The American Dance Festival in Durham, NC; Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA; and the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, ME all called off their summer 2020 events on the same day, March 31 — weeks before other summer festivals bowed to the inevitable. Why did those three decide so soon? As their execs tell Rachel Rizzuto, it came down to “necessity and courtesy.” – Dance Magazine
Tag: 07.03.20
People Are Microwaving Library Books To Sterilize Them. Please Don’t Do This.
Librarians understand that patrons are nervous about catching or spreading the coronavirus. But not only will paper catch fire when it gets really hot, the scannable security tags on library books contain metal, and we all know what happens when metal gets microwaved, right? (Don’t worry: these days returned library books are being quarantined.) – Tampa Bay Times
The Frustrations Of How To Think About “Hamilton” In 2020
How can one story simultaneously broadcast a contemptible message of myopic reverence for America’s Founding Fathers to some, while others take from it an equally powerful repudiation of everything those founders represent? Unraveling this question requires understanding Hamilton as the messy, mutable product of two masters: its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the constantly roiling cultural context in which it’s been viewed, especially in 2020. – Vox
Two Radical Publishers Celebrate 50 Years
“Our sales go up with political and economic turmoil and down during times of prosperity,” says Jake Stevens of Verso. “It’s really amazing to see all the different types of books that we experimented with as a publishing company, and the varied directions our publishing vision has traveled,” says Jisu Kim of Feminist Press, “but also how much we still stick to our foundational editorial pillars.” – Publishers Weekly
A Need To Redefine Black Music
If Black lives matter now more than ever, hearing Black liveness in classical music also matters. The alternative is an addiction to exclusion that ends, as addictions often do, in impoverishment. – The New York Times
School As We Knew It Is Over. Long Live School!
“School” as we knew it is over — but that doesn’t mean learning has to be. Learning is a universal activity across human societies; school as we knew it is a recent, unusual, self-contradictory institution. As educators and as citizens, we need to understand the various purposes school was supposed to serve, and the limitations to its success. Only then can we re-imagine education for, and beyond, this public health emergency. – Medium
The Metropolitan Opera’s Uncertain Future
“We have raised $60m in funding over the past few months,” says Peter Gelb. “This has solved the immediate problem of the cancellation of the last weeks of the 2019-20 season and the loss of ticket revenue for this fall season, but it does not address the long-term economic challenge. We do not expect full audiences for some time and that is very significant.” – Financial Times
When Artists Are No Longer Afraid To Speak Out
Atlanta-based actor Stephanie Peyton: “We’re all stuck with this whole COVID thing. And so we have nothing better to do than to be on our social media and see these new videos every day of Black men being shot, and women disappearing and children not being found. Not only are we seeing this every day, but we’re experiencing it every day. And it’s not just with police but it’s with our bosses, it’s with our schools, it’s with our housing, it’s everywhere. And so for us, it was getting to a point of being like, we’re gonna call this stuff out.” – Token Theatre Friends
Saroj Khan, Choreographer Of Bollywood, 71
Khan spent more than 60 years in the film industry. She “was a pioneer, one of the few women working behind the camera at a time when nearly all the technicians were men. She joined the industry as a 3-year-old child actress in the early 1950s, and she became an assistant choreographer at the age of 12.” – The New York Times
After The ‘Hamilton’ Movie, People Wonder Why We Can’t Stream A Lot More Broadway
Well, we can. Some of it. Sometimes, for different price points, from different streamers. Why not all? “Video recording a show is up to individual producers. And they have tended to pass on the opportunity for two main reasons: cost, and the fear that streaming will cannibalize ticket sales.” – The New York Times