“In a country where Turkish is the only official language, speaking Kurdish is sometimes seen as an act of rebellion.” (It is the mother tongue of nearly 20 million people in the Turkish Republic and another 20 million in neighboring countries.) “Teatra Jiyana Nû, or New Life Theater, has struggled to find stages to perform its repertoire, which includes original works and classics by Bertolt Brecht and Neil Simon.” – Hyperallergic
The Artist Painting Baltimore’s Winter Salt Boxes
Juliet Ames couldn’t resist decorating her first salt box, back in December. Then she got permission from the city. “In the past two months, more than 100 of the decorated salt boxes have appeared around Baltimore, including more than 25 adorned by Ames herself. The boxes celebrate such iconic Baltimore figures as the filmmaker John Waters, the Natty Boh logo and the googly-eyed Mr. Trash Wheel.” – Baltimore Sun
A Reckoning With Racism In Canada’s Country Music Industry
There’s no Indigenous Artist of the Year award in Saskatchewan this year, and when a committee was discussing why not, well: “Somebody made a comment about ‘why should we give them an award when they’re just going to pawn it off anyway?'” That’s led to a reckoning about anti-Indigenous and other racist (and homophobic as well) attitudes in Canada’s country music communities. – CBC
That Podcast Exposing One Media Empire’s Bigotry And Workplace Bullying Came Under Fire For The Same Behavior
This is a twisty, turny saga that does not in any way make the original media empire – Bon Appetit, of course – look any better, but the public peeling of “problematic media property” layers may not be over anytime soon. To quote one former podcaster: “I’ve been telling you guys @Gimletmedia is toxic for a long time. I’m glad others are speaking out. I know it’s hard. Podcasting didn’t have to be like this.” – Los Angeles Times
Consider The Ushers…
Usher is a variant of the French huisier, from the Latin ostiarius, a custodian of the doors. The role comes from early modern theater, where Randle Cotgrave’s 1611 dictionary also has them as “audiencers.” The Gentleman Usher would be among the most active figures running an aristocratic house, supervising honored guests in performances, courtly masques, or other entertainments. – Van
Breakthrough: Scientists Figure Out How To Talk To Dreamers In Their Sleep
An international team of researchers was able to achieve real-time dialogues with people in the midst of lucid dreams, a phenomenon that is called “interactive dreaming,” according to a study published on Thursday in Current Biology. – Vice
Why Do We Have Such Trouble Getting Monuments Of Women Right?
Consider, for instance, the new, widely derided “For Mary Wollstonecraft” monument in London. “Why couldn’t a statue of Wollstonecraft, the individual woman, be seen as universally inspiring and iconic? It was hard not to view the monument as a victim of its own good intentions, inadvertently becoming yet another example of a female form as emblem of an abstract idea, such as the Statue of Liberty or Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, or any number of nameless angels, goddesses or graces on memorials. We’ve no lack of statues of women, really; it’s just that too many of the ones we have are devoid of personhood.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Thousands Are Angry About New Bronze Doors For 800-Year-Old Cathedral
“Plans to mark the 800th anniversary of Burgos’s magnificent Gothic cathedral with three enormous new bronze doors have ushered in an unholy row, with UNESCO advising against the project and critics attacking the €1.2m portals as an ‘artistic outrage’. … More than 31,000 people have signed an angry petition attacking the new doors as ‘an eyesore however you look at them’ and claiming ‘no anniversary warrants such ill treatment of our heritage’.” – The Guardian
What’s At Stake For Chicago With The Sale Of Second City (To A New Yorker)
Chris Jones: “The issue now is the future of an institution that is not just a major tourist draw to Chicago but one of the very few avenues for diverse, Chicago-based comedic talent to move to a national stage. A decades-long success record needs no reiteration here, nor does the entertainment-industry dominance asserted by the coastal cities that typically see Chicago as a market or a location, not a generator of content.” – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
City Of London Abandons Plan For New Concert Hall
“An ambitious £288m concert hall that was supposed to be ‘the Tate Modern of classical music’ has been scrapped by the City of London Corporation, which said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic made the plan impossible to complete.” The recently-announced departure from London of the project’s highest-profile advocate, Simon Rattle, probably made this decision inevitable. – The Guardian
Nielsen Will Begin To Track Diversity Alongside Ratings Numbers
The initiative combines entertainment metadata with Nielsen’s audience measurement data. It’s designed to equip content creators, owners, distributors and advertisers with data around onscreen diversity and representation to enable more inclusive content. – Los Angeles Times
12th-Century Moorish Bathhouse Uncovered In Seville Beer Hall
There had always been rumors, and a few hints in surviving records, that there had been a hammam where the Cervercería Giralda now stands, but most people (including the owners) shrugged them off and figured the building was 1920s Moorish Revival style. Then the owners started renovating … – The Guardian
Now: Better Theatre Than Yesterday
“This present moment places us in an exciting crossroad between former traditions and the emergence of technical and multi-platformed storytelling. I do not believe we are in a purgatory until we return to in-person venues, but instead that we are on the precipice of incredible innovation. The future of our art form will be deeply impacted by the ways in which we respond to the present situation today.” – Howlround
How Big Tech Subverted The Public Square
“A functioning market required transparency, a mutual understanding of exchanges and a shared moral framework. And, as Rana Foroohar puts it in this brief animation for the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), surveillance capitalism – pioneered by Google, and now, to varying degrees, ubiquitous worldwide – comes up short on all three fronts.” – Aeon
Boston Symphony Finds Its New CEO At The LA Phil
More than a year after it began its search for a new president and chief executive, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is expected to announce on Thursday that it has found a new leader on the opposite coast: Gail Samuel, president of the Hollywood Bowl and chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. – Los Angeles Times
Why It’s Important To Make Art With Your Kids
“When young children make art together with their caregivers, they share a new experience which can reinforce bonding. Creativity is an extension of babies’ natural desire to share and communicate.” – The Conversation
For First Time, Boston Symphony Will Have Female CEO
“In picking [Gail Samuel], the orchestra looked west, to one of the most successful American orchestras of recent years” — the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she is COO — “for its choice to succeed Mark Volpe, who led the Boston Symphony for 23 years. Samuel will be responsible for steering the organization out of one of its most dire crises, the pandemic.” – The New York Times
This Summer’s Glyndebourne Opera Festival Will Happen (Almost) As Normal
Says managing director Sarah Hopwood, “We are determined to present a festival this summer in whatever form is possible. We consider this essential to protect the livelihoods of our staff and freelance artists we employ and to continue to engage with our audience.” Audiences will be limited to 50% of capacity, and other COVID safety measures will be in place. – Harper’s Bazaar