Photographer and writer Gioncarlo Valentine: "I was curious about how the community felt. Who liked it, and why? What has it been like for you 20 years after the show was filmed in your neighborhood? What did The Wire do — or not do — for Baltimore?" - The New York Times
The Biennale is ticking along, and controversy remains: Some Venetians "feel that the Biennale, aided by the current city government, is monopolizing space that could be used by locals to create a sustainable, year-round cultural and economic life beyond tourism." - The New York Times
By 1922, the powerful cante jondo ("deep song") of tradition had been cutesified into the cante chico heard in cafés — and a group of Andalucians led by Manuel de Falla wanted to save it. They organized a competition, the Concurso de Cante Jondo, that's remembered today as Spain's Woodstock. - BBC
Yes, it's videogame music. "When we hear this music outside gameplay, it can prove unusually moving. The first time I caught the London Video Game Orchestra in concert," one writer says, it felt like a hymn: "nostalgic and weirdly rapturous." - BBC
A child in a multilingual environment? A fair number, with no particular firm ceiling, but not, say, three dozen; there are limits. This makes intuitive sense, but here's an explanation of the reasons. - The New York Times
Kate Fowle took up her position just before the pandemic started, so the last two and a half years have been, as they say, a lot. But "just two months ago, she gave an interview to the New York Times detailing her plans" for PS1. - Artnet
The late filmmaker (Sebastiane, Caravaggio, The Last of England) wrote "Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping" in 1971 but never had it printed. A 10,000-word "surreal, fable-like, lyrical tale" (per the publishers), "Through the Billboard" is about a blind king and his valet traveling disguised as beggars. - The Guardian
In order to live together, and to acknowledge each other and engage each other in a democratic society, conflict is necessary. Otherwise, we risk "not just forms of suppression but also extermination, expelling and annihilating those who are viewed as the source of conflict." - Aeon
In December, 300 students and teachers from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music who had escaped the Taliban government arrived in Lisbon. After half a year, they're relieved to be safe and determined to preserve their music, but struggling to adjust and worried about their families. - PRI's The World
With Rick Caruso, developer of upscale "lifestyle centers" (that is, malls without roofs), being one of the finalists for mayor of Los Angeles, Carolina A. Miranda considers the history of shopping malls, their purposes, and how the could recover from their widely-noted decline. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Says the choreographer, who grew up in the country and has family there, "When I am in the studio, I am fully focused on the dancers and the ballet. I can still do that. But I have not choreographed since the war started." - The New York Times
The Quiet Girl (original title An Cailín Ciúin) "has astonished the industry by quadrupling the previous record for an Irish language film, and by last week earning more than €610,000 since its release in mid-May." Small numbers by Hollywood standards, but huge for a foreign-language film in that market. - The Guardian
"Molly Smith, ... a champion of American plays and the force behind a glittering transformation of (Arena's) Washington complex, announced that she will leave the job in July 2023. Her departure signals a rare turnover in the artistic leadership of one of the nation's most important nonprofit theaters." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"The show, titled 'Travels,' was to feature a group of works by 20th-century artists like Matisse, Picasso, and Chagall. ... Just hours before the show was scheduled to open, the state-run museum's director Pavel Car announced it was canceled after several art experts raised concerns about the collection's authenticity." - ARTnews
One of a small group of writers who got Israeli literature established on the world stage, "(he) tackled a variety of narrative forms — from surrealist to historical — and delved into knotty or uncommon subjects ... in an oeuvre of 11 novels, three short-story collections and four plays." - The New York Times
