Music librarian and historian Melanie Zeck writes of the works and composers she discovered for the first time when she went to work at the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago.
Author: Matthew Westphal
A ‘Nondenominational Leader’ At This Year’s Ojai Music Festival
“The annual gathering [in Southern California] is seen as a litmus test, suggesting where contemporary Western art music is headed. [Vijay] Iyer is the first jazz musician – and the rare artist of color – to serve as music director, a position that rotates every year. He has paid less attention to the festival’s history than to the opportunity it presents.”
Founder Of DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Stepping Down After Four Decades
“In another seismic change for Washington theater, Howard Shalwitz, who in nearly 40 years at the helm has made Woolly Mammoth Theatre a national champion of the new – and frequently provocative – American play, will leave his post as artistic director in June 2018.”
‘Piddling But Priceless’ – Tales Of The Small Regional Grants From The NEA And What They Accomplish
Joanna Walters visits a choreographer in Ohio who created dances based on ailing seniors’ life stories, the director of a literary center in Idaho that gives writing classes and workshops to low-income kids, an award-winning poet and novelist in New Mexico whose early-career NEA grant kept her and her husband off food stamps, and the community arts center in Florida that taught the writer of the Oscar-winning film Moonlight.
Oops, Never Mind: Banksy Withdraws His Offer Of Free Prints To Britons Who Vote Against Tories
“The artist, who found global fame with his pop-up street art, [had] offered prints of his famous ‘girl with balloon’ for those who voted against Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party in six constituencies near his Bristol home.” His reason for cancelling the offer is a good one, though.
Charles Simmons, Novelist And Satirist, Dead At 92
“[His] five critically acclaimed novels included a savage sendup of The New York Times Book Review, where he had worked as an editor for three decades.”
Grand Rapids Ballet’s Patricia Barker Headed To New Zealand
“Former Pacific Northwest Ballet star and current artistic director of Grand Rapids Ballet, Patricia Barker, will become the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s twelfth artistic director and only the second female director in its 64-year history.”
Watching A Photo Artist Collect His Raw Materials: Heaps Of Naked Bodies (And No, This Isn’t Spencer Tunick)
“On a recent Saturday morning in a desanctified church in Upper Manhattan, 24 people were piled together in a naked fetal hug. On a balcony one story above them was the New York artist Angelo Musco, taking photos of the group for his latest project.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.07.17
The problem with problems
If you work in the arts in higher education (or any education, for that matter), you are likely talking or hearing more about “complex problems,” or perhaps “wicked problems.” These are shorthand for … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-06-07
Old world order
It’s hard to dismiss someone who looks you in the eye and tells you their truth. We were in the front row for Atlas des Kommunismus at the Gorki Theatre in Berlin, so the … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2017-06-07
Worrying Can Be Good For You (Sometimes)
It can be a motivator to do what needs to be done, and (like banging your head against the wall) you can feel much better after you stop. The key, as usual, is moderation.