Make it a community affair - or read in a new spot in your town or city. Adjust your genre plans. Or, you know, just dump the goals and have a good time. - NPR
"No matter how you feel about Cowboy Carter, this is a historic moment. Not only is Beyoncé using her enormous platform to deliver an artistic statement and raise the profile of other Black country artists, the highly-hyped album could help reframe the way audiences feel” about country. - Washington Post
But make no mistake: They’re coming at, and for, public resources as well. "Sometimes destruction from the inside via library boards is aided in part by city or county politics and sometimes, it’s those city or county politics that overtake the board and library altogether.” - Book Riot
"Graves broke barriers — not only as a celebrated dancer for a multiracial company that showcased African American excellence in a traditionally European art form, but also, at a towering 5-foot-10 ½, as an exceptionally tall one." - The New York Times
The feature debuted in 2019, and has already been cut in France, Germany, and the U.K. "The change comes as tries to scale back news and political content on its platforms following years of criticism about how it handles misinformation.” - Chicago Sun-Times (AP)
The author of the book died by suicide in 1963. "All she left was a note by her bed for her son, Abbas, that read: 'I do love you, it’s just that life is unbearable. Forgive me.' After her death, her writing fell into oblivion.” - The New York Times
Perdomo, in a “Breakthrough Brit” video, talked about the power of art and acting. "There’s no point in just ranting at someone. … But if you can connect with them emotionally and have them think outside their peripheral vision to somewhere else, then that can change perspectives." - Los Angeles Times
"OpenAI suggested several steps that it thinks could limit the risks around tools like these, including phasing out voice-based authentication to access bank accounts, policies to protect the use of people’s voices in AI, greater education on AI deepfakes, and development of tracking systems of AI content." - The Verge
The infrastructure necessary for dance to succeed requires development - and support. That’s why "the fall of the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in downtown Minneapolis is worrying. Not just for dance but for the whole Minnesota arts scene.” - The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)
Most of the new Japanese words relate to food, but there’s also art, including “kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by joining pieces back together and filling cracks with lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, highlighting the flaws in the mended object." - The Guardian (UK)
Because of course they are. For instance: "Spray painters still add political messages to the mosaic of artwork in east London. But they are nestled between more commercial interests: hand-painted campaigns sponsored by L’Oréal, Sky and Adidas." - The New York Times
Of course, the author of Alice in Wonderland embraced the joys of sleeplessness. “For Carroll, waking and dreaming were not quite the opposites they seem to be. And since he believed dreaming to be a source of creativity, it follows that to him, sleeplessness might also be useful." - Slate
“We are positively drowning in shows about the glitzy world of the well-to-do that I can only—facetiously, of course—describe as being catnip for a gay man with a streaming subscription." - Slate
As the popular author’s books get turned into a TV series and a movie, she says, "It does feel like an answer to a prayer. … I just feel like I can almost see God smiling.” - The New York Times
The director of the new movie Civil War says that "his varied, inchoate anxieties took the shape of one underlying concern: 'It’s polarisation. You could see that everywhere. And you could see it getting magnified.’" - The Guardian (UK)
