Category: people

He told the audience at TED in 2006: “I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new concept of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way we strip-mined the earth for a particular commodity. We have to rethink the fundamental principles in which we are educating our children.” Understandably, this was much more enticing to the education profession than it was to government ministers, but it was based not on a single speech but Robinson’s whole career in academic education, which culminated in a professorship at Warwick University (1989-2001), before he became a senior adviser to the J Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles. – The Guardian

To be fair, she wasn’t lost. The system was. “Representation isn’t the same as legitimization. When Girlfriends aired, shows featuring Black casts were categorized as ‘Black,’ a label that was perceived as less serious, less substantive. (The show was often called the ‘‘urban’ version of Sex and the City‘—a descriptor that, when I reminded Ross of it, made her put her head in her hands.) By the time Black-ish arrived in 2014, a new vocabulary for talking about representation had, too.” – The Atlantic

That’s a hard task for any actor, and Boseman had to – got to – play Thurgood Marshall, James Brown, and Jackie Robinson (not to mention embodying the fictional King of Wakanda, T’Challa). “I’ll confess to finding it odd that Boseman played these three roles so quickly. It seemed at first like a joke on the movies’ ongoing obsession with stories about exceptional Black Americans or like Hollywood was too lazy to imagine anyone else inhabiting the exceptions. The truth is that Boseman actually cornered a market with his inner elasticity and, at least for me, exploded the parameters of what biographical moviemaking ought to be.” – The New York Times

Koller, author of An Unknown Woman, inspired many women to consider their lives as full and complex – but she wasn’t necessarily pleased with her own experience. “It is a paradox that her life provided inspiration for so many, even as she continued to struggle. In 1991, Bantam republished An Unknown Woman, and it’s now a sought-after title on Amazon.” – The New York Times

The actor, who also played James Brown in Get on Up and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016, but had never spoken publicly about the diagnosis, and kept on working during much of his treatment. “Boseman’s Panther became an icon for children of color, coming at a time when representation was only just beginning to become a priority in Hollywood.” – The Hollywood Reporter

A little over a year into my tenure at The Chronicle, I’d been initiated. For journalists, receiving an angry handwritten letter about usage from Quentin Kopp is a rite of passage, badge of honor and battle scar… His second letter to me, from December 2018, protested my use of “spaz” as a verb and any use whatsoever of “grok,” which he called “self-devised.” He concluded with a backhanded compliment: “But, don’t worry: Some quasi-literates may embrace you because you’re creative.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Among the artists whose works he bought, exhibited, and donated to museums (and to some of whom he paid regular stipends) were Thornton Dial Sr., Lonnie Holley, Bessie Harvey, Mose Tolliver, and the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama — and he would compare their art to that of Rauschenberg, Johns and de Kooning. His efforts did not go without criticism, though, including accusations of white paternalism and enthusiasm to the point of pushiness. – The New York Times

Mr. Perlman has been so ubiquitous that it is easy to take for granted his status as “the reigning virtuoso of the violin,” as his marketing materials put it. But with his 75th birthday arriving on Aug. 31, this may be a moment to reassess how that reign began and what has happened to the realm and all the superlatives. – The New York Times

Connery nonetheless celebrates his advance on a tenth decade as an avatar of old-fashioned masculinity. His role as James Bond — hating the Beatles at the height of the their success — helped position those attitudes within inverted commas. He went from playing grumpy young men to grumpy old men. He became the most famous Scot in the world. Peter Jackson tried to lure him into the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Fans have wondered if he might return to Indiana Jones. But Connery isn’t playing. – Irish Times

Saba Sahar, who is a senior police officer and an activist as well as a performer and producer/director, was shot in her car or her way to work. She was comatose for 20 hours but is now out of danger, said her husband. The Taliban has denied responsibility. – CBS News