When, 95 years ago, Virginia Woolf wrote Orlando: A Biography, she didn't know that her satirical, clever, sweeping love letter to an aristocrat would become a lifeline for trans artists across the world. - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
Four finalists contend, but "I don’t believe anyone cares who wins any more. The artists successfully derailed the system themselves in 2019." - The Observer (UK)
"An atmosphere of urgency and calls for immediate action are hostile to fields of study like literature and philosophy that require a contemplative mood, and the pretense of knowing what one doesn’t actually know is hostile to forms of inquiry that demand an open mind." - The New York Times
The program brings students from rival high schools together in a non-competitive environment to work and play with pros. Project Chamber Music's "secret sauce is how it fosters real interactions between students and professional musicians." - Oregon ArtsWatch
After a play about Black Frenchwomen's experiences premiered in the summer in southern France, a series of racist attacks followed - and one actress dropped out before the play transferred to Paris. - The New York Times
And it's the slightly iffy-sounding, if not meaning, "rizz" (chaRIZZma, get it?). The word even beat out "situationship" and "Swiftie." Why? Because the Gen-Alphas have some rizz. - The New York Times
Except for church, around the corner from his place in Tuscany, it isn't that different from other days. "When you’re a singer, what night of the week it is doesn’t matter. ... I can’t tell you exactly what I do before I sleep. I’ll leave that to your imagination." - The Observer (UK)
Sarandon, whose agents dropped her after her remarks at a Nov. 17 rally in support of a cease-fire in Gaza, wrote on Instagram that her phrasing "was a terrible mistake." - The New York Times
Lynn Nottage: "American Spectacle has always begun with a field trip to the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. ... We also go to vogue balls, courtroom trials, and megachurches. The event that the students especially love, which I never would have anticipated, is wrestling." - Paris Review
West Virginia says no. "For most students, their state’s main public university remains their best hope of breaching the walls of class difference. As the ax falls, that idealistic mission fades, and inequalities widen." - The Atlantic
Lynch has been incessantly (after the prize) "asked for his views on far right movements in Western Europe and about the recent riots in Dublin that were sparked by right wing agitators — an event that he found both shocking and depressingly predictable." - The New York Times
"The city’s mayor, Matteo Lepore, noted in a debate earlier this month that the Garisenda tower had leaned since it was built 'and has been a concern ever since.'" - The Guardian (UK)