Attraction is an instinct. While it’s versatile to some extend, key aspects of perceived attractiveness seem to be inherent to our species. – Medium
Folks Have Been Looking For A Gender-Neutral English Pronoun For A Long Time Now
“Even though people did not … personally identify as nonbinary in the way we understand it today (though some identified as ‘neuter’), neutral pronouns existed — as did an understanding that the language we had to describe gender was insufficient. … English speakers have proposed 200 to 250 pronouns since the 1780s. Although most petered out almost immediately after their introduction, a few took on lives of their own.” – The Atlantic
How Big Was The Hit Public Radio And TV Stations Took Last Year?
“Revenues of public television and radio stations declined by $147 million, or 5%, in fiscal year 2020, which included the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, according to CPB’s latest State of the System analysis. The steepest losses in fiscal 2020 were in underwriting, foundation funding and investment income, … [while] individual giving revenue was the only income source that grew.” – Current
Jeanette Winterson Is Literally Burning Her Own Books
Happy Pride Month! Um: The author of the groundbreaking Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and many other experimental, daring works wrote on Twitter, ““Absolutely hated the cosy little domestic blurbs on my new covers. Turned me into wimmins fiction of the worst kind! Nothing playful or strange or the ahead of time stuff that’s in there. So I set them on fire.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Silencing Of America’s Most Distressed Areas
The newspaper crisis – and be assured, for small, local places, it is a crisis – means that areas where people need the most are getting covered the least. – LitHub
Sophie Rivera, Photographer Of Puerto Rican New York, 82
Rivera began by asking her neighbors to be her subjects. “The images she made were majestic four-by-four-foot prints of everyday New Yorkers of all ages. They were time-stamped by their hair styles and clothing as citizens of the 1970s and ’80s, but they were made eternal by their direct gazes, formal poses and the nimbus of light with which Ms. Rivera surrounded them. Vivien Raynor of The New York Times likened these Nuyorican Portraits, as they were known, to the portraits of Édouard Manet; The Times’s Holland Cotter described them as incandescent.” – The New York Times
What Novelists Can Learn From The Marvel Comics Universe
Sounds ridiculous, right? What do literary novels have in common with Avengers or WandaVision? Benjamin Percy says his Comet Cycle came about because he wanted to “go wild, do something different, change shit up, and create an experience—from a creative and business perspective—that was lit from beginning to end.” – LitHub
Frederike Mayrocker, Grande Dame Of German Language Poets, 96
Mayröcker, an Austrian, earned acclaim as a formally inventive poet, but her writing “ranged far more widely, producing an immense body of work that encompassed nearly every literary genre: novels, memoirs, children’s books, drama and radio plays as well as poetry. (Only a handful of her works have been translated into English.)” Perhaps that should change. – The New York Times
Bach, But Make It Upside Down
Another creative moment borne from boredom during the pandemic: “Dan Tepfer plays the first of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations. The piano is a Disklavier, which can record and play back. When he finishes, Tepfer taps a button on his iPad, triggering the piano to play back what he’s just recorded with the notes inverted, as if the score were turned upside down.” And if you’re skeptical, know that Anthony Tommasini of the NYT approves. – NPR
The National Black Theater Makes A High-Rise Decision
The National Black Theater is trading up – and up. It will replace its current building with a 21-story high-rise, where the theatre can have three floors while retail and housing occupy the rest. “National Black Theater leaders see the $185 million project, and the partnership they are entering with developers, as a new chapter with the financial and institutional backing to allow them to live out the dream of [their founder, Barbara Ann] Teer, who died in 2008: to nurture a space where Black artists can thrive, and the company can work to bring a deeper sense of racial justice to the American theater industry.” – The New York Times
The Studio Of Corita Kent, L.A.’s ‘Pop Art Nun,’ Earns Historic Status
And that’s historic for more than her art; it’s also unusual for Los Angeles to honor women artists in this way. Kent adapted silkscreen printing to the era of Pop. “In the wake of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, which called for a liberalization and modernization of the Catholic liturgy to the realities of 20th century life, she delved into creating work that echoed calls for social justice — be it antiwar efforts, labor campaigns or Black and Chicano civil rights.” – Los Angeles Times
A Mining Company Sponsors A Fringe Festival No More
In Perth, Australia, the multi-arts Fringe World loses its decade-long sponsor, the decidedly non-edgy mining company Woodside, after three years of protests by festival artists. – The Guardian (UK)
Andras Schiff Embraces Historical Instruments
Admirers and critics alike may say, “At last!” This is a strong about-face. “He proudly played Bach on modern pianos; referred to fortepianists with an interest in Schubert as mere ‘specialists’; and told a New York Times interviewer in 1983, ‘I’ve heard some ghastly things done in the name of authenticity.’ Time and experience, though, have brought about a wholesale change in his attitude, and Schiff has transformed into an eager evangelist for the use of historical keyboards.” – The New York Times
Why Is Philly’s Post-Pandemic Arts Budget So Anemic?
Other cities are thinking big: Chicago’s Arts 77 has $60 million for individual artists and arts organizations. “City departments from parks and rec to libraries, community development, streets, and schools would all participate. … New York City has set aside $25 million for a municipal jobs program that aims to put 1,500 artists to work in communities across the city. San Francisco has started a pilot program with a similar focus. Los Angeles has established a $36 million arts recovery fund to help support arts organizations.” But in Philadelphia, there’s no plan for the arts. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Pompidou Center To Open First U.S. Branch In — Wait, Where?
Jersey City, NJ — which would, if not for the state boundary, be like Brooklyn, since it is directly across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, to which Jersey City is connected by subway trains. (In fact, this new museum will be right smack next to a station for those trains, so there’s no excuse that it will be too hard to get to.) Assuming approval by the City Council, the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City is expected to open in 2024. – The New York Times
If US Orchestras Want More Diverse Conductors, They Have A Source Of Them Very Near At Hand
Zachary Woolfe: “There are more of them than ever, and they go by a variety of titles: assistant, associate, fellow, resident. Almost every major orchestra has at least one, … [and they’re] a far more diverse group in which women and musicians of color have found success in recent years. … The question now is how soon they will enter the topmost ranks — and whether, as major orchestras search for music directors in the coming years, they will look toward the crowd right under their noses.” – The New York Times