Author: ArtsJournal2

The Passionate Poet’s Path From Farm Life To Chinese Celebrity

Yu Xiuhua lived an isolated life for many years. “Most days she would limp down a dirt lane to a pond to feed the fish. She cut grass, grasping a sickle with hands that did not always obey her, to feed her rabbits. In the shade near the house she wrote at a low table, struggling to control her shaking body — a symptom of the cerebral palsy that she has lived with since she was born in this village in the central province of Hubei. Then, in 2014, her life changed.”

At Long Last, The (Hal) Prince Of Broadway Is Coming To Broadway

The man who produced and/or directed more than 21 Broadway musicals and brought now-classics to the Great White Way had some issues getting his own story to the stage. “A shortage of investors was at one point an issue, astonishingly – or perhaps not so, given the proliferation of jukebox musicals and movie and brand adaptations that have attracted latter-day Broadway producers. Prince, now 89, was never fazed. ‘So many of the shows I’ve done were met with cynicism, initially,’ he says.”

Spotify Removes White Supremacist Music After Charlottesville

It’s not the only tech company trying to remove the influence of actively racist groups from its site. “The existence of racist music on music platforms isn’t a new phenomenon. Nearly three years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center pointed out to Apple and the iTunes Store that they were selling, and thereby profiting from, openly racist, neo-fascist musicians, like the hardcore band Skrewdriver.”

Top AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 08.20.17

Dancing on Water, Making Waves Onstage
The Trisha Brown Dance Company performs at the Clark Art Institute and at Jacob’s Pillow. Trisha Brown’s Groove and Countermove. (L to R): Kyle Marshall (head hidden), Patrick McGrath, Oluwadamilare Ayorinde, Kimberly Fulmer, Amanda Kmett’Pendry, … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-08-19

Berkshire Bumble: Director’s Letter Reveals Focus Groups Kept in the Dark About Planned Art Sales
In the sell-job for its New Vision, the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, has made much of the fact that “approximately 400 people have participated in the community consultation process” during the planning phase. But a … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-08-18

Wu Hsin-fei: Renegade Nanguan Music from Taiwan
As I write this, another day of rain in New York is adding to what has been a rather tropical summer. Am I the only one who thinks rainy days evoke nostalgia? I think … read more
AJBlog: OtherWorldlyPublished 2017-08-18

Reminder: The Statue of Liberty’s Burka*
Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox. The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs Although, by a superb comic irony, It was an Arab who modeled for the United States’ icon – … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2017-08-18

How One Filmmaker Captures Natural Rhythms While Telling An Intense But Low-Drama Story

Lina Rodriguez takes her cues from things like a painting of a cow. “In the 1963 painting, a placid Holstein is framed against a night sky marked by wispy clouds and a full moon. The effect should be pastoral, but instead it is faintly alarming. ‘There’s this calm, blue, unnerving light,’ Rodriguez observes. ‘It captures this idea of uncertainty that I see in his paintings. You see something that is quotidian but there is a threat.'”