The shutdown introduced many ordinary people to the precarity that gigging artists have always faced, and the expanded unemployment benefits — with fewer restrictions than usual — may offer an example of how to make sporadic gig work more tenable. - The Brooklyn Rail
The escalation of events — from a contract with about a dozen employees to an ugly public battle between two of Maryland’s flagship arts institutions — has alarmed civic, arts and union leaders. - Washington Post
"'A frictionless world' in which evidence of the imagination floats around in the empyrean 'without cost, without registration, and without restrictive conditions on their use, … a Borgesian Library of Babel, the Review is a labyrinth to get lost in." - The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
The anecdotal evidence, gleaned from social media and private conversations with industry leaders, suggests a variety of challenges — lingering fears of the coronavirus, the disinclination by some patrons to wear masks and resistance to high ticket prices. - Washington Post
"Local divers exploring Indonesia's Musi River (on the island of Sumatra) have found gold rings, beads and other artifacts that may be linked to the Srivijaya Empire, which controlled sea trade across large swaths of Asia between the 7th and 11th centuries C.E." - Smithsonian Magazine
Big picture: the 27 shows currently running grossed $19.66 million together last week, with 168,169 butts in seats. That’s a 11% box office drop from the week before, and a 5% drop in overall attendance. - Forbes
Says one choreographer, "It's not the first fight I would pick about the homogeneity of bodies on stage. But there's something archaic in dance – where your body is policed in certain ways. You're taught not to have agency over your body." - The Guardian
His international career was hobbled over and over again by a breathtaking series of mishaps, comebacks, and more mishaps that ultimately left him unable to play at all. Then an industrial designer saw Martins on TV and had an idea … - GQ
Yes, of course, it's ultimately to make more money, but here's a glimpse of just how different the content is and a look at the structural reason for that difference. - Columbia Journalism Review
Using equipment designed for geophysics, researchers scanned the site of Karakorum, chosen by Genghis and built by his two successors, and found that the city was larger than previously thought, extending well beyond the walls, 40% of it was empty, and Mongols didn't live there. - Haaretz (Israel)
Her Trouble in Mind treats a touchy subject, even now: it's about an interracial cast rehearsing an anti-lynching play written and directed by whites. In 1955, the Off-Broadway producers made her tack on a happy ending; in 2021, it's playing as she intended. - The New York Times
Sources report that the decision is because Disney's Marvel Studios refused the request to cut a male-male kiss. Eternals is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to feature an LGBTQ+ superhero. - Variety
Makhloot had an entire crew of professional hip-hop dancers in Kabul (including one woman) and hoped to compete in breaking at the 2024 Olympics. Fahima performed and taught sema, the meditative whirling dance of the Sufis. Both had to flee quickly when the Taliban took over. - Dance Teacher
The Becoming B.C. gallery, which focuses on the story of European settlement in B.C. and has been widely criticized for pushing a colonial narrative, will be the first to close. - CBC
