“In al-Sayyid, a Bedouin village in a remote corner of Israel’s Negev desert, … out of 4,000 residents, some 150 are deaf … Both hearing and deaf members of the community speak al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, a local language that developed in the village as its deaf population grew.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Truth, Martyrdom, And Shostakovich (Richard Taruskin Takes On Julian Barnes’s Novel)
“This book, I think, is a beautifully written botch, and it has me wondering anew about truth. People have been doing that, of course, for a long time – at least since Pilate confronted Christ. And the wrangling over what the truth might be about Shostakovich and his experiences under Stalin has been going on, it sometimes seems, almost as long.”
‘Birth Of A Nation’/Nate Parker Controversy Leaves Oscars Race Wide Open
“Months ago, insiders would have called Birth of a Nation a Best Picture lock … if everything went right. It hasn’t. … What remains to be seen is whether the film can still have an impact, and whether Oscar voters can separate the art from their feelings about the artist … But based on the buzz we’re hearing, we can start to take a closer look at the movies and performers that are expected to contend in the six biggest Oscar categories.”
Italy Fought Hard To Keep Venice Off UNESCO’s Heritage In Danger List, Despite Actual, Serious Danger To Venice
“UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Committee meeting in Istanbul this July voted not to put Venice on its list of World Heritage in Danger sites, but instead to postpone the decision until the 2017 meeting. This was despite the highly critical conclusions of UNESCO’s own recent State of Conservation report on Venice.”
Why Stephen Sondheim Won’t Be Writing Us Any Sonatas Or Symphonies
“I did that in college,” he tells Anthony Tommasini. “Theater is as big an interest in my life – interest meaning something I love – as movies or as music. They’ve always been equal. And therefore it occurred to me: Why not combine music and theater? That’s called musical theater! … [Besides,] I was brought up by Oscar.”
How Harvard’s American Repertory Theater Came Back From The Brink
“The past several years have marked a revival for the Cambridge theater, which in 2008 was mired in financial and artistic distress. Since then, the ART has doubled its revenue as it launched 10 plays and musicals that ended up in New York, a record pace for the theater. The shows have won a bevy of Tony awards, notice that’s led to regular sellouts of its 534-seat Loeb Drama Center.”
Met Museum And Tate Join New Online Video Portal For Museums
This week Sotheby’s launched the online “Museum Network,” which will host video tours and other content from such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate galleries, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.
Israeli Ministry Of Culture Sued By Artists Over Politicized Funding Decisions
“Artists and cultural institutions are feeling increasingly intimidated under the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since Miri Regev, an Israeli army brigadier-general, became the country’s minister of culture in 2015. … Threats to funding based on policies that limit freedom of expression could be a ‘death blow to culture institutions that rely heavily on public funding’, says one of the petitioners in the lawsuit.”
President Obama To Guest-Edit Wired Magazine
“[This will be] the first time Wired (or any other magazine) has been guest-edited by a sitting president. The theme of the issue: Frontiers. … For this completely bespoke issue, he wants to focus on the future – on the next hurdles that humanity will need to overcome to move forward.”
‘Hamilton’ Has Run Out Of #Ham4Ham
“Many of the original cast members of Hamilton have left this summer, and now one more of the show’s pillars is saying goodbye, at least for now: #Ham4Ham. The mini-concert series, which has been taking place outside the Richard Rodgers Theater several times a week at the show’s lottery, will take a break after one last performance on Wednesday.”