Walt Whitman, Opera Fan

He didn’t start life as an opera queen – “As a budding young journalist in New York, he was known to take potshots at the etiquette and artifice of what he saw as an aristocratic pastime. Whitman cultivated a more democratic persona and preferred popular songs, which he called ‘heart’ — as opposed to ‘art’ — music.” – but bel canto won him over, and massively influenced Leaves of Grass too.

A (Contested) Study Finds Slightly More Diversity Among First-Time TV Directors

Good news? Or … not really? “A greater number of minority and female directors with their first gigs is no guarantee, however, that more of them will go on to become established directors. The study also tracked the careers of directors before and after their first directing jobs. It found that 66 percent of new directing hires had already been affiliated with the series for which they directed. Of this group, only 40 percent were subsequently hired by other series. Membership in the pipeline is no guarantee of future success.”

A Mother’s Command Led To The Establishment Of What’s Now The Oldest Black Press In The U.S.

Long before Haki Madhubuti established Third World Press – now turning 50 – on Chicago’s South Side, he was a 14-year-old living in Detroit. “His mother gave him a firm order: Go down to the public library and check out ‘Black Boy’ by Richard Wright.” That changed the course of his life, and of publishing for African Americans.

The Lit-Doc, And Where It Can Go From Here

The news isn’t exactly scintillating. “The continued rise of streaming services, and their need for a constantly renewed library of content, means that informational documentaries will continue to be made. … They demand little of the viewer and are easy to digest, not to mention relatively cheap to produce. But at the same time, in the case of literature, they reduce their subject to a series of outworn clichés, where the lives of all writers begin to resemble each other.”

Terra Cotta Warriors Get The Augmented Reality Treatment

While some of these 10 warriors have been exhibited elsewhere, the institute is enhancing the experience with augmented reality technology to digitally recreate weapons and other objects that were originally held by the statues. The original artifacts crumbled and vanished as earthen walls and roof timbers collapsed during the warriors’ long occupancy of three underground pits.