So after a stretch in university administration, I am back full-time in the classroom this fall. One of my classes is in Cultural Planning and Community Development – i.e. “place-based” cultural policy. So, this is what I’ve put together.
Tag: 08.16.16
What Did Shakespeare Mean When He Had Coriolanus Criticize The Vox Populi So Many Times?
“With the Trump campaign and Brexit getting credit for drawing on populist angst, Coriolanus deserves a second look.The play can help us reconsider what populism is and the ways a ‘populist’ movement can be fostered by, yet not necessarily conducive to, democracy.”
What’s It Like To Be A Dancer?
“Every dancer knows, soon enough, that standing still is remarkably more tiring, and painful, than moving. The blood pools in your feet and lower legs, which swell and throb. And when you are in the corps de ballet and learning new choreography, you spend much more time standing in the back of a studio than you do dancing. The cursed burden of being an understudy.”
Ballet Class On A Basketball Court In A Rio Favela
“On a hilltop overlooking the sprawling Complexo de Alemão favela, girls fill an old basketball court in Rio de Janeiro. Wearing pink leotards, pink tights and pink shoes, they stand with their hands on their hips as they learn proper passé technique. The girls practice ballet on a basketball court because in their favela, considered one of the most dangerous in the city, there is no other place for them to go.”
When LA Glitz Met Europe’s Most Rigorous Intellectual Composers
“Here, Californian naiveté and blatant commercialism butted heads with European rigor and elitism. This was a collision of worlds which never fully resolved or came to an agreeable integration, reflecting some of the fundamental fragmentation of Los Angeles. In this way, the peculiar contours of LA culture have made an indelible mark upon new music as a whole.”
Has Our Culture Become Trapped By Nostalgia For Something That Never Existed?
“Longing for the past is generally referred to as nostalgia – a gentle, tender feeling that might make these stories seem like nothing more than harmless sentimentality. But it is crucial to distinguish between wistful memories of grandma’s kitchen and belief in a prior state of cultural perfection.”
Huge 1,700-Year-Old Mosaic Found In Good Condition In Cyprus
“The 36-foot-long, 13-feet-wide work cements scenes from one public stadium in colorful stone, featuring four chariots each pulled by springing horses of various hues and commandeered by assertive drivers.”
Oops! We Went All-Out To Become The UK City Of Culture, But We Have Nowhere To Put The Tourists
“Nearly a million visitors are expected to attend events in Hull as part of the landmark culture festival, which includes theatre, dance, music and other arts performances. However, the city centre’s hotels only have about 1,000 beds – so residents are being encouraged to rent out their spare rooms to tourists.”
Sure TV Is More Diverse. But Here’s What Still Needs Doing
“Progress isn’t solely a matter of narrowing the color gap on TV but of widening the types of stories that reach us.”
A Dance Lab For Broadway Choreographers
How do you ask dancers who are working for free to really push themselves and show up day after day? Broadway dancers are at the top of their field. Who at the top of their field works for free?