“In the following conversation, theatremaker Lauren E. Turner recounts her courageous healing journey from the depths of sustained racialized trauma working in a New Orleans theatre to the launching of her own theatre company, No Dream Deferred, into its first season this fall. Given the persistence of racialized trauma in white theatre institutions, we interrogate how — and if — people of color feel they have a place within them.” – HowlRound
Research: Extraordinary People Are More Likely To Be Polymaths
Studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25 times more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17 times more likely to create visual art, 12 times more likely to write poetry and four times more likely to be a musician. – BBC
American Theatre Is Traumatizing Its Own Practitioners
Lauren E. Turner, founder of the New Orleans theatre company No Dream Deferred, says that she was deeply lucky as a kid. “I was taught creating space was my duty. The idea of what was out there and available for performers of color was accessible, and I knew there was power in being able to tell a different story in different ways. Had I not had that experience, I would have just assumed theatre was strictly for white people.” – HowlRound
World’s Biggest Secondhand Book Market Could Be In Danger
With a history going back almost 150 years, College Street in Kolkata “has every imaginable type of text, available in Bengali, English, Mandarin, Sanskrit, Dutch, and every dialect in between. Precious first editions and literary classics sit cheek by jowl with medical encyclopedias, religious texts, and pulp fiction, often precariously stacked in uneven piles that resemble jagged cliff faces.” But many of the booksellers there are worried about an enormous new mall, planned by the West Bengal state government, set to open next year as a literary hub. – Atlas Obscura
Dublin Is Booming Again. Alas, Making Art Is Again More Difficult
“We hear people saying that the boom is back but that doesn’t seem to be translating into a richer arts and cultural centre. Ireland has a really strange relationship with arts and culture. As a society, we love talking about it. We love owning it. But we don’t fund it very well. We have some of the lowest arts funding per capita in Europe.” – Irish Times
Trump Proposes Shutting Down NEA, NEH, Cultural Agencies… Again
For the third time in as many years, the White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which supports PBS and NPR — and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Like last year, the plan provides small appropriations for each agency to facilitate its orderly demise. – Washington Post
Ian Williams Wins $100,000 2019 Giller Prize
“Reproduction” is set in Brampton and explores the nature of family — both blood relatives and chosen family. The writing, as reviewers expect from Williams, is beautiful — he’s written many volumes of poetry, and been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry prize in 2013. This was his debut novel, proving he’s an equal master in both forms. – Toronto Star
How Margaret Atwood Became A Global Superstar
It’s remarkable that Atwood, who turned eighty in November, has reached this crest after spending six decades writing into an ever-shifting cultural landscape. When she was starting out, writers, for the most part, didn’t get published in Canada. Canadian literature as a concept didn’t even exist. – The Walrus
Princess Who Saved Cambodian Classical Dance, Norodom Buppha Devi, Dead At 76
The daughter of the late King Sihanouk. she began dancing at age 5; by age 16, she was a leader of the royal dance company and a mainstay of Cambodian cultural diplomacy. She fled the country when the Khmer Rouge took control in 1975; in the 1990s, she returned and, with the 10% of dancers who survived the killing fields, set about to revive the art form. – Reuters
Alone Among Australia’s Big Arts Festivals, Adelaide Refuses To Engage With Country’s Past And Present
“Perth and Sydney have recognised [their responsibilities] by commissioning diverse local artists working in diverse forms. These festivals are engaging with their place in contemporary culture by supporting local artistic communities, and reflecting stories of their cities back to their audiences. Meanwhile, Adelaide has continued down a well worn path … [of] proven successes from Europe, with a preference for male auteurs.” – The Conversation
How Go-Go Culture Stood Up To Gentrification In DC
The story is already legend: In D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood, Donald Campbell had been cranking go-go music from the speakers of his store at the corner of 7th and Florida Street since 1995, and it had been one of the few places one could still hear go-go in a public space in the city in recent years. But, in April, a tenant of a nearby luxury condo threatened to sue Campbell if he didn’t turn the music off. So Campbell let the streets decide, putting the call out to local media, social media, college networks—whoever would listen—that go-go was once again under attack. The response: Thousands of people flooded Shaw’s streets and thousands more signed a petition (80,329 to be exact) – CityLab
The Serious Critic: How James Wood’s Judgment Has Changed
Wood’s earlier essays are more sure of themselves, more eager to please, packed with the kind of aphoristic insights that might have undergraduates reaching for their highlighter pens… In later essays, mostly those written for the New Yorker, there is a more grounded and relaxed voice; a bit less desire to display fizzing erudition, a bit more concern for the messiness of emotional truth. – The Guardian
Art Market Trends Report: Artists Will Need To Diversify Their Income Sources
These changes are symptomatic of several wider cultural shifts that, in combination with rising costs and declining public funding, are ‘squeezing’ the low-to-mid end of the market: the rise of a global elite, art fairs, ‘mega-galleries’ and the commodification of art as the sector became more closely intertwined with fashion, celebrity culture and advertising. – Arts Professional
