The reality is, the National Theatre is a leader in supporting women in theatre, at least according to one of its lighting designers. “If we want to give voices to women, then we need safe spaces to do so. This is about the direction of travel for our whole cultural sector and, while we can, and should, do better – the NT is a world leader.” – The Stage (UK)
Tag: sj
Ballet Memphis’s New Choreographers’ Residency Aims To Create ‘Research-Driven, Community-Oriented Work’
During the company’s two-week New American Dance Residency, which starts up for the first time next week, “the dancemakers will visit important Memphis cultural sites … and meet with local experts on Memphis music history, Southern literature and social justice. The goal is to both help develop new choreographers and to encourage the pursuit of research-driven, community-oriented work.” – Dance Magazine
This Director Made A Film About Young Lesbians In Kenya, And Her International Career Is Soaring. At Home, She Gets Death Threats.
Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki won raves at Cannes and beyond, and she’s now become the first African woman to get a major Hollywood studio deal. In Kenya, “Kahiu has been trolled on social media, threatened with arrest and suffered endless offensive comments, sometimes from members of her own family. ‘I have seen the vilest of comments come out of people I love,’ she says.” – The Guardian
These Depression-Era Murals About George Washington Feature Fraught Imagery. Should They Be Removed?
“In the debate over the 13 murals that make up The Life of Washington, at George Washington High School [in San Francisco], one side, which includes art historians and school alumni, sees an immersive history lesson; the other, which includes many African-Americans and Native Americans, sees a hostile environment. … [The muralist] depicted Washington, accurately, at a time when that was rarely acknowledged, as a slave owner and the leader of the nation that annihilated Native Americans.” – The New York Times
Keeping Endangered Mexican Languages Alive On A California Radio Station
“Radio Indígena (indígena means indigenous in Spanish) is one of the first indigenous Mexican radio stations in the United States. The community-run station [in Oxnard] boasts 40 hours of original programming every week, broadcasting music and talk shows in a handful of indigenous languages, as well as Spanish programming too. The station is a welcome cultural lifeline for thousands of farm workers who speak Mixteco or other indigenous Central American languages.” – NBC News
Hip-Hop Playwrights Turn Their Keyboards Toward Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Justin Bieber, And ‘Pygmalion’
A Q&A with Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, author of P.Y.G., or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle (two black rappers are Henry Higgins to Bieber figure’s Eliza Doolittle), and Psalmayene 24, who wrote Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of A Native Son (Wright as Jay-Z and Baldwin as Kanye). – The Washington Post
FBI Needs Help To Return Huge Haul Of Indigenous Artifacts Captured In Raid
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s art crime team is seeking help to return thousands of objects, works of art and Native American human remains that it seized in 2014 in Waldron, Indiana, from the property of the late ethnographic collector Don Miller.” – The Art Newspaper
Yes, Returning Native American Artifacts From Museums Really Does Help
Chip Colwell, senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, in a New York Times Op-Ed: “Repatriation can turn museums from places of colonialism into mediating spaces that confront and then move beyond their own pasts. If my grandfather took something from your poor and powerless grandfather — and your community continues to suffer because of it — then I am presented with the chance to make things right.” – The New York Times
What Pricks The Conscience (And When): The Ethics Of Whose Money You Take
I understand the logic of “We’ll take everyone’s money” and the logic of “We won’t take any ethically impure money.” Those are pure. What I question is the efficacy of cherry-picking the ethics of the donors to your arts organization. Do you choose to receive or not to receive donations from particular corners of the philanthropic universe because of the nonprofit’s core belief or your own personal core beliefs? Is your collective conscience bothered before you choose to accept the gift or after there’s a public outcry about it? – Clyde Fitch Report
How To Measure The Value Of The Arts In Prisons?
California has done a study on recidivism rates, trying to determine whether arts programs make a difference. Evidence is that they may not. But is this the right measure? – Washington Post