Tita Anntares writes about two recent productions — one depicting a U.S. immigrant’s deportation hearings, another the monologue of the ghost of a young Black Panther shot by Chicago police in 1969 — that actually moved their audiences to into taking actions on those issues. (Having activists on-site as the show ended helped.) – HowlRound
A Thinker’s Guide To Surviving The Coming Apocalypse
So many things seem bleak. Politics, the environment, the growing wealth gap, climate change. It’s enough to make anyone despair. But if you despair you become paralyzed. So how, exactly should we think about the coming apocalypse without succumbing to hopelessness? – The Outline
Today Is The 500th Anniversary Of Leonardo’s Birth – Why His Ideas Still Resonate
Twenty-first-century scholars at MIT ranked him the sixth most influential person who ever lived. Like Rembrandt and Michelangelo, he is so renowned that he is known by only his first name. Yet despite his fame, there are things about Leonardo that many people today find surprising. – The Conversation
The Problem With How We Get News? The Incentives Are Misaligned
Cal Newport, a computer-science professor at Georgetown University, marshals evidence that the addictive properties of our devices are not accidental but, rather, the product of careful thinking by tech companies about the feedback loops that will keep people returning to them. Newport’s main indictment is of social-media platforms, but he also argues that people need to rethink the way they consume news. – The New Yorker
15 Ways Of Looking At What America Will Be Like In 2024
“We asked 15 playwrights to imagine America five years into the future” — among them Lynn Nottage, Terrence McNally, Jeremy O. Harris, Adam Rapp, Jocelyn Bioh, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Nassim Soleimanpour, and Paul Rudnick. “Alongside six of the plays you’ll find videos in which actors including Nathan Lane, Kerry Washington and John Lithgow perform the works.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Washington State Reverses Ban On Allowing Prisoners To Get Books By Mail
“Concerns about contraband introduction led me to issue the original directive. After conducting further review, the data does not support continuing the restriction on donated, used books.” – Seattle Times
How Social Impact Philanthropy Is Impacting Arts Such as Theatre And Dance
A case study: “First, its focus on social impact theatre provides another illuminating example of a funder embracing the red-hot field of socially focused arts programming. And second, its work underscores the growing influence of institutional funders operating in fields like dance and theater that traditionally lack robust individual and government support.” – Inside Philanthropy
Who Gave Us A Critical Theory Of Binge-Watching? Theodor Adorno (Who Died In 1969)
The German-born sociologist/philosopher first examined the mechanisms that producers use to get us to binge-watch streaming series — which are really no different than the ones used for decades to catch and keep TV viewers — in his 1954 scholarly article “How to Look at Television.” Writer Jake Pitre surveys Adorno’s ideas about the medium and those of later scholars who have applied his ideas to digital viewing. – JSTOR Daily
Bob Fosse’s Trademark Moves: An Analysis Of The Only Dance He And Gwen Verdon Ever Filmed Together
“If you’ve seen dancers flare their fingers in the flexed position often mockingly called ‘jazz hands,’ then you’ve seen Fosse, especially if those dancers were also sitting into one hip and hiding their eyes beneath a hat.” Not only did these moves become Fosse’s signature style, they’ve become completely incorporated into the American dance vocabulary. Critic Brian Seibert shows us those moves and their effectiveness in the mambo from the movie version of Damn Yankees. – The New York Times
Charles Van Doren, Center Of 1950s Quiz Show Scandal, Dead At 93
A tall, handsome Columbia University professor with advanced degrees in both English and mathematics, Van Doren became a genuine TV star with a months-long winning streak on the prime-time quiz show Twenty-One. The discovery that he had been provided with questions and answers in advance caused a national uproar that led to Congressional hearings. – The Washington Post
Frederic Rzewski: We Should Abolish All The Conservatories (And Other Provocative Opinions)
“I could never find my own style, no. I have never done anything original. Everything I’ve done I’ve stolen from other people. I mean, Mozart also stole right and left, and so did Bach. All good composers were thieves. It’s totally normal. You pick up something, do it your own way and it no longer belongs to anybody. This idea of genius is absolutely irrelevant to art. Genios in the original latin means daemon. It is something that everybody has! So it is the opposite of our concept of it. It is a meaningless word today.” – Van
Joys Of A Print Newspaper? Ritual!
