“In prose that might have leapt from best-selling novels, [he] portrayed the last minutes of thousands who perished in the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001; detailed the terrors of innocent Black youths pulled over and shot by racial-profiling state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike; and told of the coronavirus besieging a New York City hospital. … Colleagues called him a fast, accurate and prolific writer who crusaded against injustice, worked for six metropolitan dailies and wrote or co-wrote six books.” – The New York Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Can Choirs Can Sing Together Again COVID-Safely? In Cars, Drive-In Movie-Style
“It started with David Newman, a baritone on the voice faculty of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. In May, after a widely discussed web conference on the dangers of singing, Mr. Newman set up a sound system with four wireless microphones, an old-school analog mixer and an amplifier. Several singers gathered in their cars on his street, and he conducted them from his driveway. It worked.” – The New York Times
Unknown Style Of Rock Art, 6,000 Or More Years Old, Found In Northern Australia
The Maliwawa Figures, as they’re called, date from 6,000 to 9,000 years ago and are unusual in picturing humans and animals together. Archaeologists say they are “a missing link in the history of Aboriginal art, bridging the gap between the large naturalistic animals characteristic of the dynamic figures, created about 12,000 years ago, and the stick figures that arose around 4,000 years ago, known as X-Ray art.” – Artnet
As Late As 2019, Curtis Institute Failed To Respond To Lara St. John’s Allegations Of Rape And Sexual Abuse
“The damning, detailed 54-page report by the law firm Cozen O’Connor … shows that … time and again, the elite music conservatory on Rittenhouse Square failed to respond to St. John in a meaningful way to her accounts of rape and repeated abuse by violin professor Jascha Brodsky.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
V&A Preparing To Return Items Looted After Ethiopian Battle
“The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has started talks with the Ethiopian embassy over returning looted treasures in its collections, including a gold crown and royal wedding dress, … plundered after the 1868 capture of Maqdala.” – The Guardian
Two Actors’ Unions Fight For Jurisdiction Over Streamed Theater
“Actors’ Equity Association [theater] is accusing SAG-AFTRA [film, television and radio] of raiding its turf and undercutting its contracts by negotiating lower-paying deals with theaters for streaming productions. SAG-AFTRA, in turn, says that work made for broadcast has always been its domain, and that it has offered to work with Equity through the pandemic but that the stage union has refused all efforts at compromise.” – The New York Times
Royal Shakespeare Co. Will Keep Two Theatres Closed Until 2022; Layoffs Coming
“While the RSC’s smaller stages, the Swan and the Other Place, will remain shut, the organisation is to reopen its Royal Shakespeare theatre for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic closed venues in March. … The RSC has [slao] said that 158 people are currently in [jobs] at risk. Through voluntary redundancies and redeployment, the organisation hopes to keep the number of compulsory redundancies below 90.” – The Guardian
Louise Glück Wins Nobel Prize For Literature
“The writer, 77, born in New York, is one of the most celebrated poets in America. She has previously won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award and a Bollingen Prize. She was the poet laureate of the United States from 2003 to 2004. Before today, only 15 women have ever won the Nobel Prize in literature since it was first awarded in 1901.” – The Washington Post
‘He Had A Ringside Seat For Many Of The Towering Works Of Postwar American Cinema’: Cinematographer Michael Chapman Dead At 84
He started as a camera operator for such landmarks as Klute, The Godfather, and Jaws; he went on to be cinematographer on movies ranging from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Personal Best to Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid to All the Right Moves (one of three titles he directed) to the big-screen remake of The Fugitive (his second Oscar nomination). His most admired work, perhaps, was in four films by Martin Scorsese: American Boy, The Last Waltz, Taxi Driver, and (his first Oscar nomination) Raging Bull. – The Guardian
Viability
Arts and culture organizations that can learn to grow their audiences and leverage these connections into long-term financial stability may learn that a successful pivot is often one that turns toward their neighbors. – Doug Borwick