Benítez was “an American dancer and choreographer who, as the founder of a popular Spanish dance troupe, played a major role in making New Mexico a hotbed for flamenco.” - The New York Times
“By the late 1980s, Tikkun had established itself as an outlet for writers who shared his conviction that some form of Palestinian self-determination was not just morally correct but also Israel’s best way forward.” - The New York Times
Horn created performance-oriented works in the 1960s that “envisioned new possibilities for women’s bodies, outfitting her participants with appendages that caused them to seem more like animals.” Later, she created “objects made from metal, liquid, mirrors, and more that seemed not quite human yet not quite inorganic.” - ARTnews
With his group, Brasil ’66, “some of the songs were in Portuguese, some were in English, but all of them were driven along by Mr. Mendes’s piano and infectious Brazilian rhythms, with the vocals wafting like a summer breeze.” - Washington Post
Harari is to the tech CEO what David Foster Wallace once was to the Williamsburg hipster. This is a surprising role for someone who started as almost a parody of professorial obscurity. - The Atlantic (MSN)
Born in Minnesota, raised in New Mexico and trained in Madrid, she established María Benítez Teatro Flamenco in New York and Santa Fe in the 1970s; the company toured the world for three decades before she settled back in New Mexico's capital for her final years. - Santa Fe New Mexican
"Spared from prosecution in Britain on Thursday, Harvey Weinstein now faces the prospect of a new indictment in New York, where prosecutors retrying the disgraced movie mogul’s rape case are taking steps to potentially charge him with up to three additional sex assaults." - AP
"The Crown Prosecution Service said on Thursday that it decided to discontinue proceedings against Weinstein because there is 'no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.' … The CPS had previously authorized police to file the charges against Weinstein in relation to an alleged indecent assault that occurred in London in 1996." - AP
Gao Zhen, who had moved to New York and was in Beijing visiting family, is the first artist charged under the 2018 "Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law." At issue are works (including one a Florida man tried to bomb, thinking it glorified Communism) from over a decade ago satirizing Mao Zedong. - Artnet
Perhaps one reason why she was a superb editor is because her personality so completely concorded with the wider cultural understanding of editing as belonging off-stage. And yet that view is entirely incorrect. - LitHub
"I shall just keep at it as long as the legs and the lungs and the mind keep working," says the 85-year-old actor. As for his film role as Gandalf, "I'm not letting anyone else put on the pointy hat and beard if I can help it." - BBC
"As a sculptor he contributed to cathedrals both old and young, from survivors of the Middle Ages such as Exeter and Wells to the unfinished 19th-century behemoth of St John the Divine in New York. ... He also resurrected the art of grotto-making, dormant since the 18th century." - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
A highly respected soloist and chamber musician admired for the elegance and precision of his playing, Meneses died four weeks after revealing that he had been diagnosed with the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme. - Gramophone
"They had begun making their lives there around a date in December 2012 coinciding with the 5,125-year cycle of an ancient calendar, widely reported as a 'Mayan apocalypse.' ... Le Bloc had begun at the world’s end, they would say. The squat picked up where the world had left off." - The Paris Review
