What August Wilson’s 10-Play Pittsburgh Cycle Did For American Culture

“He introduced a frank, original view of the nation onto the stage. … His characters collide with the expectations of white America, but they also collide with one another, in itself radically humanizing — to have ordinary Black characters with different views and dispositions, as opposed to sharing a monolithic experience — in an era when few such stories found their way to Broadway. But Wilson also bestowed Black audiences with a different gift: a reconsideration of time, measured in and by the lives of the African-Americans living it.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Thelma Pepper, Canada’s Photographer Of The Prairies, 100

Pepper didn’t pick up a camera until she was 60 – and then didn’t waste a day. “As an outsider coming to the Prairies, Pepper was moved by her subject’s stories of how families struggled in the early days on the farm and how women did so many small, little heartfelt things to hold their families and communities together. ‘She just wanted to give those women their due that she felt they had not received during the course of their lifetimes.'” – CBC

By The Numbers, Gender Inequities In Opera Are ‘Staggering,’ Says New Study

The numbers are truly, deeply bad for women in opera. “Approximately seven out of 10 voice and opera graduates are women, but since the most popular operas in the canon have many more roles for men, female singers are much less likely to be given career opportunities, and more likely to go into debt. Female classical performers also earn on average 29 percent less than their male counterparts.” – Boston Globe

Spotify’s ‘Wrapped’ Function Is Actually About Grift

The news came up on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok; in text messages, surprised WhatsApp screenshots, and amused or horrified phone calls. But it wasn’t news at all. Spotify’s “Wrapped” function is actually a big ad for … Spotify, which “bet that its users, flattered by being designated top fans, would share their statuses on social media, spreading the gospel of not just Spotify in general but specifically the virtue of spending thousands of hours on Spotify. It’s unequivocally worked.” – Slate

Could Museums (And Other Cultural Institutions) Better Use Their Investments For The Greater Good?

Through “negative screening,” institutions can exclude companies for potential investment that are not aligned with an institution’s values or show deficiencies in their environmental, social, and governance practices. Instead, the report suggests, they could opt to invest in businesses like ethical fashion or sustainable food, or even real estate projects that are affordable and target the creative economy, like artist studios. – Hyperallergic