Andrew Ferguson used to subscribe to four print newspapers, but over the years devolved to digital (as most of us have). So he tried an experiment and subscribed again. And what did he learn? It’s all about the personal rituals. – The Atlantic
Is The Met Fashion Gala Falling Out Of Fashion Itself?
Tickets are expensive – $35k per person – for the “Oscars of the East.” But the event, managed by Vogue is showing some signs of waning. No magazine, not even Vogue, has the same influence over the industry that it once did and social media has given advertisers, brands and designers a lot of their own power to create “moments” and “brand awareness.” – Women’s Wear Daily
It’s A Brave Choreographer Who’ll Replace Jerome Robbins’s Dances For ‘West Side Story’
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is creating new steps for Ivo van Hove’s Broadway production in December, and Justin Peck is doing the same for Steven Spielberg’s movie version. But arriving before those is this spring’s new production at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, making Aletta Collins the first choreographer to replace Robbins’s work in a major professional staging. Says the director, Sarah Frankcom, “Robbins was saying something about where dance was at that time. The relationship between dance and theatre is really different in 2019.” – The Guardian
What I Learned Teaching Art In Georgia State Prison
“Must we change our lives? Honestly, I don’t know. I am certainly changed by this work, call it art or god or—what we care about at Common Good—dignity. But I’m not much convinced by this poem that art asks of us any such thing.” – Americans for the Arts
Sculptor Claude Lalanne Dead At 93
“Her imaginative [metal] sculptures sometimes carried a Surrealist touch, such as Pomme d’Hiver (2008), a large-scale bronze apple, Choupatte Géante (2016), a cabbage with chicken feet, and a series of Crocodile benches. Lalanne also made sinuous jewellery and pieces of furniture that appear to be fashioned from twisted branches, leaves and flowers.” – The Art Newspaper
Hip-Hop Playwrights Turn Their Keyboards Toward Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Justin Bieber, And ‘Pygmalion’
A Q&A with Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, author of P.Y.G., or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle (two black rappers are Henry Higgins to Bieber figure’s Eliza Doolittle), and Psalmayene 24, who wrote Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of A Native Son (Wright as Jay-Z and Baldwin as Kanye). – The Washington Post
‘No More All-White Seasons’ — Activists Slam One Of Philly’s Largest Nonprofit Theatres
“Titled ‘No More All-White Seasons,’ the [open letter on Facebook] praises the [Philadelphia Theatre Company’s] current 2018-19 season for its diversity — then condemns a lack of it in the theater’s upcoming 2019-20 season [of three plays]. In the process, it points to the sometimes acrimonious diversity debate underway at local and national theaters.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
FBI Needs Help To Return Huge Haul Of Indigenous Artifacts Captured In Raid
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s art crime team is seeking help to return thousands of objects, works of art and Native American human remains that it seized in 2014 in Waldron, Indiana, from the property of the late ethnographic collector Don Miller.” – The Art Newspaper
EU To Crack Down On Smuggling Of Cultural Heritage Goods
“The European Council yesterday adopted new rules to clamp down on the illicit trafficking in cultural goods, including a requirement for import licences on artefacts more than 250 years old.” – The Art Newspaper
Artists Slam Spotify In Open Letter After Company Appeals Copyright Decision That Would Make Them Pay Songwriters More
“We’re hurt and disappointed,” begins the letter, which is addressed to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Their reason for calling out Spotify alone, while Google, Amazon, and Pandora were also listed on the appeal, is because the artists say it was “the only provider that made us feel we were working to build a modern music industry together.” – New York Magazine
Nashville Symphony Hires First African-American Principal In 50 Years
Titus Underwood has been acting principal oboe for more than a year and has just been awarded the position permanently. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, he was previously associate principal oboe of the Utah Symphony. – Nashville Public Radio