New Research: 950-Year-Old Bayeux Tapestry Was Made For France, Not England
The textile is long-considered a major cultural icon both in France and England. In light of Christopher Norton’s findings, one news source trumpets that the tapestry is definitely French — a conclusion that pierces as “an arrow in the eye” to some British historians. – The Conversation
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ Cycle Will Finally Be Performed Complete
The production presented this week at Suffolk University in Boston, is, according to Wilder’s estate, the first time all seven one-acts will be performed together in a single program.” – American Theatre
Chicago Brass – What Defines The Chicago Symphony
Whether the Chicago brass would be recognizable in a blind test is open to debate — many of the regional styles that once differentiated orchestras have been sanded over in this age of jet-setting maestros and more peripatetic players — but it is still considered one of the jewels of the orchestral world. – The New York Times
Latin A Dead Language? Not Hardly
It’s not enough that the speaker is living to say that the language he or she speaks is alive. A living language is one that endures and produces other languages, which is precisely the case with Latin. – LitHub
Italy’s Art Police Bust Antiquities Trafficking Ring
“The Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, a branch of the Italian carabinieri responsible for combatting art and antiquities crimes, believe the suspects are members of an criminal gang operating in Calabria that trafficked ancient items, such as antique jars, jewellery and vases from the 4th and 2nd century BC and worth millions of euros. … [Agents searched] houses and buildings in four countries, including Britain, and arrested 23 people.” – The Guardian
White House Announces Trump’s First National Medal Of Arts Winners
After skipping 2017 and 2018, the White House announced that Trump has chosen actor Jon Voight, novelist James Patterson, president and chief executive officer of WETA (a Washington, D.C. public-broadcasting channel) Sharon Percy Rockefeller, and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss to receive the presidential honor. – New York Magazine
Thousands Of Subscribers Say They Were Hacked After Signing Up For Disney+
On 12 November, its first day live, people had technical problems and many complained on social media. Others said they were locked out of their accounts, and since they contacted Disney they have not heard back. According to an investigation by Zdnet, thousands of user accounts went on sale on the dark web. – BBC
Why Centrism Is No Longer At The Center Of Our Politics
It’s often said that we are also witnessing a crisis of liberalism: liberal norms are being eroded, institutions are under threat, and across Europe, parties of the centre are haemorrhaging votes. Meanwhile, the critics of centrism are louder than they have been for years. – The Guardian
Next Up In Cancel Culture: Gauguin?
The artist “repeatedly entered into sexual relations with young girls, ‘marrying’ two of them and fathering children,” reads the wall text. “Gauguin undoubtedly exploited his position as a privileged Westerner to make the most of the sexual freedoms available to him.” – The New York Times
Propwatch: the jukebox in ‘Master Harold … and the boys’
Dozens of records, stacked and ready for selection. Before the walkman, spotify and sodcasting, they let you decide your own mood music. Public yet personal, sweetly selfish – the jukebox flourished in the 1950s, the decade in which Master Harold … and the boys is set. A box of delights, a cabinet of chrome and light and your favourite melodies. – David Jays
Recent Listening: The New David Friesen Trio CD
David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Interaction (Origin)
“From the Portland, Oregon, sinecure in which he thrives when he’s not touring the world, bassist Friesen has been performing at home and abroad with his Circle 3 Trio.” – Doug Ramsey
Elizabeth Warren, AOC Weigh In On Taylor Swift’s Music Catalog Dispute
“Swift’s initial post alleges that Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta were essentially holding access to her older music hostage, telling her that if she wants to be able to perform the music at the AMAs, as well as use it in a three-years-in-the-making Netflix documentary, she would have to promise not to re-record the music and cease speaking poorly about them in public. Big Machine has denied her allegations.” – Variety
How Some Russian Theatres Are Addressing Social Issues
“Issues-based theatre when it happens falls into two categories at the moment. Moscow’s Teatr.doc embodies the company that produces grimy work to challenge society – and gets targeted and closed down by the authorities, often violently. Not to be confused with productions that push the wider boundaries, like the Bolshoi’s lavish Nureyev, which got pulled for its overtly gay themes. The difference? Oligarchs, ministers and prestigious Golden Mask awards go to one and not the other.” – The Stage
How The Feminist Art Coalition Is Changing The United States In 2020
Though the Met is still perilously close to the percentage that so angered the Guerrilla Girls in 1985, things may be slowly changing – and they may be accelerated just before the U.S.’s presidential election by a concerted effort to show women artists. The plan is big, and growing by the day. “Initially, only 52 museums and art institutions were involved, but since launching their website last week, organizers have been flooded with emails from spaces asking to participate.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Real Streaming Era Has Begun
Streaming services – Netflix, Amazon, etc. etc. etc. – have been challenging Hollywood for years, but before now, the three biggest old companies weren’t involved. Now they’re “all in,” as executives have said as they launch their streaming services. And that means “the onslaught is upending how Hollywood does business in almost every way.” Are we ready? IS anyone ready? – The New York Times