The board of governors of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad admitted that an international outcry prompted their decision to call off plans to demolish 14 of the school’s 18 buildings designed by Kahn in the ’60s and completed in 1974. But the buildings are still considered unsafe to use because of deterioration in their bricks and damage from a 2001 earthquake. – Dezeen
The TikTok Musical That’s Already Earned $1 Million
At a running time of 51 minutes, and with perhaps only half the numbers required for a full adaptation of the 2007 animated Oscar-winner, this “Ratatouille” is a mere appetizer. But with a winning Tituss Burgess as the human embodiment of Remy, the Parisian rodent who can stir up a mean beef bourguignon, it is a promising first course. And the harbinger of a future property on the school circuit or maybe even in some professional incarnation. (Another leading indicator: The Actors Fund announced that the production surpassed $1 million in ticket sales on its premiere night.) – Washington Post
For Independent Bookstores, The Long 2020 Nightmare Is Not Nearly Over
The legendary Powell’s still sits empty of customers, no matter how many people may be buying online or via curbside pickup. The hope for 2021 is just to survive, says its CEO. But for some smaller bookstores, nimble moves were easier. Take Maggie Mae’s, a children’s bookstore. “The takeway for Maggie Mae’s … is to ’embrace the pivot’ by making changes that will benefit both the business and the community.” – The Oregonian
Uncovering – Literally – The Forgotten And Hidden Work Of Italy’s Women Artists
In Italy, for centuries, women weren’t allowed to work as artists, but many did anyway. The group Advancing Women Artists has been working its detective magic to change the history. The group “has shed light on a forgotten part of the art world, identifying some 2,000 works by women artists that had been gathering dust in Italy’s public museums and in damp churches. It has also financed the restoration of 70 works spanning the 16th to the 20th centuries.” – NPR
The Writer Who Wants Readers To Feel Like Voyeurs
After all, why should we have access to the characters’ sex lives? Raven Leilani, author of Luster, says “I try to portray it in the way that moves me when I see it, when it is awkward and silly, which it often is. To depict it that way is to make it tender; what it looks like when two bodies, especially two bodies that are very different, get to know each other. … For me that is the most enjoyable kind of sex to watch and to read.” – The Guardian (UK)
Marshall McKay, Who Steered Autry Museum Toward The West’s True Diversity, Has Died Of Covid At 68
McKay was one of a kind, a leader “who helped secure economic independence for the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation near Sacramento, and whose deep support of cultural causes led to his becoming the first Indigenous chairman on the board of the Autry Museum of the American West,” and so much more. – Los Angeles Times
It Might Take A Pandemic To Learn To Watch Like A Critic
A parent, working with what she’s got – a kid eager to watch, an endless supply of streaming, critical faculties – explains by invoking Ben Brantley: “When we find ourselves isolated, and craving connection, we can find it (for a moment at least) though critical engagement with something wonderful someone has made for us. And thank god for WiFi.” – Glasstire
The Writer Inspired By The Surrealist
Maria Dahvana Headley, whose Mere Wife and new translation of Beowulf have electrified readers (and listeners) on a teenage inspiration: “I happened upon The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington, who was a surrealist painter and writer. … I didn’t really know anything about surrealists then. The novel is full of wild characters that are very elderly women. It’s also filthy and funny. It’s exactly what you want to read as a teenage girl, but it’s about women in their 90s.” – Boston Globe
Adal Maldonaldo, Photographer Of The Puerto Rican Diaspora, 72
Maldonado’s family moved from Puerto Rico to New Jersey and then to the Bronx when he was a teenager. “The experience left him with a sense of displacement that would be the driving theme of his art and make him a quintessential ‘Nuyorican’ — one who straddles New York and Puerto Rico and feels entirely at home in neither.” – The New York Times
Percentage Of Women Directors Is Slowly Creeping Upward
The headlines say it’s a record, but is 16 percent something to brag about? Hollywood thinks maybe. (It’s certainly a better record than 2018’s 4 percent. Four.) – Variety