Says one who was wounded in the 2016 shooting, “They’re talking about a theme-park environment where you buy memorabilia.” Of the club’s owner, who runs a foundation (which pays her a six-figure salary) to build and operate the proposed museum, the mother of one victim said, “These [young survivors] can’t afford their co-pays, they’re not getting PTSD therapy, and meanwhile you’re profiting and you want an admission-charging, souvenir-selling, tour-bus-visiting hate museum.” – Orlando Sentinel
Tag: sj
Manchester’s Leading Theatre Builds A Pop-Up Stage To Take Plays To City’s Neighborhoods
“The Royal Exchange is one of Manchester’s best known theatres, the venue resembling a lunar landing craft located inside The Great Hall on St Ann’s Square. … The Den is a lightweight, 180-seat portable auditorium designed to be built and dismantled … by members of each host community who will become its ushers, its box office, technical team and audience.” – BBC
A New Literary Timeline Of African-American History
Yusef Komunyakaa on Crispus Attucks, the first American to die in the Revolutionary War; Jesmyn Ward on the 1808 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves; Darryl Pinckney on the Emancipation Proclamation; Rita Dove and Camille T. Dungy on the Birmingham church bombing of 1963; Lynn Nottage on “Rapper’s Delight”; and others. Clint Smith begins and ends the collection, part of The 1619 Project, with poems on the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619 and the scene in the Louisiana Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. – The New York Times Magazine
YouTube Sued By LGBT Video Creators For Discrimination
“Five LGBTQ channels have joined together for the suit, which alleges that YouTube has discriminated against them by hiding their videos, removing subscribers, and denying advertising. They say the platform unfairly targets any video tagged with words like ‘gay,’ ‘transgender,’ or ‘bisexual,’ even when the videos have no mature content.” – BuzzFeed
Controversial San Francisco School Mural Won’t Be Removed. It Will Be Hidden By Panels.
In a 4-to-3 vote, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to reverse its earlier decision to paint over the series of 13 Victor Arnautoff frescoes, collectively titled The Life of Washington, at the city’s George Washington High School. Students and activists had complained of the murals’ depiction of Native Americans and of Washington’s African-American slaves, though Arnautoff had maintained that those depictions were meant to be critical of the country’s treatment of those two groups. – The New York Times
Artists Join Protests In Hong Kong
Since the protests began on June 9, artists have been wondering about their role, and many have taken up the job of disseminating information to the wider public. – Artnet
Artists Join Protests In Puerto Rico
“It is impressive how the process has been turned into memes and audiovisual content with such extraordinary speed. There are artists creating posters and songs and whatnot, but artists also provide work strategies that contribute in many ways to these processes that don’t necessarily entail creating work for or inspired by the political processes.” – ARTnews
Who Gets To Fund Culture? (Is There A Scale Of Evil?)
“Museums depend heavily on philanthropy. How do they start dissecting what’s okay and what’s not in terms of their policies?” says Komal Shah, a trustee of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Tate Americas who worked for many years in the tech industry. “There’s no black and white. Since I come from the tech world, I’m wondering if at some point Google or Facebook was deemed evil, do museums stop taking their money? And what is considered evil? How do you really define?” – Artnet
Can Theatre Motivate Action On Climate Change?
“It’s all about awareness and action. The artist’s job is to raise consciousness and cut through the complacency. I asked playwrights to meditate on the theme of, ‘Wake up—act now!’ We’re creating awareness, and stimulating action.” – Pacific Standard
Refugees, Migrants And The Role(s) Of The Arts
According to the annual Global Trends Report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, released on June 19, nearly 70.8 million people worldwide had been displaced as of the end of last year. Add to that approximately 13.6 million individuals displaced so far in 2019. “We are now witnessing the highest level of displaced persons on record,” says the UNHCR, a fact that affects all aspects of modern society and social progress, including the arts. – Clyde Fitch Report