Playwright Sanaz Toossi On Language, Representation, And The Comic Potential Of Bleeding Onto The...
Toossi wrote one her plays going up in New York in white-hot anger after the Trump Muslim travel ban. "If all that ever gets...
What A Tennessee Ban On ‘Maus’ Means For The Artists Inspired By The Book
"Maus galvanized a generation of comics creators to fill bookshelves with graphic narratives about the Holocaust and its inheritance and inspired a community of thinkers...
Mark Morris Says No, Artists Are Definitely Not OK Right Now
Morris, on dance rehearsal: "It was horrible. ... Everyone was freaked out. You’re scared being next to each other, and you’re scared to talk...
The Painful Experience Of An In-Person Film Festival
In Berlin, during the many nasal swab tests, "I look up and to the right as the technician inserts the little wand, either affecting...
Why Hasn’t The City Of Los Angeles Reopened Its Arts Spaces?
In a "totally Kafkaesque" situation, one artist's show ran without the public ever being able to see it. "All facilities overseen by the city’s...
Why Hollywood Won’t Quit Guns
In the most heavily armed country, the presence of guns isn’t considered out of the ordinary, especially in states with open-carry laws. That familiarity extends...
How Libraries Shape Our Literature
Books reach Americans in multiple ways these days, not only as e-books. They might arrive as audio books, in serialized form through online services,...
Ultimate Brag In Social Media: “I Can’t Stop Thinking About…”
If one person shouts that she can’t stop thinking about something, the natural response is not to join in her particular obsession but to...
Reimagining NPR To Serve Everyone
In his new book, Chávez uses media industry data and 50 interviews with public media workers to argue that NPR’s growth has come at...
Claim: NFTs Are Nothing But A Scam
I think people accurately recognize that just by watching people get involved in crypto. You watch an artist who starts selling NFTs, and over...
Report: NYC Arts Organizations Serving People Of Color Are Struggling
It’s not as if more money isn’t a goal for these organizations; more often than not, they say, it’s a question of resources and...
The Cultural Framework For Artificial Intelligence: Can Indigenous Frameworks Help?
Such cultural programming is often invisible, unquestioned, limiting and even dangerous when applied carelessly beyond its community of origin. That’s why ethical frameworks for...
Jewish Jokes, And Jewish Humor, In A Time Of Increasing Hatred
"Scolds from the Anti-Defamation League … will never end an ancient prejudice, but they could ruin a good time. … That has made me...
Corruption On A Grand Scale (And Explaining Inequities)
Like a Tammany Hall-type of administrative corruption but on a national or even international scale, key actors representing political regimes and multinational corporations conspire...
The Twilight Of The “Slate Pitch”
"Slate had a whole editorial style that was based around provocative — some would say trolly — articles and up-is-down theses. … Everyone understood...
San Francisco Ballet Pulls Itself Apart Over Diversity
A public Instagram account detailed dancers’ and staff members’ accounts of inequities. Amid the fallout, Executive Director Kelly Tweeddale, hired in 2019, stepped down...
Here’s The Man With The Key To The Past At Jacob’s Pillow
"As director of preservation (and archivist), Norton Owen oversees exhibitions, the growing online resource Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive, PillowTalks, pre- and post-show lectures, and...
A Music Conspiracy Theory: Tuning “A” To 432
I’d never encountered the 432 Hz phenomenon. Its lore has all the hallmarks of your archetypal conspiracy theories. No one version dominates, but most...
William Kraft, Who Helped Make Los Angeles A Hotbed Of New Music, Dead At...
At the L.A. Philharmonic, Kraft was principal timpanist, composer-in-residence, and associate conductor; he co-founded the L.A. Phil New Music Group, with which he started...
How California’s Gig-Economy Law Changed LA Theatre (Perhaps Forever?)
According to a dozen LA-area artistic directors interviewed, the annual budget of small arts organisations has spiked by an average 40%, disproportionately punishing companies...
Inside San Francisco’s Emerging Black Composers Project
The joint program of the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is now working with its first class of fellows,...
Why Is Joe Rogan’s Podcast Such A Big Deal? It’s Not Politics. It’s Demographics.
"Rogan is not just a purveyor of right-wing ideologies. He has built an empire by introducing these ideas — and a wide range of...
How Brazil’s Version Of Joe Rogan Got Himself In Hot Water, Too
Bruno Aiub, who uses the nom de microphone Monark and who models his very popular podcast (titled Flow) on Rogan's, made an argument this...
Arts Venues Grapple With Whether To Require (And How To Enforce) Audience Masking
"Venue staff are increasingly on their own, leaving ushers, house managers, security staff and box office managers in the crosshairs of different audience members'...
Is This Broadway’s Worst Job? Front-Of-House COVID Compliance Officer
Says one, "There are so many moments where I'm shocked by humanity. Once when I called out for proof of vaccination and photo IDs,...
