Author: ArtsJournal2

The Joys Of Music Reaction Videos

Is it time for, say, Beethoven reaction videos? Because this was the experience of someone hearing “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time: “Watching the full gamut of human emotions – gentle contemplation, wistful sadness, wide-gobbed amazement – shimmer across his face, as the song lunges from one operatic movement to the next, is nothing short of wonderful. ‘WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!’ he asks at the end, on the verge of tears.” – The Guardian (UK)

The Complexities Of Black Speculative Fiction Can’t All Fit Under Afrofuturism

The term was coined, by a white writer, in 1993. It might have been a good start, but there are issues: “It lacks room to conceive of Blackness outside of the Black American diaspora or a Blackness independent from any relationship to whiteness, erasing the long history of Blackness that existed before the centuries of violent oppression by whiteness — and how that history creates the possibility of imagining the free Black futures.” Hence the terms, coined and popularized by writer Nnedi Okorafor, Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism. – Los Angeles Review of Books

In London, South Bank Arts Workers Rally For Their Jobs

Workers from the Tate, the Southbank Centre , and the National Theatre rallied for their jobs and against what they call callous job cuts on Saturday. One explained that now, “You’ve got the emotional labour of thinking, ‘I’m going to lose my job, how am I going to pay my rent?’ A lot of us in the arts live week by week, sometimes month by month.” – The Guardian (UK) (PA Media)

The Filmmakers Of ‘Honeyland’ May Never Leave The Balkans

What do documentary filmmakers owe their subjects? What if the documentary wins multiple awards, grosses a lot of money, and makes the subjects (and documentarians) famous?  Staying involved is “a ‘kind of a payback,’ Mr. Georgiev said. ‘Usually you don’t interfere with your protagonists — but as soon as we realized Honeyland would be very successful, we thought we had to do something.'” – The New York Times

For The First Woman To Lead A Prestigious Paris Theatre, Accusations Of Bullying Lead To Her Firing

Ruth Mackenzie was the first woman to run the Théâtre du Châtelet, the first woman to hire a Black artist to direct a play at the French theatre, and also, she says, the first woman director fired for unsubstantiated accusations of bullying. Of an inquiry’s final report, Mackenzie says: “It says some rude things about me. … It says I don’t speak French very well, and it says some people in the theater found it culturally hard to adjust to my vision. But it could not prove bullying. Nonetheless, they have fired me, citing bullying.” – The New York Times

The Coronavirus Has Made It Clear How Desperately The U.S. Needs To Provide Internet For Everyone

To be blunt, as kids go back to school, it’s more obvious than ever. “Despite the truly heroic efforts in some communities, 17 million children in our country still do not have the technology and connectivity they need. The pandemic has made painfully obvious to the broader public what many in education have long known: Access to the internet is a necessity. Patchwork solutions in individual cities and states are not enough.” – Fast Company

Getting Anti-Black Language Out, While Retaining The Core Ideas And Beauty, In Shakespeare

This may not be easy, and a lot of theatre artists may not want to think about it – but a Google Doc can help. “If there’s an instance where the word ‘slave’ does harm and the word ‘knave’ doesn’t, I think you can change it. I don’t know if that word did harm to Shakespeare’s audiences, but it can to ours. In an instance like that, I believe that making a substitution is actually closer to honoring Shakespeare’s original intention.” – Howlround

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Musicians Sign A Contract Through 2025

Just a year after a protracted and bitter lockout, the musicians approved a multiyear contract that, while it includes COVID-19 related wage cuts (for administration as well as for musicians), restores the money over time, giving the BSO time to recover. The chair of the Players Committee: “What’s happened at the Baltimore Symphony in the past year is nothing short of miraculous.” – Baltimore Sun