Asmaa Walton had the idea at the end of 2019, and shared it during Black History Month of this year. “I was just like, I’m just going to start collecting the books to see what happens. I started collecting books and I made an Instagram account for it. Over time, people actually got really interested in it. I started to shift my view that maybe this needs to be a physical location. I started to formulate a plan to make this a real space that people can come and enjoy.” – Hyperallergic
Author: ArtsJournal2
Don’t Let The Orchestra Become A Museum piece
Many orchestras fumbled the move to digital, which isn’t really a surprise since they weren’t prepared. “We need to draw people in with ideas they can relate to. Why do we need to do this? Theatre, dance, cinema, the visual arts have been doing this successfully for years. Their audiences are more diverse. Orchestras are several steps behind in this respect.” – The Strad
After Losing Libel Case In Britain, Johnny Depp Is Asked To Leave The ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Franchise
Warner Bros. is recasting the role of Grindelwald for its third movie in the franchise. The British court’s decision last week “came after a trial in which Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard, 34, presented scandalous conflicting testimony about their turbulent years together — testimony that included admissions of heavy drug use by Depp and allegations of violence on both sides.” – Los Angeles Times
Elsa Raven, Character Actress Extraordinaire, Has Died At 91
Though she played hundreds of roles on stage and screen, “none of those performances made a bigger impression than her role as ‘Clocktower Lady’ in Back to the Future, the top-grossing movie of 1985. Early in the film her character interrupts the young lovers played by Michael J. Fox and Claudia Wells in mid-kiss, urging them to ‘save the clock tower.’ The mayor, she tells them, holding out a donation can, wants to replace the clock.” – The New York Times
The Great British Bake Off’s Famous Illustrator Has A Secret
He doesn’t even like cake. But that’s OK; he likes drawing – and now he has a team of four to help him with the fun illustrations that accompany the bakers’ plans. Emphasis on the plans. Since in-tent bakes don’t always work, the show now also sends the illustrator photos of practice bakes, which usually do work a little better. – BBC
Penumbra Theatre Is 44, And In Middle-Age It’s Sitting Pretty Even During The Pandemic
With Ford and Mellon grants plus pledges of twice its annual operating budget from other sources, the St. Paul theatre is on firm financial footing. The artistic director says, “This allows us to dream,” while the managing director is happy that “We’re now resourced in a way that we’ve never been, so we’re getting out of grind mode.” It’s an enviable position to be in right now, but it only comes after decades of that grind. – Minneapolis Star-Tribune
How To Market To Millennials And Zoomers?
Maybe ask this guy, who tweeted that he was going to write an erotic story about the president. “He released Trump Temptations: The Billionaire and the Bell Boy, a fictional account of Mr. Trump and a male lover, on Amazon. It blew up before it was taken down, at which point Mr. Daniel released it for free on Wattpad, a self-publishing site focused on fan fiction, where it was viewed 2.3 million times.” – The New York Times
Hundreds Of Authors Come Together To Support Indie Bookstores In The UK
The UK’s second lockdown is terrifying for small bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. “Bestselling novelist Holly Bourne came up with the idea of providing stores with signed, personalised bookplates to incentivise customers to buy from their local shop rather than online.” – The Guardian (UK)
Shooting A Pivotal Plot Moment, Changed By The Pandemic, During The Pandemic
One of the actors on Superstore: “I 100% feel that the lack of convenience throughout this entire process has created a far more nuanced and realistic story, both on a narrative level and on an emotional level. … I feel so guilty having a reason to be excited about a deadly pandemic, but in this one little tiny corner of the giant hellscape that is coronavirus, it just became so much fuller and richer and more interesting.” – Los Angeles Times
Marguerite Littman, Truman Capote’s Inspiration For Holly Golightly, Has Died At 90
Littman was “a honey-voiced Louisianian and literary muse who taught Hollywood to speak Southern, but [she] left her most enduring legacy as an early force in the fight against AIDS” – The New York Times