Dr. Sherman Hershfield was a rehab doctor from Beverly Hills, who, after his stroke, started speaking in rhymes. He started recounting the Holocaust in rhyme on the bus, and a passerby suggested he visit an open-mic rap night in South Central. He was 40 years older and 40 shades whiter than anyone there, but he ended up befriending KRS-One and became “Dr. Rapp.” — The Atlantic
Author: Matthew Westphal
American Alliance Of Museums Launches Program To Diversify Museum Leadership
“The project, ‘Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity & Inclusion,’ will be supported by $4 million in grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Alice L. Walton Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The funds will go toward training and resources over the next three years that will help museum leaders better reflect the communities they serve.” — The New York Times
What It’s Like When *You* Own The Wall Banksy Spray-Painted
“After a Banksy mural appeared on his Port Talbot garage last month, Ian Lewis found himself facing a ‘very, very stressful’ battle to protect the artwork from thieves and vandals. Here, four people share their own, very different experiences of being ‘Banskied’.” — The Guardian
‘Uncomfortable Art’ And #QueerMuseum: Alternative Museum Tours Are Catching On In Britain
Dan Vo leads groups on #QueerMuseum tours of Cambridge museums and the V&A, pointing out things like an Antarctic explorer’s scandalized notes on male-on-male penguin sex and a “gender-fluid” statue of Lucifer. Alice Procter’s “Uncomfortable Art” tours through the likes of the British Museum point out the ways colonialism pervades the collections. — The New York Times
‘Crown Jewels’ Of Pre-Colonial South African Art To Get New Museum In Pretoria
“One of Africa’s pre-colonial treasures, the Mapungubwe gold collection, discovered in the 1930s near what is now the South Africa-Zimbabwe border, will take pride of place in … the new 280m rand ($19.7m) Javett Art Centre.” — The Art Newspaper
English Villagers Lose Hundreds Of Thousands Of Pounds As Their Church’s Bible-Themed Musical Collapses In Debt
An evangelical parish called The International Church in the Midlands village of Mansfield Woodhouse encouraged its members to donate thousands (it would be “giving to God”) to develop a show about Adam and Eve, titled Heaven on Earth, that would tour to stadiums around the UK. The project has now gone bust, with debts of £2.6 million. — BBC
Choreographer-Filmmaker Jo Andres Dead At 64
She became known in the 1980s for projecting slides and film images into the bodies of her dancers, who performed more often in rock clubs than in theaters; in the 1990s, she made short experimental films and cyanotypes. (Okay, yes, she was also married to Steve Buscemi.) — The New York Times
Broadway’s Next Evan Hansen Is An Actual Teenager
“The role is wrenching, vocally and emotionally, and [Andrew Barth Feldman] will be the first teenager to tackle it on Broadway. The character is 17, but adolescent boys are often thought to be too immature to play adolescent boys, and all of his predecessors have been in their 20s.” — The New York Times
Increasingly, Indigenous Art Is Getting Its Due
That headline may not sound like news, but it is, in one sense. Many occurrences in the world of indigenous art that may not, on their own, make international headlines are adding up to real progress, intensifying a trend that began a few years ago. — Judith H. Dobrzynski
Conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto Faces Storms At Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra
The 53-year-old Mexico City native, who is also music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic, is accused of paying exorbitant fees to foreign soloists, something both he and his manager insist is a currency conversion mistake. And musicians from the orchestra are reportedly urging Mexican officials to fire Prieto for poor leadership. — The New Orleans Advocate