Dabney was 16 when she joined Dance Theater of Harlem. She gained fame in the title role of the company’s 1982 production of Stravinsky’s Firebird. In that role, she contributed thawing cultural relations between the USSR and US, and later inspired Misty Copeland. - The New York Times
Of course, I understand that it is important. But I never said, “I’m a woman, but I will try to do this.” I just said I’m going to be a conductor, because it is burning within me. If a person has a talent for conducting, if a person has something to say, that’s what matters. - ArtsATL
"The Los Angeles Times theater critic from 1969 until 1991, Sullivan earlier worked at St. Paul's Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The New York Times. As director of the Eugene O'Neill National Critics Institute, he also mentored many of the nation's current theater critics." - Los Angeles Times
"Sorokin's release from ICE custody comes after months of legal fights — and a blowout with Sorokin's old attorney — as she prepares to appeal her infamous case detailed in Netflix's Inventing Anna." She faces deportation after having completed a two-year jail sentence for fraud and repaying her victims. - The Daily Beast
"A soft-spoken writer who liked to populate his plays with sprawling casts of characters, Mr. Fuller launched his theater career in the late 1960s as Black actors and playwrights were pushing to diversify the predominantly White theater scene." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"(Her) career was remarkable for its storybook ascent from hardscrabble origins. She was a teenage bride and mother, a country star and a grandmother by her early 30s. A trailblazer for other female country performers, she ... helped redefine and broaden the appeal of country music." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Reid’s accomplishments at the museum included launching an 8-year, $320 million expansion and renovation, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, that transformed the institution by upgrading and enlarging its galleries and giving the museum a central atrium. - The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Littlefeather, "the Apache activist and actress who refused to accept the best actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando at the 1973 Oscars," has died at 75. - The New York Times
Though Bussard collected 15,000 albums, he was selective: "He loved jazz but detested any jazz recorded after the early 1930s. He loved country music but decreed that nothing good came after 1955. Nashville? He called it 'Trashville.' Rock ’n’ roll? A cancer." - The New York Times
"If it shocks people a little, well, I grew up with Madonna. I like to be a little shocking, a little provocative. I really never cared about being for everyone." - The New York Times
Sue Mingus "helped secure legacy as one of the 20th century’s greatest musical minds" after his death of ALS at age 56. Incredibly, she "organized three bands, each with different strengths, to wrestle with the more than 300 compositions he left behind." - The New York Times
He taught himself to play the lute while imprisoned as a conscientious objector during World War II, collected antique instruments, and recorded, as a singer, an LP that featured English lute songs alongside African-American spirituals. He even composed a lute song that he passed off as "Elizabethan." - Early Music America
Many people close to the late chef/author/TV star refused to speak with Charles Leerhsen for his Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain. But his ex-wife, who controls the estate, did, and Leerhsen got access to texts and emails from Bourdain's final days. - The New York Times
"(She's) managed a one-of-a-kind, first-of-its-sort, decades-long career with dreadlocks on her head, no eyebrows on her face and her foot in her mouth ... Goldberg has never held anything back. She knows that this is part of her legacy, but also what it can cost her." - The New York Times Magazine
