"In July 1941, Richard Wright, then America's leading Black author, began writing the novel he felt was his masterpiece. Written 'at white heat,' … The Man Who Lived Underground was drafted in just six frenzied months. … Following a crushing rejection from Wright's publisher and a truncated publication as a short story, the novel was shelved for eighty years...
Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley have been at the helm of Searchlight Pictures since the turn of the millennium, and one could argue that the films they've produced have (as Brooks Barnes puts it here) "shaped global culture." They've won four Best Picture Oscars in the past dozen years (for Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, and The...
Since Raúl Castro's government had recently had another period of censoring art and arresting artists, there's some hope — off the island, at least — that there might be a Khrushchev-style cultural thaw coming. In Cuba itself, not so much: "Nothing has changed," says one artist, "nor does there seem to be a will for change within the new...
"The entire board of Museums Aotearoa has abruptly quit after concerns about its governance and management. The organisation’s remaining executive director, Phillipa Tocker, is refusing to comment on the situation, despite being implicated in a report that the board resigned over 'fundamental disagreements' with her." - Stuff (New Zealand)
Struggle without class analysis results in the many empty institutional statements and surface-level concessions we’ve seen across the United States this past year. Class politics is less concerned with pushing for that first Black or female artistic director as it is in asking why we have to constantly fight so hard to include those people in the first place....
"For all sorts of understandable reasons, we have become very wary of public and social norms. We are conscious of the legacy of appealing to such supposed norms in the context of gender and sexuality, conscious also of the persistent marginalising of persons who are neurologically atypical or living with learning challenges. The truth, however, is that without some...
"What we are primarily focusing on at Time is how NFTs relate to subscriptions, memberships, and access to unique experiences, which would allow us to drive recurring revenue streams, rather than one-time payments. A larger, longer-term opportunity is using blockchain technology alongside these tokens.” - Vanity Fair
The problem that companies like ACT had been having, said Randy Taradash, was that they weren’t just having to juggle new technology, but also new tech partners whose business models didn’t necessarily fit the way nonprofit regional theatres function. The difference with the National Theatre Network, he noted, is that it’s not a tech company or ticket seller coming...
This year Netflix is forecasting 6 million new subscribers, the lowest first-quarter increase since 2017, well down on the almost 16 million sign-ups in the first quarter last year, as lockdown restrictions ease. - The Guardian
For centuries, great architecture involved innovation and invention within the context of established, tried-and-true styles, materials and techniques — and the result was buildings that were inspiring and durable. Then, argues scholar and critic Witold Rybczynski, came the 20th century, Le Corbusier and all that followed: the architecture profession became so insistent on invention and originality that, all too...
We found that attending these plays increased empathy for people depicted in them and changed people’s political attitudes about a variety of issues related to the show, such as income inequality. Additionally, seeing theatre changed behavior. After attending these plays, people donated more to charity — whether or not these charities were related to the show. - Psychology Today
"First at University College Dublin and later at New York University, Professor Donoghue carved out a middle ground in the contested landscape of late-20th-century literary studies, standing opposed to both the politicized theories of the left and the traditionalist pieties of the right. He was an ardent opponent of deconstruction, and … fierce aversion to the impositions of...
Almost all his renown has come from his exhilarating performances with symphony orchestras. Does lacking operatic experience matter in landing an important opera post? - The New York Times
"More than three years after its 2018 debut, the professional company … announced April 6 that longtime Indianapolis arts leader Don Steffy will take the helm and manage the administrative, funding, facility and human resource functions." - Indianapolis Star
Lacking in visionary leaders? Absolutely not. They're just blocked from the table by their status as a young person, or as a queer person, or as an artist of color. - Theatre Mania
