Ross Jackson takes on the practice of putting the one African-Amrican-themed show in a theater’s schedule during February (Black History Month); “that one black actor onstage,” often in a subsidiary role; colorblind or nontraditional casting (“the terms are inherently aggressive and inappropriate”); and “dehumanizing” casting of black actors as subservients, animals and/or magical beings.
Tag: 01.29.16
Work Stoppage Avoided As Fort Worth Symphony Extends Players’ Contract Through July
“The extension, which lasts until July 31, keeps the contract terms the same as the contract that expired last year. … The two parties have been in negotiations since last June and have been far apart on how much musicians should be paid.”
Why Do Humans Love Invented Languages So Much?
“Strangely enough, the more ‘alien’ the language, the more we can learn about our own messy human languages and how ‘weird’ they can seem. Marc Okrand, the creator of Klingon, explains how he deliberately tried to violate human language universals in order to make Klingon seem alien, from the unusual set of sounds in its phoneme inventory to using uncommon syntactic rules, such as the object-verb-subject word order seen only in about 1% of the world’s languages.”
Canadian Stage Announces A Season So White It Gets Its Own Hashtag
“You’d have to have your head in the sand, or perhaps somewhere else, to not anticipate that there would be criticism of this in Toronto in 2016, amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy and right after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech on diversity ‘as a source of strength’ at Davos.”
We Need A Funding System For Artists That Puts Food On The Table And Also Supports Dreaming
“So many artists whose potential is unlimited, and who have already worked on visible, prestige (and in some cases commercial) projects, are still barely scraping by. This is not a new thing, although of course the current funding situation tightens the screws. It reflects the fact that a great deal of the increased funding that went into theatre over the last 20 years found its way into buildings and administrative posts, leaving artists to apparently exist on thin air.”
Ballet Dancers’ Brains Change As They Practice, Scans Prove
“‘We found that in the learning process, our brain function makes an inverted ‘U’ learning pattern from a slow pace at the start, accelerating to a peak at the midpoint, before returning to the original pace, once we have mastered the task,’ says DeSouza.”
Where Is The Literary Black Avant-Garde?
“Appropriation and hybridization are two of the hallmarks of Black art forms (think of sampling in hip-hop) which is also true of experimental art. How come Black art isn’t seen as synonymous with experimentation? And how come the opposite is so often true? Why are Black artists, along with other racial minorities, usually excluded from the so-called avant garde?”
The U.S. Art Industry Has Begun (Re)Invading Cuba
“At 331 Art Space in Havana, visitor traffic has gotten so heavy that it’s cutting into work hours. Adrian Fernandez, who shares the space with two other artists, said that in the past six months the studio has received guests from Facebook, Google, UPS, the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian. ‘At least we try to have the mornings free—then people come in the afternoon—but as we have more demand that has gotten harder,’ said the 31-year-old photographer.”
The Gentrification Of San Diego Killed An Experimental Arts Space, And Hasn’t Replaced It Yet
“‘This will diminish the opportunity for the arts to be present on a continuing basis in the central part of San Diego,’ he said. ‘And that’s the kernel of the issue. Let’s not forget that.'”
The Top Things The Washington Post Learned From Nielsen’s ‘Peak TV’ Numbers
Out of 1400 (fourteen hundred!) TV shows, AMC ended up being one of the big winners: “‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ are gone, but how would AMC even notice? ‘The Walking Dead’ (19.4 million) is the third-most watched show on all of television. The next-highest cable show? Spin-off ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ (11.8 million).”