Tag: 04.12.19

Is Brexit Truly Shakespearean, Or Do We All Just Not Understand Shakespeare?

The problem is that “the plays can very easily function as a kind of confirmation bias, where we find exactly what we are looking for. The allure of such topical readings is ultimately narcissistic: Shakespeare is our contemporary, our own world is the most interesting of all, and the plays mirror our own times and our own views. This is an interpretive trap.” – The Guardian (UK)

Brazilian President Who Says The Holocaust ‘Can Be Forgiven’ To Be Honored In A Private Event At NY Museum

The American Museum of Natural History said on Twitter that it was “deeply concerned” and “exploring its options” as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is set to be honored at a gala at the museum. “In a statement Friday, the museum said the event ‘does not in any way reflect the Museum’s position that there is an urgent need to conserve the Amazon Rainforest, which has such profound implications for biological diversity, indigenous communities, climate change, and the future health of our planet.'” The gala is a month away. – The New York Times

Gary Stewart, Who Turned Rhino Records Into An Essential Label, Has Died At 63

Stewart did a lot more than run Rhino and help get playlists onto iTunes as an Apple exec. He “advocated for lesser known, unjustly dismissed or overlooked music by artists including the Monkees, Love, Dionne Warwick, the Neville Brothers and hundreds of others, and in doing so helped reframe cultural conversations by bringing into the present recordings considered to be long past their expiration date.” – Los Angeles Times

Yeah, We Were Lied To: Emily Dickinson Was Actually A Trailblazing Rebel Artist

Molly Shannon, an actor who spent years on Saturday Night Live, didn’t think much of or about Dickinson until she got the chance to play her in a new movie. Then things changed. Shannon: “We have this story that she wanted her poems burned upon death when in reality she’s an L.G.B.T.Q. hero. She’s a model for new wave feminism, which talks about equality for all. [Screams] It makes me want to start a riot.” – The New York Times

This Is The Director Who Sued Her Government For The Chance To Show Her Film In Her Own Country

Wanuri Kahiu isn’t happy with how much trolling and nastiness she’s gotten since her film Rafiki was banned in Kenya because it positively depicted a same-sex relationship. But middle fingers up to the haters: “Days before Rafiki was banned, it was selected for Cannes. Now she has two Hollywood projects on the go: a sci-fi series for Amazon Prime, and a gig directing Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things, in a young adult drama produced by Reese Witherspoon, making her the first African woman to get a studio deal. One article bills her as ‘the next Kathryn Bigelow.'” – The Guardian (UK)

James Winn, Biographer Of Queen Anne And Dryden, And A Master Of The Flute, Has Died At 71

Winn didn’t like the way that the academic world tended to get itself twisted into silos, he said, which is why he wrote about cultural life during Queen Anne’s reign, the poetry of war, Bach and the Beatles. “Professor Winn himself was certainly not a silo-dweller; when he wasn’t teaching English or writing about the Restoration, he was performing with orchestras or small ensembles, or working on a recording.” – The New York Times