Author: ArtsJournal2

The Old Argument Continues: Is ‘Craft’ A Bad Word In The Visual Arts Community?

Magdalene Odundo, a Kenya-born British ceramicist who hand-builds her work, says clay is a natural substance for creating bodies and other shapes. And no, she doesn’t find the word “craft” offensive – but: “Crafting work is a term that means you are making work, you are actually crafting a piece of work. There is nothing wrong in making craft; I actually think it’s a very apt word for making, but it’s not helpful when it classifies certain work as not being of equal status to art.” – The Observer (UK)

The Friends Who All Dress Up As The Same Movie Character

Yes, that finishes as “stay together,” of course. Though it’s a bit unusual in the cosplay community, these women have a different idea. “It was just so nice to share our resources. It made both of us so much better at what we were doing. … Actually, all three of us took ridiculous pictures of us eating peanut butter sandwiches [like Black Widow does in Endgame]. We weren’t like, ‘Oh, she stole my idea.’ No one stole anyone’s idea. We all watched the same movie.” – The Atlantic

New Cookbooks Show How Publishing Can Change – And Preserve – Regional Community

India is a huge country with many different regional cuisines. But cookbooks haven’t reflected that – until now. “As the publishing industry’s view of Indian cuisine approaches homogenization … recent years have seen a quiet renaissance of cookbooks focused on particular communities and geographies of India. Some are published privately by earnest ladies’ community groups and some are printed by small presses, while a few are helmed by big publishing houses. And it is through these essential books that we consume our country.” – LitHub

At Edinburgh Fringe, There’s A Tremendous Amount Of Raw Talent That Needs Support To Thrive

Lyn Gardner says that “the fringe is like a machine churning out ever more raw talent, which is attractive to venues who buy it up cheaply. But the issue is they then offer very little ongoing support to develop that talent in a way that allows companies to grow and develop.” (Instead, they just get more raw, cheap talent the next year.) – The Stage (UK)

What Happened To The Last Member Of The Harlem Renaissance?

Dorothy West was called Zora Neale Hurston’s “Kid Sister,” and her books were not immediate successes, partly, some say, because she wrote about the Black middle class. “She wrote ‘posh black’ at a time when ‘broke black’ was in vogue, and this sits at the heart of her flickering obscurity, a myopia in mainstream culture that struggled to perceive blackness as anything more than one-dimensional.” – The Guardian (UK)

Twenty-Five Years After Founding Native Voices At The Autry, Randy Reinholz Gets Some Major Recognition

Reinholz, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, also had a hit as a playwright with Off the Rails (an adaptation of Measure for Measure) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017. He “is now the first Native person to receive the Ellen Stewart Career Achievement in Professional Theater Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.” – Indian Country Today

Katreese Barnes, Musical Force Behind The Scenes Of Careers And ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Has Died At 56

Barnes served as a studio musician and producer for some of the most popular acts of the 1990s, including Roberta Flack, Sting, and Chaka Khan – and she propelled SNL to early viral fame on YouTube with her music for the song (whose title The New York Times will not print) “Dick in a Box.” – The New York Times