“I cannot understand the University of Kentucky’s decision to hide Ann Rice O’Hanlon’s fresco in Memorial Hall. The reason given is only that it shows people doing what they actually did. Black people did work in tobacco fields. Black musicians did play for white dancers.”
Tag: 11.30.15
They’re Everywhere: The Five Guys Dominating New Ballet Choreography
Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Wayne McGregor, and Liam Scarlett. “All five men are wonderfully accomplished choreographers. … But are companies oversaturating the market with these [brand names], and making ballet too safe?”
Suddenly, Philanthropists Are Getting Grief For Giving Mega-Donations
“In recent months, a hedge fund billionaire was denounced for his $400 million gift to the already wealthy Harvard University, David Geffen took flak for gifts that plaster his name on a Manhattan concert hall and a Los Angeles school, and the wife of a Wall Street banker was roasted for trying to put her name on a small Adirondacks college. Even Bill Gates, who has given billions to battle diseases, is taking lumps.”
Radu Lupu At 70 – ‘Fresh, Newly Original, Daring, But Never Eccentric’
Kirill Gerstein: “Lupu’s playing, especially when experienced live, resists my professional habit of analyzing the elements of interpretation and performance – exactly how he achieves the results that he does. … The instrument, the craftsmanship, even the compositions themselves recede into the background, and there remains a lone figure communicating not just music, but something deeply humane. “
Trigger Warning: Should We Be Protected From Uncomfortable Ideas?
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 40 percent of millennials believe the government “should be able to prevent people from saying . . . statements that are offensive to minority groups.” A third of millennials also say the government should be able to prevent speech “offensive to your religion or beliefs.”
Luc Bondy, Theatre And Opera Director, Dead At 67
“[He] generally favored an almost spartan mise-en-scene that placed the focus on his actors and the story they were telling: his work was often beautiful, but it was never conventionally pretty.”
Theatre Gets Its Own Bechdel Test
The British theatre company Sphinx’s test “asks how prominently female characters feature in the action, whether they are proactive or reactive, whether the character avoids stereotype and how the character interacts with other women.”
Japan Is Covering Its Military With Cute Anime Characters
“But this kawaii imagery is neither conceived of nor perceived as disrespectful. Rather, it’s a testament to the deep ambivalence the Japanese retain about both the history and the changing role of their armed forces.”
New Books By Dead Authors Have Become A Big Business
“It’s been a banner year for authors who are no longer around to celebrate their success. A groaning shelf of recently published works by deceased brand-name writers, or those filling their literary shoes, shows that when it comes to books, gone does not mean forgotten. Or even unpublishable. Not by a long shot.”
#SueMeSaudi: The Twitterverse Trolls Saudi Arabia Hard For Sentencing Artist To Beheading
When the fate of Ashraf Fayadh came to the world’s attention, angry tweeters made the obvious comparison and created the hashtag #SaudiArabiaIsISIS. Then a totally offended official from the Saudi Ministry of Justice announced that it would sue anyone who dared equate the Kingdom with the extremist rebels in Iraq and Syria. What did he think would happen?