Douglas Chrismas was considered to be at the forefront of the Los Angeles art scene in the 1980s and 90s at his now-defunct Ace Gallery. But financial troubles overtook his reputation and Chrismas was repeatedly sued by his artists for non-payment and theft of artwork. - The Art Newspaper
He has directed twenty-seven features in twenty-six years. Hong has achieved abundance through a radical reduction of means. He funds each movie with the proceeds of his previous films, and he makes his films as he goes. - The New Yorker
In what looks like a reaction - some might call it an over-reaction - to the employee walkouts over Dave Chapelle's transphobic jokes, the streamer changed its "corporate culture" memo, saying employees "may have to work on content that they 'perceive as harmful.'" - NPR
Marcuse ran several bookstores, but Common Concerns, in Dupont Circle during the Reagan and (H.W.) Bush years, was the most important for a community looking for a home. His (Ed) "Meese is a Pig" T-shirts and posters were top-sellers. - Washington Post
Why an entire bookstore and café devoted to scary things? "Imagine your problems were a ghost, a monster, a serial killer — that the thing stealing your power could be punched or séanced or set on fire. That you could kill it, that you could triumph. Horror is cathartic." - Toronto Star
Twin Cities spoken word artist and musician "SUNAH hopes to replace negative language some in the Hmong community use to describe LGBTQ people. There is no known word for queer or gay in the Hmong language." - Sahan Journal
After the sale of the Chicago Reader "was nearly derailed over a co-owner’s column opposing COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children," and after a lot of protests and work, the sale to a nonprofit is expected to work. - Seattle Times (AP)
"The characters in the showdown were as colorful as any drawn on the studio's animation cels: union activists, gangsters, communists and anti-communists, and, not least, Walt Disney himself, who, dropping his avuncular persona, played a long game of political hardball." - Salon
Co-founder of Bitch Magazine Andi Ziesler says that "the thing that made us stand out in an increasingly digital marketplace was the fact that we also had a print magazine. But the print magazine became increasingly hard to sustain because the cost of printing kept going up." - Slate
"If the very essence of Blaxploitation films to challenge the world order, the creative marriage between Kung Fu and Blaxploitation offered global imagery of resistance." - Black Film Archive
Look, this wouldn't really be a news story, but the energy trader who bought it said, "I’m walking away with the treasure while everybody is fighting over a Warhol or a Monet." The painting, by Ernie Barnes, also appeared as the cover of a Marvin Gaye single. - Los Angeles Times
"This protest was beautiful; we used our own craft and creative responsibility as artists to advocate for social change. From stenciled shirts to embroidered banners, from hand-printed posters to cardboard sculptures — our strike was a creative act." - Hyperallergic
