The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra "coalesced quickly around a mission to stage, as the Met news release put it, 'artistic defense' of its homeland. Its debut concerts across Western Europe and Britain have been met with rave reviews and long ovations." - Washington Post
"I started playing word games as a way to stop reading the news first thing in the morning. Death counts, infection rates, mass shootings, disasters on our overheating planet, and what could I do about it all? I’ve protested, voted, and written." - Nieman Lab
Heche, an Emmy- and Tony-nominated actor, was declared brain dead six days after a fiery one-car crash in L.A. The Daily Beast said that the actor "deserved so much better from Hollywood," and The Guardian said she was basically too smart for Hollywood. - Los Angeles Times
Students have formed banned book clubs like the one at Vandegrift High School, organized with statewide groups, and even overturned bans, like the students at Central York High School did. The students are also connecting with each other. NextCity
The supposed whiteness of ancient statuary is intertwined with larger ideas of Whiteness in European culture, and the sense that colorizing the statues somehow cheapens them could well be rooted in racialized thinking. - Washington Post
There’s a certain romance in the bygone days when shows would play Boston, Philadelphia and New Haven before turning up in the Big Apple, and despite their relative proximity to New York, critics tended to leave them alone. Coverage was the purview of the local press and trade publications such as Variety. - The Stage
For many people, a challenge to their worldview feels like an attack on their personal identity and can cause them to harden their position. Here’s some of the research that explains why it’s natural to resist changing your mind – and how you can get better at making these shifts. - The Guardian
One day a dance tutor, Catherine Chappell, came to show the children a video about “mixed ability” dance. She invited Rodney Bell to play harmonica at a workshop; instead, he found himself part of a dance improvisation, in which he fell, crawled and was pulled back to his chair. - The Guardian
Because young people have grown up with online communities, they have a more inextricable relationship with platforms and their identities. This changes the idea of what exactly a "healthy" relationship with social media should look like, making the notion of a digital detox unrealistic and, arguably, unhealthy. - CNET
"When Charlotte City Council last discussed arts funding a month ago, members were sharply divided about ... $2 million allocated to the Arts & Science Council, the nonprofit that controlled fundraising and grants for decades until last year." - WSOC-TV (Charlotte Business Journal)
The Justice Department argues that the resulting merged company would control close to half of the best-seller market, continuing a longer history of publisher acquisitions, mergers and consolidation. This extraordinary shift in the balance of power in one of our nation’s most important industries has gone largely unremarked upon. - The New York Times
Jane Boleyn, married to Anne's brother George, tends to be portrayed as a schemer whose (likely false) testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. The evidence from the time suggests otherwise, say several scholars. - Smithsonian Magazine
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained. - The Guardian
