It’s been 50 years since the massacre, and since Hugh Thompson and his helicopter crew stopped it from being far worse. Now, as the opera plays around the country, traditional Vietnamese instrument expert Van-Anh Vanessa Vo explains why it’s so important. “As a child in Hanoi, Vietnam, Vo learned about the My Lai Massacre in school and uses instruments made out of old artillery shells in the opera, which she described as a memorial to the murdered civilians as well as Thompson and his crew.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Emily Nasrallah, ‘Icon Of Literature And Lebanese Creativity,’ Has Died At 86
Nasrallah was a journalist, teacher, lecturer and novelist who advocated for women’s rights and wrote about refugees and war in Lebanon. Her books “recount the emptiness left by immigration, the women left behind by men seeking a better life beyond war-torn Lebanon, the parents abandoned by children desperate to fulfill the dreams they had been denied.”
People Don’t Agree On What Morality Is Or Whether It Exists, But We Still Teach It
Why? And how? “We might deny that morality needs to be taught, putting our faith in the natural goodness of children or their propensity to discover and sign up to moral standards of their own accord. Or we might bite the indoctrination bullet and resolve to inculcate a selected moral code and associated justification. … Or we might decline to educate in morality and simply educate about it. … But the objections to these responses are obvious, and serious.”
In Pennsylvania, A High School Decides Its Stagehands Don’t Need To Have ‘Blackened Faces’ During Shows
You call it ‘blackened faces,’ the parent who pointed it out was concerned that it looks more like ‘blackface’ – perhaps it’s time, Bethel Park High School, near Pittsburgh, to call the whole thing off, or at least replace that practice with black ski masks. (Note: This article uncritically says that blackening stagehand faces is something “stage crews around the country have [been doing] for years” – but in the comments, many theatre folks step in to say that’s untrue.)
Are We In A Time Of Anomaly – Or A Breakthrough Time For Women Directing Big-Budget Science Fiction Films?
One problem is simply the numbers in the U.S. – single digits for women directors, compared to women being 1/4 of directors in France, for instance. And then, of course, “sci-fi is still fiercely defended masculine territory. The word “science” doesn’t help, judging by men’s rights movement support for James Damore, the Google engineer fired for claiming the gender imbalance in the science and technology sectors was due to biological differences. Or for the Sad Puppies movement agitating for a return to pre-diversity science fiction. Or never-ending Gamergate nonsense, or whingeing about Star Wars being sullied by women or people of colour. Sci-fi is a cultural Custer’s Last Stand for bigotry.”
What’s It Like To Live In Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’ House?
This is part of what it’s like: “By day, a steady stream of tourists came, posing for pictures (and peeking in the windows) dressed in the free costumes provided by the visitor center — calico smocks with cameos, overalls and black jackets, even the spectacles — and wielding pitchforks of all sizes. They brought their own props, which included a prized Harley Davidson, a fleet of Stanley steam cars, and a herd of llamas. It was the centerpiece of a Klingon calendar shoot, a bare-chested rock band’s album cover, a marriage proposal, a family reunion — a gamut of creativity daily.”
Black Velvet Paintings Are (Finally) Getting Their Due In A Michigan Exhibit
Rasquache is the art of making do with very little – something that might lead to, well, black velvet paintings. “For generations, these pieces have been placed on the mantles of Chicano households from L.A. to Texas, Oklahoma to Michigan, and yet, have never really gotten the recognition they deserve as a legitimate art form” – until now.
The Quest To Preserve Stephen Hawking’s Voice
A man who worked on the technology of Hawking’s voice synthesizer in 1986 got a call in 2014 about saving the tech. “In nearly 30 years, he had never switched to newer technology. Hawking liked the voice just the way it was, and had stubbornly refused other options. But now the hardware was showing wear and tear. If it failed entirely, his distinctive voice would be lost to the ages.” This is the story of the quest to save it all.
After 33 Years, Chicago’s American Theatre Company Abruptly Shuts Its Doors
The theatre took down its website and all of its social media at the same time the announcement went out on a Friday morning. “The unsigned statement from ATC’s board (which declined interview requests) praised [AD Will] Davis while implying a downturn in ticket sales under his tenure: ‘Despite the innovative, engaging and inclusive approach to ATC that current artistic director Will Davis brought to our theater, which continued to garner a positive reception for our productions and educational programs, the theater has suffered from a reduction in earned revenue.'”
Publishing: Adapt Or Die
Sharmaine Lovegrove, the woman who opened the first English-language bookstore in Berlin when she couldn’t get any hold in London, returned to Britain 20 years later – only to be met with a depressing reality. “It felt like we had gone backwards. The publishing industry has utterly failed to tell the stories of people across society, having told talented, diverse writers for decades that there was no space for them, and expecting a largely white, predominantly middle-class staff to be pardoned for not ‘being woke enough’ because of their ‘privilege,’ which only now seems to embarrass them.” So, of course, she’s doing something about it.