Neda Ulaby on the woman who shaped the course of ballet in the US and also, famously, in Cuba: “To this day, says American Ballet Theatre’s Kevin McKenzie, young ballet dancers who want to learn extraordinary techniques should do one thing – watch videos of Alicia Alonso.” – NPR
Author: ArtsJournal2
Horror Writers See Climate Change As The Ultimate Fear
The thing about horror is that it has always been about amplifying regular fear. The genre “works against false comfort, complacency and euphemism, against attempts to repress or sanitize that which disturbs us. Inevitably, the climate crisis has given rise to a burgeoning horror subgenre: eco-horror.” – The New York Times
Activists Crashed The MoMA Party To Demand Prison Divestment
Just days before MoMA was set to reopen after its big renovation and expansion, activists crashed both the outside and inside of a preview cocktail party for VIP guests. “The protesters gathered outside the museum to call on MoMA and its board member Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, to divest themselves from private prison companies.” – Hyperallergic
Propwatch: The Pig’s Head In Mephisto [A Rhapsody]
Assuming there is a future, “when historians of the future chronicle the last days of Britain, a pig’s head may enjoy its own footnote.” – David Jays
Theatre’s Front Of House Workers Can Too Easily Get Trapped In Service Roles
The hours are good, the patrons can be terrible, the dreams live … for a while. “A lot of actors, directors and writers work front of house, with most of us spending our days auditioning, writing and on other creative endeavours. FOH is a stepping stone and it fits in with the hours, so we can go from the side of the stage selling ice creams or Aperol Spritzes to on stage performing. But many of us are struggling. We feel stuck.” – The Stage (UK)
Central Park Took Their Land, And Now, At Long Last, They’re Getting A Monument
The Lyons family of New York were a vital part of New York’s Seneca Village. They “were Seneca Village property owners, educators and dedicated abolitionists, running a boardinghouse for black sailors that doubled as a stop on the Underground Railroad.” – The New York Times
When Schools Utterly Fail At Sex Education, Fanfiction Fills In The Gaps
That’s right: Fanfiction, with its hookups of likely and unlikely characters, its absolute refusal to live by the rules of the world set by authors like J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins, educates the teens of the world about sex, friendship, and much more, especially for LGBT youth: “Where the education system failed us, our fellow horny teens stepped up.” – BuzzFeed
Abstract Expressionist Painter Ed Clark Has Died At 93
Clark was “an African-American expressionist painter who used a broom and bold colors to capture the natural world and to convey emotions about the racial injustice of the 1960s, earning him international acclaim.” Clark, who lived in Detroit, was known for his experimentation with shaped canvases, bold colors, and a seven-decade career. – The New York Times
On The Return Of Olive Kitteridge
Why did Elizabeth Strout return to her dour, challenging protagonist – and how the heck did Olive Kitteridge become such a cultural force to begin with, a bestselling book that turned into a fantastic HBO series? Strout: “She just showed up and I saw her nosing her car into the marina; and I thought: Oh man, she’s back.” – The Guardian (UK)
Teens Are Getting Famous Off Of TikTok, And High School Arts Teachers Learn To Adapt
Vine and Instagram did it first (and, let’s be honest, Vine was great, RIP Vine), and now TikTok is the new way for kids to become social media-famous. How the heck is a school supposed to deal with 20 or 30 famous 14-year-olds? Make “drama clubs for the digital age, but with the potential to reach huge audiences.” – The New York Times