“An attack on meritocracy is invariably an attack on higher education, where meritocrats get sorted and credentialed. So the turn against meritocracy prompts big questions. Has meritocracy in fact failed?” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Should England’s Cathedrals Be The New Cultural Centers?
“We look at cathedrals returning to being the cultural hubs that they once were. Each cathedral around the country is desperately looking for a cultural agenda for their own sustainability.” He added: “It’s okay; they’re not that religious these days,” noting that cathedrals now run “everything from art exhibitions to beer festivals”. – Arts Professional
The Simple Structure That All Human Languages Share
Sentences and phrases of human languages, all human languages, have an inaudible and invisible hierarchical structure. When we are children, we impose this structure on the sequences of sounds that we hear. Our minds can’t understand continuous streams of sound directly as meaningful language. Instead, we subconsciously chop them up into discrete bits—sounds and words—and organize these into larger units. This means that sentences have a hierarchical structure. – Nautilus
How Problematic Is ‘Porgy And Bess’ In 2019?
Is it a sensitive portrait of a segregated Black community? Or is it a parade of stereotypes performed in embarrassing dialect? Is it a triumph of the American melting pot, with the sons of Russian Jews teaming with white Southern WASPs to tell an African-American story? Or is it a very model of cultural appropriation? Has it given Black singers valuable and (too) rare opportunities? Or has it caused them to be pigeonholed? Or is the answer to all these questions yes? – The New York Times
Eight Operas About The Black American Experience That Are By Black Composers
“Though they’ve been ignored or underheard, African-American composers have long been crafting ambitious music dramas. Some of the works cited below exist in complete editions, ready to be programmed. Others are still emerging, thanks to the work of scholars reversing decades of neglect.” – The New York Times
‘No path is easy’: Black opera singers detail struggles
“More than 60 years after Marian Anderson broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera, black singers still face unique obstacles in building their careers within the industry. … Still, [Porgy and Bess, with which the Met is opening this season], provides a rare opportunity for black artists because the Gershwin estate requires that they be cast in all the singing roles. The AP sat down with five of [Porgy‘s cast members] during rehearsals to talk about challenges they’ve faced.” – Yahoo! (AP)
IQ Scores Are Dropping? (It’s Complicated)
“We are becoming stupider. This is happening. It’s not going to go away, and we have to try to think about what we’re going to do about it.”