“A New Green Federal Theatre would document the efforts of the Green New Deal to deliver economic justice and sustainable life-styles to the people while mitigating and adapting to the climate crises. It would have a democratic mandate to address how our lives are now and how they are going to increasingly become in the midst of the growing climate crisis. … A New Green Federal Theatre would take advantage of the skills and knowledge of the many climate artists and activists who, working in communities across the nation, are creating rituals and climate actions, writing and producing original plays, and staging productions on shoestring budgets. As with Federal Theatre, an underutilized labor pool, skilled and educated, already exists, though locked out of institutional theatre employment precisely because of these artists’ commitment to a fossil fuel free, green future.” – HowlRound
Library Of Congress Puts Out A Call For Help Transcribing Suffragist Stories
Nearly 16,000 pages of letters, speeches, newspaper articles and other suffragist documents are now available on By the People, a crowdsourcing platform launched by the library in 2018. The project seeks to make the library’s collections fully word searchable and easier to read, for both scholars and lay historians alike. – Smithsonian
NYC Cultural Agenda Fund: A collaborative effort to build an equitable arts ecosystem
“Over four years, the fund” — a group of eight foundations — “made 89 grants to 67 groups totaling $2.27 million, helping ‘build a broader commitment to a fairer and more equitable arts ecosystem in New York City and a more deeply connected network of arts organizations,’ according to a new report that shares insights, strategies, and key takeaways for grantmakers.” – Grantmakers in the Arts
Brain-To-Text: Neuroscientists Figure Out How To Decipher Words From Brain Signals
With a radical new approach, doctors have found a way to extract a person’s speech directly from their brain. The breakthrough is the first to demonstrate how a person’s intention to say specific words can be gleaned from brain signals and turned into text fast enough to keep pace with natural conversation. – The Guardian
Some People Have Really Strong Feelings About The Semicolon
In a Q&A, Cecelia Watson, author of the new book about the oft-misunderstood punctuation mark, talks about how the semicolon has elicited romantic love, inferiority complexes, class resentment, and even arguments about gender roles. – Longreads
A Picasso Show In Beijing Provokes Debates About Censorship
“Beijing brags about its humming art scene. Galleries thrive. The art schools possess a certain frisson. Art is widely taught in elementary schools. But shrouding all this creative fervor is the meddling hand of the government. Censorship is rife in literature, and film. Although few art shows have been closed in the last few years, exhibitions are self-censored, and many artists choose to work abroad to escape the official tastemakers.” – The New York Times
Gawker’s Relaunch Is Called Off, Staff Is Laid Off
Bustle Digital Group, which bought the site in a bankruptcy auction last year, said in a statement, “We are postponing the Gawker relaunch. For now, we are focusing company resources and efforts on our most recent acquisitions, Mic, The Outline, Nylon and Inverse.” – Variety
Art Dealer Sentenced To 4-12 Years For Multimillion-Dollar Fraud And Larceny
“Between 2010 and 2015, [Timothy] Sammons is said to have pocketed money from art he sold for his clients” — including works by Picasso and Chagall — “and used art that did not belong to him as collateral to obtain personal loans.” – Artnet
Breakout Hit: Lil Nas X Breaks 23-Year-Old Record For Most Weeks At The Top Of The Billboard Pop Charts
The breakthrough rapper smashed the record this week when the track spent its 17th week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart – the only song to do so since Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s duet One Sweet Day set the record in 1996. – The Guardian
David Brooks, Art Critic, Weighs In Again: This Time On Definitions Of Greatness
For most people, creativity is precisely the ability to pursue multiple interests at once, and then bring them together in new ways. “Without contraries is no progression,” William Blake wrote. – The New York Times
UK’s Creative Industries May Face Labor Problems After Brexit
“The prevalence of freelance workers in the sector – 50% of companies surveyed had used freelancers in the past year – and EU workers among them, meant that ‘one in ten businesses in the creative industries employ a freelance worker who might be unable to gain continued access to the UK workforce’ after Brexit.” – Arts Professional
Ancient Tablet Recording Homer’s “Odyssey” Discovered – Maybe The Oldest
It is engraved with 13 verses from the poem recounting the adventures of the hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy. The tale was probably composed by Homer in the late 8th Century BC. – BBC
It’s Easy To Get Depressed About The World Ending (Climate Change And All). But Enter The Extremophiles…
Extremophiles tell us that everything we think we know about the fragility of life is wrong. Life is indeed extraordinary, not to mention precious and deserving of reverence – but not in any sense miraculous. – Aeon
Sculptor Neil Estern, Known For Realistic Public Monuments, Dead At 93
“[He] created sculptures of some of the nation’s leading public figures, works that can be seen today in major cities … He [always] maintained his commitment to verisimilitude, whether depicting a charismatic President Franklin D. Roosevelt or an effervescent Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York.” – The New York Times
Pink Seesaws That Straddle The US/Mexico Border Fence
In an Instagram post that has received tens of thousands of likes, children and adults can be seen playing and interacting on both sides of the fence using the seesaws, which provide “a literal fulcrum” between the countries. – The Guardian
A Wearable Robot Makes You Dance To Its Moves
“My arms jerk up and down and twist from side to side with the beat, but my own muscles aren’t doing the work; my flesh is being pushed around in space by the 45 pounds of metal, cable, and hydraulic cylinders running across my shoulders and down my arms. A robot is making me dance. With me beneath the lights are 11 other humans, each cinched into an exoskeleton of their own.” – Wired
Report: Notre Dame Fire May Have Poisoned Local Residents With Lead
According to confidential documents leaked to the (paywalled) website Mediapart earlier this month and discussed across French media, locations surrounding the fire-damaged cathedral have registered levels of lead contamination ranging between 500 and 800 times the official safe level. – CityLab
Can Delhi Turn Its Most Chaotic Street Back Into An Indian Champs-Élysées?
When Shah Jahan (yes, the one who built the Taj Mahal) built Chandni Chowk in the 1650s, it was lined with trees and elegant buildings and had a canal down its center. Now it has jam-packed crowds, insane traffic, run-down buildings and hawkers everywhere. But the Delhi city government has engaged a team of architects to redesign the street to something like its original splendor. – The Guardian
Metro DC’s National Philharmonic Gets Two Offers To Save It From Closing
“Two weeks ago, the Maryland-based National Philharmonic announced that it was planning to close because it had run out of money. Now, the group has an embarrassment of riches. On Tuesday, the orchestra administration said that it had raised the funds needed to stay open, while on Monday night, a local musician and businessman presented to the board a concrete proposal to save the year-round regional orchestra.” – The Washington Post
The Island Whose Contemporary Dance Company Are Superstars
In Taiwan, Cloud Gate Dance Theater is so beloved that the company’s farewell performance for founding director Lin Hwai-min (who’s reitring after 46 years) drew 50,000 people to the plaza in front of the National Theatre. Roslyn Sulcas talks to Lin and his successor as artistic director, Cheng Tsung-lung. – The New York Times