“Two nonprofit arts groups, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and ImageNation, which supports independent cinema and progressive music, were selected on Monday to be part of the proposed Mart 125 redevelopment project, which would transform a centrally located but presently abandoned eyesore on Harlem’s main commercial thoroughfare into a mixed-use space.” But first the project must woo developers.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
At 20, British Label NMC Is Taking Risks In Classical Music
British classical music label New Music Cassettes marks its 20th anniversary “with 96 new commissions, performed in London over four days,” each piece written for only a bottle of wine as payment. And why would composers agree to that? “Because, in the cutthroat record industry, there’s nothing quite like NMC. In the course of 20 years and 150 releases, NMC has recorded the sort of stuff that commercial labels recoil from in terror.”
Eliot To Orwell: Animal Farm Too Trotskyite To Publish
“[W]hen George Orwell sent Animal Farm to TS Eliot for consideration, the poet – then a director of Faber and Faber – rejected it as ‘unconvincing’. In a letter from 1944 explaining why he would not be publishing the work, Eliot told Orwell that he was not persuaded by the ‘Trotskyite’ politics which underpin the narrative. To publish such an anti-Russian novel would jar in the contemporary political climate, explained the poet.”
In Cairo, A Hit Satire Skewers Egypt’s Troubles For Laughs
“Q’ahwa Sada,” which has been running since November at a Cairo theatre, “is a series of 12 vignettes that satirize the ills of Egypt. The cast of 30 punctuates each episode by sipping on small cups of unsweetened coffee, the kind served at funerals throughout the Middle East. The corpse in question is Egypt: its politics, civility, economy, family cohesion, architecture and even Arabic language all in decay.”
Green Day: The Musical! (Okay, It’s Called American Idiot)
“Green Day, the chart-topping pop-punk band born in Berkeley, is morphing into a collective playwright, and it will unveil its first effort at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September, the group announced Monday. The musical titled ‘American Idiot,’ based on Green Day’s 2004 Grammy-winning, multi-platinum album of the same name, is being developed in collaboration with Michael Mayer, the Tony-winning director of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s ‘Spring Awakening.'”
Piracy Uncovered On Scribd, Where Rowling Et Al Are Free
“The publishers of bestselling authors JK Rowling, Aravind Adiga and Ken Follett have been shocked by the news that their authors’ latest books are available to read for free on a US website. Internet users can not only read free copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, The White Tiger and World Without End at Scribd.com, but also download the text onto their computers to edit as they see fit.”
Baltimore Radio Station Donates Airtime To Arts Groups
“Baltimore’s highest-rated public radio station announced Monday that it would be offering free airtime to local arts and cultural institutions over the next six months. Beginning with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on April 6, WYPR-FM (88.1) will broadcast spots that highlight the work of 12 Baltimore-area museums, performance groups and cultural institutions.” The station will produce the spots for free.
Helen Levitt, Photographer Of New York, Dies At 95
“Helen Levitt, a major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of surpassing lyricism, mystery and quiet drama on the streets of her native New York, died in her sleep at her home in Manhattan on Sunday. … In his 1999 biography of Walker Evans, James R. Mellow wrote that the only photographers Evans ‘felt had something original to say were Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt and himself.'”
1.8 Million Authors Get New Web Pages — Like It Or Not
“Why is it that Stephenie Meyer, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Stephen King are joining forces with the new website FiledByAuthor, now in beta? They aren’t. At least, not intentionally. Without permission or advance notice, FiledByAuthor has cataloged the information of about 1.8 million authors into individual pages.” The authors can pay to have some control over the content, but “they can’t be removed from the site.” Meanwhile, the author photos appear sans credits.
A Youth Orchestra’s Good Deed Is Punished In West Bank
“Authorities in an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp have shut down a youth orchestra, boarded up its rehearsal studio and banned its conductor from the camp after she took 13 young musicians to perform for Holocaust survivors in Israel, an official said Sunday. Conductor Wafa Younes took the children from her Strings of Freedom orchestra to sing songs of peace last week as part of an annual Good Deeds Day organized by Israel’s richest woman.”