As Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley hits screens, Brooks Barnes takes the occasion to write about the corn dogs he dipped and unlimited snow cones he ate at age nine and the Snake Lady, merry-go-round man, and World's Smallest Woman who had his back. - The New York Times
Alexander came to the organization with a specific mandate, she said, of “sharpening the focus—doing all the work, every penny, through a social justice lens.” - ARTnews
COVID arrived at a bad time for Sarasota's Westcoast Black Theater Troupe: it had just opened a new venue in February 2020. Luckily, "one of the only major Black companies in a smaller American city … seems to be in a good place these days." - The New York Times
Joseph Horowitz teaches us to stop hearing “Porgy and Bess” narrowly, as a Black opera, or as some sideline oddity called a folk opera. It is what opera should be in this country, with our history, period. - The New York Times
Rachel Kapelke-Dale: "In the end, Ballerinas turned out to be about the violence that emerges from the rage of being trapped in someone else's dream; the fury that emerges once you realize what produced that dream in the first place." - Literary Hub
A self-described “cockeyed optimist,” Tom Lutz admitted he underestimated the volume of work required to launch the publication — not to mention the costs of doing so, both financial and psychological. - Los Angeles Times
Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers starts out with a very Almodóvar situation, two single women about to give birth, but the movie’s really about the ongoing fallout from the many extrajudicial murders committed by Franco's regime, a topic most Spaniards have spent decades avoiding. - The New York Times Magazine
He'd made some comedy-horror mashups and one arthouse hit when he set to work on the Tolkien adaptations, so he wasn't someone you'd think of giving nine-figure budgets to. The bet paid off, of course: the films took in $3 billion. Here's how they came together. - Variety
While the specifics differ (as do outcomes, somewhat), the common thread seems to be that these towns built gathering places — community centers or gardens, cafes, public squares with seating and playgrounds. And they've made a real difference. - Fast Company
The Mosul Book Forum, which offers concerts and events along with books, opened three months after the city was liberated. Said cofounder Fahad Sabah, "If we have to rebuild our city, we need to rebuild our minds as well as our buildings and streets." - Literary Hub
The Morgan Art Foundation's filing in US federal court accuses publisher Michael McKenzie of "allegedly forging Indiana's artwork, defaming the foundation, and intentionally interfering with its exclusive contractual rights to reproduce the artist's 'Love' works." - Artnet
On Monday, 273 teachers and students from the school flew from Qatar, where they landed at a US base after fleeing the Taliban, to Lisbon, where they have been granted asylum. - AP
The artist Lorenzo Bussi (alias "Art Builders Group") and the workers devised the action, titled "Is Everyone's Work Equally Important?", at the top of the stairs leading to the Frank Gehry building's entrance. The pay rate they're protesting? €5 ($5.65) an hour. - Hyperallergic
For several years, a mixture of denial and deep optimism have kept up the facade. News outlet leaders believe that, since others are perceived to have success with podcasting, their payoff must be right around the corner. - NiemanLab
M+ seemed inevitable, so right. But if you looked closely enough, divisions between the city and its various cultural saviours were starting to emerge. - Apollo
