Even though it’s hard to teach hula online – first the hands, then the feet, then the body, on Zoom calls – one instructor says it’s “giving us an opportunity to see each other, ‘he alo he alo,’ face to face, at a time when we’re not supposed to be seeing each other.” And, bonus: Students from nowhere near Hawai’i are starting to learn. – Hawaii News Now
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Author Of A Book ABout Misogynistic Abuse Also Is Hit With A Mountain Of Online Abuse
The alt-right troll army has found, and targeted, the author of a book about abuse. She says, “I knew the book needed to be written – but I didn’t know it needed to be written this badly. The targeted attacks from men in the last week have been appalling. I will always centre women in my work and I will keep making misogynists uncomfortable.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Detroit Symphony’s Very New Music Master Deals With The Global Disaster
What timing: “It was an exuberant, whirlwind stretch for Jader Bignamini in late January, when the young conductor was unveiled as new music director for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.” Now, he’s hosting watch parties from Toronto and says, “Music and concerts generally are so important but now even more. Because it can give people happiness, joy and good thoughts. We have to think good things, and it’s so difficult now. I think with music — with culture, with books, with art — we can imagine a better world than now.” – Detroit Free Press
Artists Warn Government That The UK May Become ‘Cultural Wasteland’ After The Pandemic
Those who signed the appeal to the government include Rufus Wainwright, Anish Kapoor, and Simon Callow. The letter calls “for urgent funding for creative organisations and professionals who, it says, are ‘falling through the gaps of existing government support measures.'” – The Guardian (UK)
The Refugee Artist Staying Home While His Art Travels
Serge Alain Nitegeka can’t travel even when there’s not a global pandemic: He lives in South Africa, but he was born in Rwanda, and his family fled during the massacres in 1994. So for an exhibition in New York, “he relied on the gallery team to gather New York dirt, which turned out darker and mulchier than the reddish soil Mr. Nitegeka had pictured. That was fine — adaptation was the point of the piece. But the more tactile and sensory these decisions, the more the distance frustrated him.” – The New York Times
The Fifty Best Musicals You Can Stream Right Now
Yes, 50 is a lot, but we’re already in week *checks notes* a zillion of this lockdown and no live theatre, so might as well get started, right? – The Stage (UK)
How Will New York Change After The Pandemic Wanes?
Might there be a massive shift in the cultural zeitgeist – and might New York not be quite such a playground for millionaires, billionaires, and real estate firms anymore? If so, the arts will inevitably change as well, not just because of the coronavirus losses, but because of a possibly huge cultural move. – The Observer (UK)
The Met At Home Gala Was Surprisingly Moving
“We have all sometimes taken opera, and opera houses, and opera singers, for granted. No longer.” – The New York Times
We Don’t Need To Re-Create Our Museum Visits, Ballet Performances, Or Anything Else Online
It’s a pandemic. Could we back off a little? (And virtual tours of museums are simply not that enjoyable.) “Beyond whatever technical issues there are, fundamentally, these activities aren’t satisfying because they’re based in a denial of the present moment.” – Slate
One Irish Theatre Responds To The Existential Crisis By (Virtually) Pulling Together 100 Artists
“It’s a mad idea.” Indeed: 50 writers and 50 actors have a virtual mandate. “For Abbey dramaturg Louise Stephens, who works with writers on developing scripts for stage, 100 artists was ‘such an enormous number of people as to be almost impossible. But that’s also what’s great about it.'” – Irish Times