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Samella Lewis, Central To The World Of Black Artists, Has Died At 99

There's no way to sum up her influence, but: "Lewis was an artist, an activist, a historian, an author, a curator, a professor, a gallerist, a collector and a beloved mentor who helped document and elevate work by Black artists for almost eight decades." - Los Angeles Times

The Ridiculous Challenges Of Trying To Visit Literary Sites In A Very Inaccessible City

London absolutely sucks for wheelchairs and the people using them. "Somewhere, the ghost of Virginia Woolf was smiling knowingly, or maybe rolling her eyes. Anonymous was a woman, indeed. I couldn’t get the wheelchair down the corridor, so I hopped out and walked." - LitHub

Mere Months After The Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures Opened, The Staff Say It’s Time For A Union

"The Cultural Workers United (CWU) movement, as AFSCME has dubbed their campaign, has taken hold at museums like MOCA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art," and now the Academy Museum. - Hyperallergic

Hitting The Right Notes In History Musicals

If history musicals don't succeed this season, it won't be for sheer effort, or numbers. The doubt is always there: Hamilton made it, but can anything else? - The New York Times

Let’s Talk About Ray Liotta’s Breakout Performances

The actor died suddenly at 67 last week, and many people are remembering him for Goodfellas. But the true breakout was Something Wild, wherein he shone off the screen. "By all accounts, Liotta was a lovely man in person. On-screen, there was no one scarier." - Washington Post

Conde Nast Is No Longer A Magazine Company, Says Its CEO

The CEO who has made Condé Nast profitable again: "We have about 70 million people who read our magazines, but we have 300 something million that interact with our websites every month and 450 million that interact with us on social media." - Nieman Lab

A Movie About Class Warfare Wins The Palme D’Or

The winner was Triangle of Sadness, a Swedish comedy (because class war is hilarious) by Ruben Ostlund, who also won in 2017 for the art-world sendup The Square. - NPR

The FBI Investigates Some So-Called Basquiat Paintings

The FBI's Art Crime Team is really quite interested "the authenticity of 25 paintings that the Orlando Museum of Art says were created by Basquiat and are on exhibit there." - The New York Times

What Can Fiction Do In The Face Of Climate Change?

Jeff VanderMeer investigates Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness, and our devastating realities. "Just as the inhabitants of Winter have dozens of words for snow and ice, we need as many words for ecocide. If fiction can be useful here, it is rendering the crime more visible." - Orion

Dear American Publishers: Stop Pretending All Books Are Written In English

Translators "advocate for untranslated authors, bringing them to the attention of agents and editors. They act as de facto ambassadors for their authors, helping them navigate the press and social media — none of which, by the way, is compensated." So share their names, publishers. - The New York Times

How To Make A Traveling Art Show Locally Relevant

The best thing at the Portland Art Museum isn't the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera show that's been traveling the country since 2018. It's the huge, collaborative murals in the museum's sculpture court. - Oregon ArtsWatch

Are Summer Movies Back?

If so, despite massively climbing COVID-19 numbers, which one is going to dominate the summer? (Probably dinos, but what about the little French-ish shell?) - Vulture

The Standing Ovation At The Tonys Luncheon Was For A Waiter

"The whole room just lost it. ... To see her coming full circle, from a little girl watching him serve, and he had worked this luncheon for years, to having his daughter be a nominee was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments." - The New York Times

The Florida Orchestra Fights Back

A nonbinary composer gets their debut with a piece called "Ode to Liberty." Subtle? No (nor were Tchaikovsky or Beethoven in their day). "That a piece written by a young, Black, queer composer debuted in Florida could be taken as a political statement in itself." - Tampa Bay Times

What Does A Production Designer Exactly Do?

Good question. The boring answer - "A production designer works with the director and the producer (or showrunner) to build a story’s world." - can lead to an exciting chase for the right designs all over town, the internet, and the world. - Los Angeles Times

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