directing the Interior Department to eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people. - Washington Post

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss