How Frontline Booksellers Have Been Facing The Pandemic

“Frontline booksellers are the first people customers see when they set foot in bookstores across America. They also do physically demanding work, from carrying heavy boxes to shelving thousands of books every year. Often they work for hourly wages and are among the most vulnerable workers in the publishing industry. … Over the past eight weeks, PW spoke with five frontline booksellers to hear about their experiences. They were granted anonymity in order to be able to speak freely. These are their words, edited and condensed for clarity.” – Publishers Weekly

Second City Co-Owner And Executive Producer Says He’ll ‘Step Away’ From Company Following Accusations Of Institutional Racism

Andrew Alexander, who helped launch the careers of dozens of prominent performers since he purchased Second City’s Toronto outpost in 1974 and the Chicago flagship in 1985, issued an apology saying, in part, “The Second City cannot begin to call itself anti-racist. That is one of the great failures of my life.” Second City artistic director Anthony LeBlanc, who is Black, has been named interim executive producer. – Chicago Tribune

When Public Libraries Reopen, Things Will Be Different (And Very Hard On Librarians)

Not only will library staff have to deal with a raft of new safety procedures and protective equipment, they will be faced with enforcing mask-wearing and distancing rules on potentially recalcitrant patrons. “And all of it will be done under the threat of job cuts, a potential second wave of Covid-19 infections, immense budget pressure, and worsening political dysfunction.” – Publishers Weekly

Why Digression Is Good, In Eating And In Writing

How should food writing work? “On the one hand, it should communicate the demands of craft, expressing the physical skill of cookery with words on a page; on the other, food writing should convey emotional content, the ability of food to carry inside it memories personal and historical. It was crucial for me that neither of these strands should dominate above the other.” – LitHub

The Disturbing Stats About Policing On TV

Why do people tend to think crime has increased or stayed at a high level? Well, perhaps it’s the many cop shows on TV. And those series have some issues. “Of the 26 series from the 2017-18 season examined in the study, 21 had showrunners who were white men. At least 81% of these shows’ writers were white, compared to the 9% who were black. A whopping 20 of 26 series had either no black writers or just one black writer.” – Los Angeles Times

BookExpo Online Was Surprisingly Good

No huge crush at the Javits Center and no real timeline for rescheduling a live event meant one of publishing’s biggest events had to move, at least partially, online – in this case, to Facebook Live. “The result was a shadow of the usual spectacle, but it reached a lot of people and offered lessons for the industry as future prospects for mass gatherings remain clouded.” – The New York Times

Second City Owner Andrew Alexander Resigns After Twitter Accounts Of Racism

The theatre group tweeted out something that said Black Lives Matter. Then former SCT employee and actor Dwayne Perkins weighed in, sparking a series of tweets from Black actors and other actors of color about many Chicago theatres. In Alexander’s resignation letter, he said, “On stage, we dealt with the absurdity of the equal opportunity narrative that society uses to oppress BIPOC. We dealt with the double standard that rationalizes violence against people of color. We dealt with the cynicism of the liberal pact with capitalism. Offstage, it’s been a different story.” – Chicago Tribune

California Film Production May Restart This Week

Different counties may recommend different start dates, with Los Angeles County being one of the hardest-hit by the virus, but June 12 is the first day filming may resume in the state, with strict guidelines in place, including a Covid-19 compliance officer on each shoot. “Shooting costs could increase by 10% to 20% per day, JP Morgan media analyst Alexia Quadrani wrote in a Thursday note to clients” – and shoots on soundstages will return sooner than those on location. – Los Angeles Times