“On some level, you’ve got to ask your arts organization a really hard question: If there’s no positive impact you can measure, why hang your hat on the idea? After all, inspiring change is not about the “inspiring” — it’s about the “change,” no? When arts nonprofits focus on inspiration — that is, inspiration instead of change — they’re complicit in creating an escape hatch, a counterfeit way to gauge their existence.” – Clyde Fitch Report
Canadian Publishing In 2019: Sales Flat, Some Structural Issues
A recent survey of independent bookstores across Canada by BookNet received responses from a total of 69 stores, with 80 locations. One consequence of this dearth is that online book purchases surpassed purchases in bookstores, with 53% of customers surveyed by BookNet saying that they now primarily ordered books online, a trend that has flipped in Canada in the past two years. – Publishers Weekly
Conductor starts orchestra on Chicago’s South Side for young musicians of color
“A conductor has started a youth orchestra on Chicago’s South Side to serve many young musicians of color who had to commute long distances to take part in music programs downtown or in the city’s northern suburbs. Charles Dickerson formed the South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra in July.” – WLS (Chicago)
Jazz Pianist Harold Mabern Dead At 83
“A pianist of percussive fire and boundless soul, with a language that pulled from hard bop, post-bop, Memphis soul and the blues, … Mabern had a strong yet supple attack at the piano, with a penchant for block chords that combined McCoy Tyner’s modal coloration with the ringing affirmations of the gospel church.” – WBGO (Newark, NJ)
Seattle Artists: Time To Move To Detroit
“Making art takes lots of time, and when time in a city becomes nothing but making that rent, you will not make art or the kind of art that requires (for its greatness) not just productivity but lots of time for leisure. This is the part of artistic production that’s almost always missed by those with practical minds, men and women with middle-class common sense, the judges of contests for art grants. A big part of making poems, paintings, novels, music, films, sculptures involves aristocratic waste or doing stuff unrelated to the direct or obvious act of creativity. Young artists of Seattle must stop smelling the coffee and do something about it. Move to Detroit.” – The Stranger
Met Opera Staffers Protest Placido Domingo’s Continuing Work With The Company
A number of longtime employees at the opera house have told NPR that they are furious that the New York company is continuing its association with Domingo. These staffers believe that their employer has a specific responsibility to take allegations of sexual misconduct seriously after the downfall of James Levine, the Met’s former music director of four decades, who has been publicly accused of sexual abuse by nine men. – NPR
Russian Court Frees Actor After Public Protests
Pavel Ustinov had been arrested during anti-government protests last month. The backlash against the case came largely from Moscow’s theatre community, which carries plenty of social capital with government elites who seek to co-opt and befriend popular actors and directors. – The Guardian
Dance Class Helps A Child-Turned-Adult Movie Star Feel Normal
Keke Palmer came to fame playing Queen Latifah’s niece, and 17 years later, she’s about to become the host for the third hour of Good Morning America (oh, and she plays a part in the new movie Hustlers as well). How does she relax and stay focused? Dance, of course. “Fame is extremely traumatic,” she says, but dancing helps her find friends and just feel like a normal person in the struggle of a challenging class. – The New York Times
How’s That Guardian List Of The Best Plays Of The 21st Century?
It’s “a deranged hodge-podge,” according to Andrzej Lukowski. The list of 50 shows “veers from resolutely mainstream to borderline obscure without a tremendous amount of sense or coherency. All the while, it, notionally, professes to be an authoritative overview of literally all the theatre in the world over the last almost 20 years.” Ouch. – The Stage (UK)
Annette Kolodny, Ecofeminist Literary Critic And Scholar, Has Died At 78
Kolodny, who specialized in incisive and groundbreaking – or perhaps ground-mending, to be a bit more ecofeminist about it – essays, “was a prodigious author and scholar with many areas of interest, among them early American literature, Native American culture, women’s studies and feminist literary criticism.” – The New York Times
Why Lizst Is Better In The Catacombs Than In Carnegie Hall
Well, at least his “Poetic and Religious Harmonies.” Why? Pianist Jenny Lin: “This is definitely a very private Liszt, one who’s retreated to his inner self. … I don’t think you could do this at Carnegie Hall. It would be weird.” – The New York Times
The Ghosts Of Black Los Angeles
The writer Ismail Muhammad says, “You can’t disentangle blackness and California” – and nowhere, he explains through books, movies, and memories, is that clearer than in the history of Los Angeles, the idea of “South Central,” and the country’s imagination of what L.A. stands for. – LitHub
What Have We Trained Artificial Intelligence To Think When It Sees Our Faces?
Hint: It’s just as racist, sexist, fatphobic, and all of the other problems as any human – but more so, because it’s been trained by a LOT of problematic human data. – The New York Times
N.O. Mustill: Master Collagist
Comparing a 1967 collage to a Photoshopped image in the current New York Times: Are both art? – Jan Herman
When You Come In Late To A Power Comedy Act, You’ve Got A Delightful Amount To Catch Up On
Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara are charming millions on the show Schitt’s Creek and are nominated for some major Emmys, but … what to say if this is the first time you’ve noticed them? Well, you’ve got a lot – a lot – of joy ahead of you. – Los Angeles Times
Suzanne Whang, Actress, Comedian, And Enormously Popular Host Of ‘House Hunters,’ Has Died At 56
Whang dealt with breast cancer for more than a decade, and she incorporated the resultant health care experiences into her comedy – while also hosting House Hunters International and acting on Dexter, Las Vegas, and Arrested Development. HGTV, the network where she made House Hunters a household name stated in its press release, “Suzanne was warm, funny and kind with a distinctive voice that made everyone feel at home.” – The New York Times
You’ll Need A Lot Of Coffee To Get Through All 50 Books On The National Book Award Longlists
All five longlists rolled out this week. Are you ready to read 10 books in each of the categories? Get your poetry, nonfiction, fiction, translated fiction, and young people’s literature reading caps on (or just wait for the lists to be winnowed to five in October … or one apiece when the awards are announced). – NPR
The Ten Best Emmys Acceptance Speeches
Will anyone join the list this year? (And can anyone ever top Merrit Wever’s 2013 acceptance speech?) – Los Angeles Times
Loving Los Angeles Enough To Tell Its Present, And History, In Books
Nina Revoyr’s books “juxtapose the jambalaya of Los Angeles’s people, neighborhoods, cultures, and social classes into complicated stories that surprise at every turn, entertain, and then illuminate the ever-present beauty of the city.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Hollywood Is Glum, But The Emmys Show Must Go On
A lot of new shows are constantly churning through the pipeline, Netflix and Amazon are awash in television bucks, and old sitcoms are doing nine-figure streaming deals because for some reason, the kids these days love Friends and Seinfeld. But behind the scenes? Authors and agents are suing each other, some agents fled town for the weekend, and even the parties were cancelled, y’all. Can Hollywood recover? – The New York Times
How’s Jaap van Zweden Doing At The New York Phil? There Are Some Surprises
Anthony Tommasini: “When Mr. van Zweden’s appointment was announced, it was questioned whether he would prioritize cultivating living composers, commissioning major works, bringing in a new generation of conductors and soloists, and reaching out to the New York community to try and become a leading cultural figure here. Yet he has delivered quite well thus far.” – The New York Times