Ntozake Shange, Author Of ‘For Colored Girls’ And Many More Plays And Poems, Has Died At 70

The play, a choreopoem whos full name was For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Was Enuf, has been an identity-affirming find for young women for decades. “‘Zake was a woman of extravagance and flourish, and she left quickly without suffering,’ said Ifa Bayeza, her sister who also is a playwright and theater artist. ‘It’s a huge loss for the world. I don’t think there’s a day on the planet when there’s not a young woman who discovers herself through the words of my sister.'”

“Dumbing Down” Has Gotten A Bad Rap

The phrase “dumbing down” got its start in entertainment. During the golden age of Hollywood, in the 1930s, “dumbing down” became a screenwriter’s shorthand for making an idea simple enough that people with limited education or experience could understand it. Over time, it came to refer to intellectual oversimplification of all kinds, particularly in the interest of making something coarsely popular. In education, it named a worry about curricula and policy: that students were being asked to do less, held to a lower standard than necessary than they are capable of—and that is necessary to produce an informed citizenry. In the process, “dumbing down” has entrenched and spread as a lamentation, often well beyond any justification.

Indie Film-Streaming Service FilmStruck To Be Shut Down

FilmStruck is best known as the exclusive streaming home for The Criterion Collection, which was previously available to stream on Hulu. In addition to streaming films, FilmStruck also produced original content featuring director’s commentary and series such as film historian David Bordwell’s “Observations on Film Art.” When the service launched two years ago, it was touted as containing “the largest streaming library of contemporary and classic arthouse, indie, foreign and cult films.”

Composer Ennio Morricone Wants Us To Know He’s Really A Modernist (Despite All Those Film Scores)

“[Playing in the avant-garde improvisation group] Nuova Consonanza really reunited me with the love of my life — composing absolute music, music that is not related to a film, or to a pop song. One of our rules was to avoid anything that was melodic, anything that was usual. We had to produce very strange sounds, very complicated sounds, because we wanted to get as far away as possible from the so-called traditions of classical music. The experience with them really helped me to bear the burden of working in the commercial sector.”