“Poet, critic, and W.W. Norton editor Jill Bialosky has come under fire for borrowing the language of others in her book Poetry Will Save Your Life, a critical anthology-cum-memoir. The issue was first called out in a [harshly critical] write-up of the book that William Logan published this week in the Tourniquet Review. … We reached out to him with some questions.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Guggenheim Director Talks About Threats To Staff That Led Him To Pull Artworks From Show
Last week the museum removed three pieces from the exhibition “Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World” following pressure from animal-rights activists; countercriticism followed from artists, curators, and anti-censorship activists. Now Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong has explained his decision: “It was not only the quantity of people’s reactions, but there were a number of them that bordered on ominously threatening, or beyond that. We were obliged to consult with the police.”
New $330M Arts Complex Opens At Princeton University
“The recently completed … Lewis Center for the Arts complex is the largest single development in Princeton University history. Its 23 acres include a new train station, new restaurants, and three interconnected buildings housing state-of-the-art performance and rehearsal spaces. The centerpiece is the 139,000-square-foot building where all the disciplines rub against one another in an open plan – an orchestra rehearsal room is next to the black-box theater, which is next to a white cube exhibitions art gallery.”
Harvey Weinstein Faces 27 Years’ Worth Of Sexual Harassment Allegations
“An investigation by The New York Times found previously undisclosed allegations against Mr. Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades, documented through interviews with current and former employees and film industry workers, as well as legal records, emails and internal documents from the businesses he has run, Miramax and the Weinstein Company.”
Angel Corella Speaks Publicly About Dismissal Of Dancers From Pennsylvania Ballet
About a month after he arrived as artistic director, Corella said, “People started to put their arms across and say, ‘This is not going to happen.’ I heard that some dancers said, ‘The same way we got rid of the previous artistic director, we’re going to get rid of this one.’ Dancers were laughing at my face. A dancer even insulted me in front of everyone, just called me an [expletive]. You had people who didn’t even show up to class – I didn’t see them for three or four months – others that were injured for a very long time. … People from all around the world were knocking on the door – we had 2,000-something people sending in audition tapes.”
Corella’s Predecessor At Pennsylvania Ballet Goes To Vegas
Roy Kaiser, who spent two decades as the Philadelphia-based company’s artistic director (and 18 years at the company before that), is the new artistic director of Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas. “He replaces James Canfield, who served as NBT’s artistic director from 2009 until his contract expired June 30. Kaiser is just the fourth artistic director of the Nevada Ballet Theatre, which is entering its 46th season.”
Composer Klaus Huber, Giant Of 20th-Century Modernism, Dead At 92
“Unlike the other greats of his generation, he was not a figure affected by the media. The genius emperor Boulez, the sensuous artist-prince Henze, the galactic Stockhausen, had all already cut their own paths as Klaus Huber continued to teach 40 violin students per week, and only pursued a vocation he’d long known in the mornings.” (Huber was also a highly-regarded composition teacher; among his students were Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang Rihm and Kaija Saariaho.)
More Appalling Behavior By V.S. Naipaul
The late novelist Anthony Powell was an important mentor and supporter of Naipaul during the latter’s early years as a young Trinidadian writer in London. Years later, Naipaul included in his own memoir a harsh dismissal of Powell’s writing. Now Powell’s biographer has discovered evidence that Naipaul’s remarks about Powell were quite possibly based on a lie and definitely different from what Naipaul had told Powell personally.
You’re Probably Not As Self-Aware As You Think You Are (But You Could Get Better At It)
“‘On a good day, 80 percent of us are lying to ourselves about whether we’re lying to ourselves,’ [psychologist and author Tasha] Eurich says. Making things extra tricky is the fact that self-awareness has two components: Internal self-awareness is the ability to introspect and recognize your authentic self, whereas external self-awareness is the ability to recognize how you fit in with the rest of the world. ‘It’s almost like two different camera angles,’ Eurich says. … To be truly, fully self-aware, you need both components – a feat that’s difficult to pull off for pretty much anyone. But, it’s worth noting, not impossible.”
Smuggling Contemporary Art Lessons Into North Korea
“Artist Mina Cheon, a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, … has successfully sent hundreds of USB sticks containing short videos of contemporary art lessons into North Korea as part of a new art project. … Arranged by thematic subjects such as art’s relationship to power, food, feminism, and money, the [ten] lessons trace major movements including pop art and abstraction.