Streetwise Opera, the British company for people struggling with homelessness, founded the choir Uma Só Voz/With One Voice for the 2016 Olympics, and the city has kept it going. Two AFP reporters talk with members of the choir about what singing with the group has done for their lives. – Yahoo! (AFP)
Shifting The Opera Gaze
“Women in opera need to be not only acknowledged for their work, their passion and dedication to the artform, but placed front and centre, asked for their opinion, introduced as a driving force in the industry. The championing of the representation of women in opera, inviting women in, making space, and creating opportunities, enriches the opera ecology exponentially. Women in all facets of the opera creative industry – composers, directors, designers, conductors, singers, writers, producers – need to be recognised, supported and seen.” – Limelight (Australia)
Did Complex Societies Lead To Belief In Powerful, Punishing Gods? Or Vice Versa?
Vice versa, argues Joseph Henrich. “He contends that moralizing gods spurred societal complexity because belief in moralizing gods leads to success in intergroup competition. It increased trust and cooperation among a growing population of relative strangers, he said, and buttressed traits like bravery in warfare.” – Nautilus
Belief In Deities May Not Be The Important Part Of Religion
“What if belief in the supernatural is window dressing on what really matters — elaborate rituals that foster group cohesion, creating personal bonds that people are willing to die for.” – Nautilus
Ballet Is Beautiful, And It’s Also A Sport
“The ballerina’s challenge is to hide how hard she’s working, which is why behind-the-scenes ballet stories are always so appealing — it’s satisfying to see the athleticism inherent to the art.” – The Cut
Artist Tells Facebook And Instagram To Free The Nipple
Spencer Tunick takes photos of choreographed crowds of naked people at monuments and in natural settings all over the world. He calls them “flesh architecture,” and he’d like it if Instagram would quit censoring his art. – Asbury Park Press (New Jersey)
Want A More Creative Brain? Here’s What The Neuroscientists Suggest
Since the early 1990s, we’ve come to develop a more thorough and accurate understanding of what a brain engaged in creative thought “looks like.” The key, it seems, is integration: the firing of strong, lateral networks, connecting a diverse range of brain pathways in both hemispheres. – Fast Company
Some Rethinking On The Philosophical Separation Of Mind And Body
The concept of reason itself is built on a profoundly gendered blueprint. But a surprising rapprochement might be in sight: between feminists who criticise the mind/matter split, and certain philosophers and scientists who are now trying to put them back together. – Aeon
Have The Arts Gotten So Focused On The Mechanics Of Survival That We Forget To Talk About The Art?
Steve Slater: “This is nothing new, and it is not confined to the arts. We see the same pattern repeated again and again in fields like education, health and the police, all of which suffer from diminishing hands-on contact with those they profess to serve.” – Arts Professional
The NYT As Talent Scout
The paper of record showcases a dozen performers – dancers, musicians, street performers – in New York, shows you their work in a multimedia package, and gives some insights into their lives. – The New York Times
Do Arts Philanthropists Make The Gentrification Problem Worse?
