“Being a ballerina of color in New York City has never been easy. In 2012, young minority women looking to make a career in this still very white art form face a daunting choice: Do they look to follow Misty Copeland, the lone African American dancer of rank at Manhattan’s two major companies? Or do they hold out hope that District native Virginia Johnson successfully revives Dance Theatre of Harlem, the historically black company slated to debut next year?”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Thieves Steal Artefacts Worth £1.8 Million
Thieves stole two 18-century jade works from Durham University’s Oriental Museum in a night raid. Three people have been arrested, but the items have not been recovered.
The Canadian Jazz Legend, And The German Jazz Fans
“It’s a little known chapter in the career of Canadian music legend Oscar Peterson — he played a series of private concerts and recorded some of his best work for a small German jazz label in the 1960s in the Black Forest.”
Be A Clown – And Never Retire
Floyd “Creeky” Creekmore doesn’t give up. “At 95 years old, the former Montana rancher recently dubbed the oldest performing clown in the world has fewer magic tricks up his oversized sleeves than he once did. He gave up juggling several years ago after a stroke, and has long since parked the bicycle he once incorporated into his acts. But when the Shrine Circus comes through Billings, where Creekmore lives with his 96-year-old wife, Betty, Creeky the Clown returns to life.”
In Chicago, A Regional Theatre On A Roll, Without Awards
Charles Newell, artistic director of Chicago’s Court Theatre, keeps a spotless office and is garnering an ever-mounting reputation in regional theatre – but award committees haven’t noticed. Does that matter?
Critics Mock Kinkade – But Why Did His Work Matter So Much To So Many ?
Andrea Wolk “Rager defines Kinkade’s appeal as ‘the aesthetics of nostalgia.’ She notes that sociologists consider nostalgic longing a response to feeling uprooted or unmoored, while some psychologists link it to an unconscious desire to return to the womb. She contends that Kinkade’s images, with their soft light, rain-slicked streets, and general aura of gentle reassurance, speak to both of those primal pulls.”
Boys Choirs Suffer, Thanks To Early (And Ever Earlier) Puberty
“An unrelenting march of puberty sweeps voices into rebellion. Over recent decades, the already-short careers of their sopranos have started to end between six months and a year earlier, challenging them at times such as Easter, for which choral music such as J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was written with difficult lines for boys free of hormonal woes.”
Mike Wallace, 93, Fearless Journalist And Face Of ’60 Minutes’
“A reporter with the presence of a performer, Mr. Wallace went head to head with chiefs of state, celebrities and con artists for more than 50 years, living for the moment when ‘you forget the lights, the cameras, everything else, and you’re really talking to each other.'”
Why James Baldwin Could Beat William F. Buckley, Or, The Art of Persuasion
How does persuasion work? For one example, look at the way James Baldwin took on William F. Buckley in front of an audience of conservative white men – and beat him in a debate, 540-160.
What’s Killing Indie Bookstores? The Publishers
If it weren’t for digital rights management – and the Big Six publishers’ desperate need to cling to it – we might have a viable independent bookstore online e-book seller by now.