“(A) source familiar with the matter suggested a ramp-up could occur within a matter of months, but that would mean a more nimble operation of around 500 journalists” — down from more than 1,000 — “and a potential consolidation of VOA and Radio Free Europe or Radio Free Asia.” - TheWrap (MSN)
“It is the largest presentation of American artists in the history of the festival,” says director Nicola Benedetti. The program includes a residence by Wynton Marsalis (Benedetti’s husband). Theatre productions will explore the AIDS crisis and racist lynchings; Clown Show will present a ‘contemporary portrait of America as a falling-apart circus’.” - The Guardian
“The most serious confirmed damage to date has been to Tehran’s Golestan Palace, dating back to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan.” Other landmarks in Isfahan, one of Iran’s most historic cities, have been damaged as well. - The Guardian
Candombe — not to be confused with candomblé, the syncretic religion created by Afro-Brazilians — was once confined to poor black neighborhoods in Montevideo. Now it has many thousands of practitioners and fans throughout the country. - The Guardian
Rather than sticking our heads in the sand—and hoping that belief, alone, will be the source of motivation we need to succeed—what if we focused on doing what it takes to play the game for as long as possible? - 3 Quarks Daily
“Though Christianity’s relationship with dance remains tangled, the full-bodied nature of Shaker devotion, revolutionary in the 18th century, is now an ideal for some Christians — and some dance artists.” - The New York Times
“The role of the state is not to filter works in the name of good taste,” Thill said, adding that art should challenge audiences rather than simply please them. He said the public debate surrounding the project proves that it is doing its job. - ARTnews
Even if a new mug – or a clone – is identical to the original in every visible way, the fact that it is not the same alters the directionality of love: the fact that it is not the same has an impact on what we are affectively able to do. - Psyche
"The portrait, painted around 1598 and attributed to Caravaggio in 1963, depicts Maffeo Barberini, a nobleman who later became Pope Urban VIII. The painting was acquired from a private collection by the Italian state after over a year of negotiations and will now enter Rome’s Palazzo Barberini permanent collection." - AP
Identity, even when mobilized as a force for visibility and justice, can shield art from critique—transforming dissent into offense and rendering criticism suspect. Questioning the work risks being seen as questioning the identity. - LA Review of Books
The ambition to explore every facet of the present was quickly replaced by a devout commitment to questions of equity and accountability. There was a new answer to the question of what art should do: it should amplify the voices of the historically marginalized. What it shouldn’t do, it seemed, is be inventive or interesting. - Harper's
The literary breaches, while trivial, highlight a reality that has become all too clear: There’s an inverse correlation between power and proper punctuation. - The Wall Street Journal
If your experience of Marseille is limited to certain multicultural central neighbourhoods then it might be easy to assume that this is – and always will be – a leftwing city, an outlier in the far-right bastion that is the wider south of France. But Marseille’s politics have always been contested. - The Guardian
“(He) achieved international renown with the 1970 publication of A World for Julius, ... portraying the life of Lima's elite through the eyes of a sensitive and lucid child. The book continues to be studied in universities around the world and marked a before and after in Peruvian literature.” - Euronews
Spotify said artists from 75 different countries had generated at least $500,000 in streaming royalties last year, compared to 66 the year prior, with about half of an average artist’s streams now coming from outside their home country. - The Hollywood Reporter
