In an essay that won Brown University’s Barbara Banks Brodsky Prize for Excellence in Real World Writing, undergrad Jamila Wilkinson writes about how, as a young girl, she studied for years at Ailey’s school and danced in his masterpiece with the adult company several times — and how, later, she came to realize why she couldn’t connect with the work. – Guernica
Tag: 03.15.19
Pueblo Indian Dance, And Why White Women Tried To Ban It
“In the early 1920s, a secret file scandalized white women reformers in the United States. It was known as the Secret Dance File, its contents too shocking (and titillating) to print or even send in the mail. … The file contained frank descriptions of Pueblo dances that depicted and parodied sexual acts … [and] it made a case for banning [those] ceremonial dances on the grounds that they were immoral and performed only for pleasure.” – JSTOR Daily
Yo Yo Ma And Deborah Borda: Music As A Force For Social Justice
Ma: “It’s never art for art’s sake, because even if I do it for myself in my head, I have an ideal. I’m actually trying to take something — a construct, a concept, a theory — and then I want to make it visible, I want to make it audible, I want to make it tactile. I want to make it felt.” Borda spoke of the New York Philharmonic’s efforts to engage with social issues, including gender equality. Recognizing that “all the music we play was written by men,” the organization is launching an initiative next year — the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote — to have 19 women write major world premieres for the orchestra. – Harvard Gazette
Against The Bad Sex In Fiction Awards
Catherine Brown: “At the risk of taking too-seriously an award of which the keynote is not seriousness, there are several problems involved in this that are worth considering. One is the implicit hypocrisy that the award has brought great publicity to its parent magazine because of the very fact – which the award ostensibly disparages – that sex sells.” – IAI News
Orlando Ballet Declines To Renew Contract Of Its Biggest Star
“Arcadian Broad, who has a national following as Orlando Ballet’s best-known dancer, will depart the company next month. The ballet company declined to renew his contract, as well as that of his fiancée, fellow dancer Taylor Sambola.” Said the company’s executive director, “We’re grateful for Arcadian’s talents, and wish him the best as he spreads his wings. Now it’s time to bring new voices, new ideas and ballets with widespread critical acclaim to Central Florida.” – Orlando Sentinel
Is Practicing Philosophy In Public A Good Thing?
It is one thing to share information about philosophy and another to offer non-philosophers a way of participating in the activity. Public philosophy aspires to liberate the subject from its academic confines: to put philosophy into action. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure it is. – The Point
Prediction: Half Of All Colleges Will Go Out Of Business In Ten Years
Compare Amazon’s ability to deliver what you want, how you want it, and when you want it, to that of the average college or university. Or even to the growing number of online universities, hybrid universities… and especially to the “traditional” institutions that offer online learning options. Amazon would crush those folks. – Inc.
Okwui Enwezor, Documenta And Venice Biennale Curator, 55
Born in Kalaba, Nigeria, in 1963, Enwezor studied political science in the U.S. He entered the contemporary art world by founding a magazine focussed on African art in 1994. He curated the Johannesburg Biennale in 1997: other credits include the 2006 Seville Biennial and the 2008 Gwangju Biennial. – The Art Newspaper
China’s Art Collectors Open Up About How China’s Art Market Works
China now has around 5,000 museums, of which around 1,500 are privately run. Asked why they opened private museums, the collectors canvassed are candid. “It was good for my collection. It is easier to acquire high-quality works as an institution.” – The Art Newspaper
Hudson Yards’ Monument To Wealth
Rather than a vision of the future, Hudson Yards takes a snapshot of the concentrated-wealth present. It is the physical expression of the tensions between the developer’s focus on moneymaking, the complications of the site, and complex public agendas. Hudson Yards is an untidy collage of all the forces that have acted on it. – CityLab