“
Twenty volunteer musicians, all Black and Latinx string players from in and around Milwaukee, make up the Black String Triage Ensemble. When a tragedy occurs, they bring their instruments to the scene and play a concert. They go to shootings, suicides, overdoses, house fires, car accidents. They organize their concerts around the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. – Chicago Tribune
”
Previous research on universal facial expressions has centered largely on similar responses by people from different modern communities. These studies seems to suggest that individuals across cultures classify emotions in similar ways—but the fact that many non-Western communities have interacted with Western cultures (often through colonialism) raises the possibility that participants share surveyors’ understanding of facial expressions not because they’re universal human knowledge, but because they were introduced to the culture in recent history. – Smithsonian
As high-profile titles like Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic “Tenet” and “The New Mutants” gear up to hit the big screen, marking the first major films to open since theaters were forced to close in March, audiences are faced with the choice of whether or not to return to the movies. Sure, they’re desperate for some entertainment and eager to do something more social after months of relative isolation, but do the risks associated with indoor activities justify a few hours of big screen escapism? – Variety
A number of students playing in it thought so — and they felt dismissed, stonewalled, and sometimes threatened when they brought their concerns to festival management. (One student, not long after meeting with administrators, got a message from his private teacher saying, “You need to apologize for the sake of your career.”) – Van
“For too long, we have watched the detrimental impact of Amazon’s business on our communities and the independent bookselling world,” Powell wrote. “We understand that in many communities, Amazon — and big box retail chains — have become the only option. And yet when it comes to our local community and the community of independent bookstores around the U.S., we must take a stand.” – Geekwire
“So reflexive is applause, it can be easy to forget how powerful it is, what makes it important enough to fake” in performances and sports events without live audiences. “Applause is a marvel of atonal expressiveness. A spontaneous projection of unity. And much like the art it responds to, we are worse off without it; it’ one of those things we do to make us less afraid of each other.” – The Washington Post
Among the artists whose works he bought, exhibited, and donated to museums (and to some of whom he paid regular stipends) were Thornton Dial Sr., Lonnie Holley, Bessie Harvey, Mose Tolliver, and the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama — and he would compare their art to that of Rauschenberg, Johns and de Kooning. His efforts did not go without criticism, though, including accusations of white paternalism and enthusiasm to the point of pushiness. – The New York Times
Frans Hals’s Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer (1626) was taken by robbers from a small museum south of Utrecht in 1988 and was not recovered for three years; it was pilfered again in 2011 and was missing for six months. At around 3:30 Wednesday morning, thieves got it again. Amsterdam-based Arthur Brand, the world’s only star art detective, says it was likely “stolen to order.” – BBC
“Jujamcyn Theaters, the operator of five Broadway houses, has sued its insurers for denying it millions of dollars that the theater company says it deserves as payment for the losses suffered during the monthslong coronavirus pandemic shutdown.” – The New York Times
The campaign that was intended to celebrate the partnership of Gene Russell, a Black pianist and producer who died in relative anonymity in 1981, and Dick Schory, a White percussionist and arranger who earned millions during RCA’s golden era, has instead revived a debate over the romantic mythology surrounding the label’s history. It has also brought to the surface the complicated, decades-old web of business dysfunction that kept these albums from being properly released over the years. – Washington Post