“Remaining residents, particularly those in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods like San Francisco’s Mission District, don’t see a huge distinction between a well-intentioned arts funder and a slick developer with blueprints for luxury condos. … But does arts-based development really push out long-term residents? The research is inconclusive at best.” – Inside Philanthropy
Opera Takes Up #BlackLivesMatter And The Central Park Five
Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue is about a black police officer whose son is shot by a white colleague. Jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons have adapted New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones. And The Central Park Five has a text by Richard Wesley and a score by Anthony Davis, arguably the dean of America’s black composers. And those are just the pieces premiering this summer. – The New York Times
The Whistling Language Of Turkey May Be Endangered, But It’s Not Dead
Kuş dili (“bird language”), used to communicate over long distances in a mountainous farming area near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, renders the entire Turkish language into variously pitched and articulated whistles. Cell phones may have made kuş dili redundant, but at least some of its speakers won’t give up on it. – The New York Times
More And More Studios Question Publicly Whether They Could Operate In A Georgia Where Abortion Is Outlawed
On Tuesday, Netflix issued a cautious statement of concern; on Wednesday, Disney warned a bit more strongly. By late Thursday, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, and AMC Networks had made their disapproval clear, while Sony Pictures and Viacom made statements that were more circumspect, though hardly supportive of the Georgia lawmakers who passed the anti-abortion law. – Variety
Baltimore Symphony Management Cancels All Summer Concerts; Lockout Begins June 17
The musicians have been playing without a contract since mid-January, and the main issue in negotiations has been whether to shorten the orchestra’s annual season to 40 weeks from 52, which management says there is not enough money to maintain. CEO Peter Kjome has now made that decision unilaterally, and, after the subscription concert on June 16, will not pay musicians again until September. – The Baltimore Sun
Singer Leon Redbone Dead At 69
“Although Redbone’s pop-defying predilection for seemingly antiquated musical styles of the ’20s and ’30s made him the unlikeliest of stars, he became one anyway.” – Variety
Amsterdam Is Trying To Reduce Its Enormous Tourist Traffic, Except When It Isn’t
The rowdy, messy, laddish types who flock to the city for the hashish and the red-light district have been joined by hordes of selfie-seeking Instagram addicts, and Amsterdam is becoming ever more unpleasant for those who live there. So the Netherlands Tourism Board has stopped promoting the city, permits for new hotels are being sharply reduced, and Airbnb limits are being enforced. On the other hand, two airports are being expanded and an enormous cruise ship terminal is planned. Feargus O’Sullivan looks into the Dutch capital’s conflict between quality of life and economic growth. – CityLab
Who Will Take Over As Head Of The National African American Museum When Lonnie Bunch Leaves?
“Lonnie Bunch gave 14 years. He has built an incredible foundation. We want someone just like [him], who was transforming, who could inspire the really terrific people we have at the museum to reach new heights, someone who has credibility in the academic community as well as someone who is a strong leader.” – Washington Post
Technology Can Now Digitally Alter Actors On Screen To Make Them Younger. But Isn’t Something Being Lost?
Director Martin Scorsese thinks so. When you remove wrinkles and smooth out eyes, aren’t you losing crucial expressive elements of an actor’s performance? – The Guardian
Disney Says It Too Will Reconsider Any Work In Georgia
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos spoke out on Tuesday. Then Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about the situation on Wednesday. Disney will find it “very difficult” to film in Georgia if the new law takes effect, Iger told Reuters. – CNN
Do You Know What It Means?
No sooner had I started to idly wonder what’s happening in one of my favorite former hometowns than Terri Hinte sent a message reminding me of a new album by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra — a tribute to one of the city’s most beloved musical heroes, the late Allen Toussaint. – Doug Ramsey
Is iTunes Headed For The Retirement Home?
iTunes had a good run, there’s no denying it. But it’s time for the world to move on. If Apple actually moves forward with its rumored iTunes plans, life could be significantly easier for those who have suffered with the tedious, poorly optimized app for years. – Mashable
Michael Wolff On *His* Type Of White House Journalism Versus That Of Newspapers
Says the author of Fire and Fury and Siege: Trump Under Fire, “I’ve said many times: I’m not a Washington reporter. And Washington reporters, they do a great job. They do their job. I approached this as, that the more significant factor here, beyond policy, was buffoonery, psychopathology, random and ad hominem cruelties. In a way, my thesis is that this administration, this character, needed a different kind of writer.” – The New York Times
This Man Has To Be Ready To Play Any One Of 14 Roles Any A Given Night
“As what’s known in Broadway parlance as a ‘swing,’ [Angelo] Soriano is paid to master a head-spinning 14 roles, though he is never certain he will go onstage in any of them. With … [injuries,] vacations, and the flu, and the complexities of running a multimillion-dollar Disney show, you need agile replacements who can sing, dance and not trip over one another while brandishing scimitars in one scene, nailing an exuberant nine-minute tap-heavy number the next.” – The New York Times Magazine
Study: How Twitter Might Be Undermining Your Intelligence
The finding by a team of Italian researchers is not necessarily that the crush of hashtags, likes and retweets destroys brain cells; that’s a question for neuroscientists, they said. Rather, the economists, in a working paper published this month by the economics and finance department at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, found that Twitter not only fails to enhance intellectual attainment but substantially undermines it. – Washington Post