“Whatever we do right now,” Gustavo Dudamel said, “has to have an impact not only in the time we are living but also to help us achieve what we can do in the next years. That’s why we were not rushing to do a thousand things, to do this or that. We went to the heart of what transformations we need to make and what we think can work.” – Los Angeles Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
Bristol Removes BLM Statue Erected To Replace Racist
The sculpture of Jen Reid was erected on Wednesday but removed by Bristol City Council just over 24 hours later. Ms Reid had been photographed standing on the empty plinth after the Colston statue was pulled down during protests. Mayor Marvin Rees said it was up to the people of Bristol to decide what would replace Colston’s statue. – BBC
When “Plague” Ceases Being A Metaphor… What To Say?
“Early in the spring-2020 semester, I had planned to say quite a bit about Homer’s figurative use of disease and the literary tradition it initiated. But as we concluded February in exhausted anticipation of spring break, Covid-19 made the artistry of that metaphor abruptly beside the point. It seemed — and still seems — futile to talk about what plague means in the history of human discourse when plague quite literally is the current defining condition of homo sapiens.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
The Problem With Open Letters
“Perhaps because I spend a lot of time listening to people with crazy opinions, I am sympathetic to the view that the only way to live a healthy intellectual life is to expose oneself constantly to weird or detestable opinions. But I never sign petitions or open letters. I told the letter’s organizers that if I have something to say, I will write my own damn letter. Open letters are terrible, and you should never write one or sign one.” – The Atlantic
The Line Between Cancel And Unpopular
There’s a difference between a harassment campaign and suffering the consequences of hateful behaviour. Clearly, we all understand that there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed, a point in which a person should no longer be in a position of power and influence. The problem is that we disagree on where, exactly, that line is. – Forbes
Canadian Choreographer, Dance Pioneer Anna Wyman, 92
For much of the 1970s and 1980s the Anna Wyman Dance Theatre was regarded as one of Canada’s foremost modern-dance companies. In 1975 it became the first modern dance troupe to tour Canada and went on to become one of the most travelled companies in North America. It took Canada-made modern dance to India, Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. It made TV specials, appeared in films and headlined at the National Arts Centre. – Vancouver Sun
Statues As Political Acts
If such monuments do have a connection to history, it is because they attempt to shape it, not reflect it. To believe we can learn history from them is like a judge choosing only to hear testimony from the defence. Public statues are political acts; when the politics change, so must the statues. – The Art Newspaper
Study: Snapshot Of Black Dance In America
While the numbers of Blacks in dance has continued to grow, the corresponding increase in the overall presentation of Blacks in dance has been relatively nominal and stagnant. To date, companies of Blacks in dance still face the all too often, “only one per year, and maybe a few more if it’s in February during Black History Month” syndrome. Now, as financial resources have tightened, not only do these companies face the “only one per year” syndrome but find that presenters are too often limited to booking a group based on its cost rather than what it can deliver qualitatively in order to break even. – International Association of Blacks in Dance
How Your Heart Helps Shape Cognition And Perception
As the heart, lungs, gut and other organs transmit information to the brain, they affect how we perceive and interact with our environment in surprisingly profound ways. Recent studies of the heart in particular have given scientists new insights into the role that the body’s most basic processes play in defining our experience of the world. – Quanta
Now In Disarray, 20th Century’s Winning Nations Flail And Fail. So Who Are The Next Winners?
“As a general insurrection erupts against America’s foundational inequities, and a British national identity propped up by fantasies of empire finally splinters, it isn’t enough to lament the ‘authoritarian populism’ of Trump and Johnson, to blame ‘identity politics’ and the ‘intolerant left’, or to claim moral superiority over China, Russia and Iran. The early winners of modern history now seem to be its biggest losers, with their delegitimised political systems, grotesquely distorted economies and shattered social contracts.” – London Review of Books