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The U.S. Suddenly Has Two Mermaid Museums

What? One museum's founder: "Mermaids must’ve been coming through the ether." - Hyperallergic

When Stanley Tucci Fell In Love With Food

Acting? Eh. Tucci: "You’re going through life, you have this trajectory and this vision, then suddenly this whole other good thing is like a sidecar attached to you, and you’re off in another direction." - The New York Times

Did Los Angeles Just Experience Its Best Hollywood Bowl Season Ever?

Mark Swed thinks so - and it wasn't just post-shutdown elation, either. - Los Angeles Times

Technology Isn’t As Neutral As We Want It To Be

No tech is without cost, but "the digital revolution, instead of just ambivalence, seems instead to promise utopia but deliver harm." - Toronto Star

A School Board Banned Hundreds Of Books And Documentaries Until Students Fought Back

York, Pennsylvania students, their parents, and authors around the country have won a temporary "freeze." But the school board's racism and homophobia seem entrenched and intransigent. One senior: "We know that they did not temporarily reverse out of the goodness of their hearts." - The New York Times

Yale Historian Resigns Citing Inappropriate Donor Influence

Beverly Gage, a historian of 20th-century politics who has led the program since 2017, has resigned, saying the university failed to stand up for academic freedom amid inappropriate efforts by its donors to influence its curriculum and faculty hiring. - The New York Times

The Classics Versus Racism

The study of classics should not make anyone feel ashamed because Asia intersects there, India intersects there, Africa intersects there, the Middle East intersects there. The ancient writers don’t try to hide that so much as we do. - The Point

From Sistema To The Montreal Symphony’s New Music Director: Meet Rafael Payare

Winding up in the local El Sistema orchestra, he became a conductor almost by accident when handed a baton and told to conduct a piece: “I knew then that it was what I wanted to do.” - Toronto Star

The Age Of The New Literary Memoir

The fantasy that you can say something so perfectly and with such absolute authority that it never needs another version told from another point of view, as my grandfather might have believed, is long over. - The New York Times

What Harvard Learned From The Pandemic

Those 17 months—marked by the pandemic, remote teaching, protests against systemic racism and police brutality, and economic hardship for millions of people—made it clear to educators that their students will enter a changed world after graduation. - Harvard Magazine

How Public Radio Could Help Save Local News

With a vast network of local licensees spread across urban and small-town America, public media stations should serve local audiences and provide a window on issues and conflicts in democratic governance that are bubbling up across the country. - Current

Toni Morrison Thought This Woman Changed Black Literature Forever. She Left Public View 23 Years Ago.

In 1975, aged 25, Gayl Jones shook the American literary world with her novel Corregidora. After more books and a turbulent personal life, Jones assumed a Salinger-style public silence in 1998. Imani Perry examines Jones's biography and writing to understand why. - The New York Times Magazine

Translating Proteins Into Music

We’re computational biologists who believe that hearing the sound of life at the molecular level could help inspire people to learn more about biology and the computational sciences. - The Conversation

When Virgin Voyages Wanted A Dance Show For Its Cruises, It Did Not Go For Vegas-Style Showgirls

No, Richard Branson's grownups-only cruise line chose three choreographers from The Dance Cartel. The trio couldn't believe that a cruise ship wanted their avant-garde-dance-meets-house-party aesthetic, which they didn't water down for auditions. Now they're doing on the high seas what they'd do in Brooklyn. - The New York Times

What Is The Solidarity Arts Economy?

Why should culture and economic innovation go together? Because, right now, we have a superstar system in which the winners take all and the rest are left with crumbs. Because, just like art, housing and dignified work are human rights. Because artists are the original gig workers. - Nonprofit Quarterly

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