“In Singapore, … many still hold to another century’s view of the roles of men and women. Victims of sexual misconduct often face shame and blame, and the global reckoning seems far away. … In May, [Ken Kwek’s] play This Is What Happens to Pretty Girls was performed to sold-out audiences, sparking a new wave of conversation.” – The New York Times
Tag: sj
In The World Of Video Games, Black Women Are Making Themselves Heard And Felt
“Black women are among the least represented demographic in the $135 billion global gaming industry. … But an emerging generation of millennial women of color is now beginning to carve out space for others like themselves. They’re building a network of support organizations that never existed before, aimed at facilitating, encouraging and training aspiring female gamers of color to reach new heights in the industry.” – OZY
In Barbershops And Laundromats, Bringing Books To Kids Who Can’t Get To Libraries
“This developing movement, supported by nonprofit groups, entrepreneurs, libraries and community fund-raising, is redefining the borders of traditional neighborhood public libraries by creating literary spaces in places where children find themselves with time on their hands. It is bringing the book to the child, instead of the child to the book.” – The New York Times
This Man Started An Online LGBT Magazine That’s Blocked In His Own Country
As The Atlantic runs a story for the end of Pride Month with the headline claim that “The Struggle for Gay Rights Is Over,” perhaps the author needs to chat with Khalid Abdel-Hadi, a Jordanian whose magazine, created in a place where only 7 percent think LGBT people should have equal rights, is blocked in his own country. (video) – BBC
This Library Is Bound For Freedom
Well, of course it’s free – it’s a library! – but more than that, “The Free Black Women’s Library, a mobile pop-up library and community for black women, is creating spaces [across Los Angeles]. A movement that was first sparked in New York, the library hopes to cultivate an appreciation for black female writers but also a safe space for communities of color.” – Los Angeles Times
Barbara Hunt McLanahan, Champion Of Diversity In The Arts Organizations She Ran, Has Died At 55
She was most recently the executive director of the Children’s Museum of the Arts in Manhattan, but “that was just the latest stop in a career that included leading Visual AIDS, an organization that uses art to encourage dialogue about AIDS and supports H.I.V.-positive artists, and the nonprofit Manhattan gallery and arts organization Artists Space. She also curated exhibitions and served on the boards of arts organizations.” – The New York Times
The So-Cal Native Who’s Giving Cambodian Classical Dance A Queer Twist
“[Prumsodun] Ok, a Long Beach, California, native whose parents were Cambodian refugees, not only restages traditional works of Khmer classical dance but also uses the stories and vocabulary of the ancient style to create new works that center LGBTQ+ characters and perspectives. In the process, he’s helped to revitalize and bring global attention to an art form that was nearly wiped out with the vast majority of its practitioners in the Khmer Rouge genocide of the late 1970s.” – Dance Magazine
At Historic House Museums In The South, A New Focus On The Lives Of The Enslaved
“In cities including Savannah and Charleston, … for years, tours of historic homes would focus on their architecture and fine furniture, but not on how the wealth so clearly displayed depended on enslaved labor. … Now that’s changing.” – The New York Times
What SFMoMA Is Buying From Its $50M Rothko Sale To Diversify Its Collection
Among the works in this group of acquisitions, which will go on view at the museum in August, are Thomas’s portrait of a transgender woman named Qusuquzah, Qusuquzah, une très belle négresse 1 (2011), Bowling’s monumental painting Elder Sun Benjamin (2018), and Belmore’s large-scale ceramic sculpture Tarpaulin No. 1 (2018). – ARTnews
This Museum Wants To Repatriate Its Benin Bronze. That’s More Complicated Than They’d Expected
A Q&A with two curators at the museum at the Rhode Island School of Design about the issues of provenance, law, and diplomacy around the future return of the museum’s 18th-century sculpture of the head of a traditional Edo king. – Hyperallergic