“Teachers nationwide are using rap – the street-savvy, pop-locking, rhyming creations of Shakur, Geto Boys, Run-DMC and others – to teach history and English. Some colleges are even training future educators to weave rap into high school lessons. To some parents and teachers, the idea of mentioning Grandmaster Flash in the same breath as T.S. Eliot is wack. They reject the notion that rap, with its raw language and vivid depictions of violence, has anything in common with literature. But those who use it to teach say rap can be intellectually provocative, shedding light on the grand themes of love, war and oppression in much the same way as classic fiction.”
Tag: 01.14.03
Last Week Blamed, This Week Nominated… Rappers And The Brits
Last week British culture minister Kim Howells blasted rappers for promoting violence. This week the Brits music awards nominations are out, and “the list is thick with rappers and Dr Howells’ particular bêtes noires, those ‘idiots’ from So Solid Crew – as he put it – are nominated twice.”
Vying For The Richest Museum Prize
Museums big and small across the UK are battling for the first £100,000 Gulbenkian prize. “The prize is worth almost £40,000 more than any other. It was intended to create a buzz in the museum world on a par with the Turner and the Booker prizes in visual arts and literature. The list is scrupulously balanced in scale and geography from Cornwall to Dundee.”
Andras Schiff On Coughing Audiences
Pianist Andras Schiff has a sore spot for those who come to his concerts and cough: “Luckily I was in a good disposition, so I just very quietly stood up and said, ‘Could we now make a coughing break. Please feel free to cough,’ and I just walked off. I was told by friends that this person got very red and left the hall, and after five minutes I came out and started again, and all went beautifully.”
Trials For SF Jewish Museum
Facing fundraising obstacles and internal disagreements, San Francisco’s Jewish Museum is looking at scaling back a design for a dramatic Daniel Libeskind museum. “We had become too ambitious in our planning for the new museum. The idea was to expose Jewish culture and thought to a wider public in ‘an architectural gem’ in the heart of the city’s cultural district. Now we’re thinking about a smaller building with a smaller operating budget. How that smaller building will look, I don’t know. It’s unlikely that it will be the Libeskind design as we know it.”
Big Arts Cuts In California May Shutter Some Arts Groups
California state budget cuts will mean a 50% drop in grants to arts groups statewide, from $16.4 million to about $8 million. Although the state arts agency budget is a “relatively modest item among the $20.7 billion in cuts proposed by Davis for 2003-04, the effects, would be dramatic among nonprofits that have already seen donations falter from foundations, corporations and individuals. ‘People will have to close their doors. Artists will lose their jobs’.”
Is Jazz Abandoning Instrumentals For Popstar Vocals?
Jazz musicians, listeners and critics – take your pick – often seem embroiled in one kind of feud or another. Sometimes they’re over finicky little things; other times they’re deep-seated and deadly serious. In either case, however, they’re often odd, out-of-the-way sorts of quarrels, reserved for insiders alone. But right now, that’s just not true.” The topic of the day? Singers. Jazz singers are selling big time, all out of proportion to traditional jazz. Singers like Diana Krall and Norah Jones are posting popstar-size sales. One question – are jazz labels abandoning instrumentalists in hopes of hitting the next big thing?
PBS Sanitizes Language For “Gin Game” Broadcast
“The Gin Game”, D.L. Coburn’s 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, has some salty language. But really – compared to your average movie these days, it’s rather tame. But “in a bow to any skittish affiliates, PBS plans to provide alternate editions of the production: original as well as one that deletes some of the swear words uttered.”
Big Tech And Big Music Strike Deal
Technology companies and the entertainment industry have been fighting over whether laws ought to be enacted preventing requiring anti-copying hardware in machines. Now leaders of the two industries have made a deal. “Lobbyists for some of the nation’s largest technology companies will argue under the new agreement against efforts in Congress to amend U.S. laws to broaden the rights of consumers, such as explicitly permitting viewers to make backup copies of DVDs for personal use or copy songs onto handheld listening devices. In return tech companies – Microsoft, Intel, Dell, etc – will actively campaign against digital piracy.
Britain To Review Censorship Laws
The British government is undertaking a review of the country’s censorship laws. “It’s very hard to escape the concern that violent videos, violent films, violent music, violent games do influence some of the more impressionable minds. I think there’s a case for reviewing whether we should regulate more rigorously. There’s certainly a coarsening of attitudes.”